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Administration, Supervision and Everyday Life in Early Modern Hospitals in the Electorate of Trier
| In the early modern period the Electorate of Trier is characterised through a remarkable density of hospitals along the Moselle and the Upper Middle Rhine. In the city of Trier alone there existed a number of 9, and in the entire electorate there were 65 hospitals by the end of the 18th century. After the devastations caused by the Spanish succession-war, the hospital administration had been reorganized by the Trierian elector Ludwig of Pfalz-Neuburg. From that time onwards the sovereign-like chief-inspection-commission "ad pias causas", which was founded 1729, became the sovereign instrument to supervise and steer the welfare-facilities of the entire territory. The local wardens of the hospitals and other charity foundations were subjected to report to the commission. Instead of common consent this measure provoked resistance by the local wardens and rulers, who had managed and supervised the hospitals before. The reports of the chief-commission illustrate not only in which way the state tried to influence the administration of the hospitals, but they show also the heterogeneity of the different institutions and the difficulties of the norm implementation, which was followed by this heterogeneity. Admittedly, the hospital community was always interpreted as a Christian community and according to this, the rules of living followed those of monastic communities, but the everyday life looked extremely different according to administration, foundation-right, supervision and economic alignment of the hospital. There were hospitals in which various wardens supervised various foundations. In the Electorate of Trier the charity foundations stood in a close context to the profit of the wineries. Therefore a part of the work, done by the chief-commission "ad pias causas", consisted in the regulation and surveillance of the cultivation of wine, the harvest, the wine production as well as the storage and the sale. From the reports of the chief-commission "ad pias causas" we can learn moreover, how restricted the capacities of some hospitals and how ruined the buildings were. In many cases mismanagement and fraud left only little of the testamentary will of the donors. The controls of the chief-commission show a lot of astonishing results. For example one warden of the hospital of Boppard let his hospitalrooms for rent. Taking a closer look at the relations between the administration, the supervision and everyday life in early modern hospitals is essential for further research in this area.
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