176 Ewert and Selzer
survived without gaps. The records of the Oberstadtbuch provide historians
with valuable information, such as the ups and downs of the real estate mar-
ket. Also, in assessing the remains of medieval buildings, information on own-
ership can be useful to find former owners of fire walls or mural paintings,29
things typically discovered in archaeological diggings. Finally, these data also
offer information for socio-historical analyses. With respect to dwelling loca-
tion, it becomes possible to reconstruct the spatial distances that existed
between citizens, for example merchants from a particular group of traders,
craftsmen, and members of a certain guild or fraternity. The results can be
depicted on a street map, and such a social topography of the town helps to
discover the spatial aspect of social networks.30
An interesting case for this pattern can be studied with data from the
Pomeranian town of Greifswald around the year 1400. With the surviv-
ing administrative records, it is possible to establish the dwelling places of
the members of the town’s leading class and to map these locations, which
recently has been done by Karsten Igel.31 From the resulting map, it can eas-
ily be seen that town councilors and mayors lived exclusively in the eastern
parts of the town. They mostly lived at the market place and in Knopfstraße,
which was a street connecting the market place with the neighboring area.
In contrast, the western areas of the town had a completely different social
character because craftsmen dominated the neighborhood there. Additionally,
it can be shown that a rise within the town’s social hierarchy due to a person’s
29 Rolf Hammel, “Hauseigentum im spätmittelalterlichen Lübeck. Methoden zur sozial- und
wirtschaftsgeschichtlichen Auswertung der Oberstadtbuchregesten,” Lübecker Schriften
zur Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte 10 (1987), 85–300.
30 Matthias Meinhardt and Andreas Ranft, eds., Die Sozialstruktur und Sozialtopographie
vorindustrieller Städte, Hallische Beiträge zur Geschichte des Mittelalters und der Frühen
Neuzeit, vol. 1 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2005), 123–282.
31 Karsten Igel, “Greifswald um 1400. Zur Stadtgestalt und Sozialtopographie Greifswalds im
Spätmittelalter,” Baltische Studien 88 (2002), 20–42; Id., “Zur Sozialtopographie Greifswalds
um 1400. Der Greifswalder liber herediatum (1351–1452),” in Meinhardt and Ranft, eds.,
Sozialstruktur und Sozialtopographie (see footnote 30), 227–245; Id., “Der Raum als soziale
Kategorie. Methoden sozialtopographischer Forschung am Beispiel Greifswalds um 1400,”
in Stefan Kroll and Kersten Krüger, eds., Städtesystem und Urbanisierung im Ostseeraum in
der Neuzeit. Urbane Lebensräume und historische Informationssysteme (Berlin: lit, 2006),
265–300; Id., “Wohin in der Stadt? Sozialräumliche Studien und innerstädtische Mobilität
im spätmittelalterlichen Greifswald,” in Jörg Oberste, ed., Repräsentationen in der mit-
telalterlichen Stadt, Forum Mittelalter-Studien, vol. 4 (Regensburg: Schnell und Steiner,
2008), 179–192; Id., Zwischen Bürgerhaus und Frauenhaus. Stadtgestalt, Grundbesitz und
Sozialstruktur im spätmittelalterlichen Greifswald, Städteforschung, vol. A71 (Cologne,
Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau, 2010).