ABSTRACT
The village of Kôrle lies in the valley of the River Fulda in northern Hesse, about 20 km south of Kassel. The old village centre is dominated by a Lutheran church which stands elevated on a little hill. Spread around the church walls are the old timber-framed wattle-and-daub houses typical of the area. The size and design of the individual houses depended on the class position and landholding of the inhabitants. They formed the economic and social base for a large household, or das game H aus\l rather than a nuclear family. The household’s reputation rather than individual identity was at the centre of perceptions; both the self and the other were defined in terms of the household’s name and standing in the village. With one exception, all households of the village were involved in agricultural production in the 1920s and up to and including the 1950s. The inhabitants assumed that the cultivation of land, or seasonal work on one of the larger farms of the village, was necessary for the maintenance of the household’s economy. Despite the increasing integration into the industrial labour force of ever larger numbers of villagers, the possession of land and a house and the ability to do agricultural work remained central to everyday life in the village during the first half of this century. The possession of land, and the draught animals necessary to cultivate it, formed the basis for the local class structure.
