Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

Kätnern

English translation:

cotter (peasant farmer)

Jan 24, 2015 18:15
9 yrs ago
German term

Kätnern

German to English Social Sciences Genealogy
Demmin was a small village with small-scale farmers, Kätnern and forestry workers, there was neither a restaurant nor a business.

Discussion

Yorkshireman Jan 29, 2015:
@small-scale farmer I suggested - twice :-) - that a small-scale farmer is a smallholder. Kätner could be a tenant farmer.
AllegroTrans Jan 29, 2015:
A "small scale" farmer Need not necessarily be a tenant farmer - might he/she not be a landowner?
Yorkshireman Jan 29, 2015:
@Tenant farmers I think both answers from Kim and Kubo also contain what we are looking for - tenant - as in" tenant farmer" (added a couple of days ago).
"Smallholders and tenant farmers" seems to me to fit quite well
Yorkshireman Jan 26, 2015:
I think... ... maybe "smallholders and crofters" would describe the farmers in the village quite well. I'm with Wendy and AT on this (and the inn and shop), to my English ears, small-scale farmers sounds a little odd.
EK Yokohama Jan 25, 2015:
Alles klar. Danke für den Link. "Demmin war ein kleines Dorf mit Kleinbauern, Kätnern und Waldarbeitern, es gab weder eine Gastwirtschaft noch ein Geschäft."
Ja, genau. Und mit "Geschäft" ist vielleicht eher ein "shop" gemeint als ein "business".
Wendy Streitparth Jan 25, 2015:
@ Kubo E: Entschuldigung - ich bezog mich auf die small-scale farmers (die im deutschen Text Kleinbauern genannt wurden). http://www.schlochau.de/index.php/gemeinden/hammerstein. Von daher war ich für entweder Deine oder Kims Lösung.
EK Yokohama Jan 25, 2015:
Es heißt im Deutschen aber eben nicht ... "Kleinbauern", sondern "Kätner", ein Term, der im Deutschen nicht gerade gängig ist, schon sehr, sehr überholt und nicht unmittelbar bekannt und geläufg. Aus genau diesem Grunde habe ich mich im Englischen für "cotter" entschieden, weil die Übersetzung ja dem Original entsprechen sollte.
Wendy Streitparth Jan 25, 2015:
Kleinbauern würde ich eher mit smallholders übersetzen und ich denke, in der damaligen Zeit würde man eher von einem "inn" sprechen, als von einem "restaurant".
EK Yokohama Jan 25, 2015:
Dankeschön. Das ist genau die Quelle, die ich ... ... heute früh in meiner Antwort gepostet hatte.
Dort ist auch die Version "Kätner" erwähnt, die nicht mehr gebräuchlich ist.
Die Version "-kötter" taucht nur noch in Familiennamen auf, z. B. "Horstkötter".
VG
BrigitteHilgner Jan 25, 2015:

Proposed translations

+3
3 hrs
German term (edited): Kätner
Selected

cotter (peasant farmer)

Kätner - ein abhängiger Kleinbauer oder Tagelöhner, der in einer Kate wohnt oder lebt
http://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kätner

"Kötter
Kötter, Köter, Köthner, Kötner, Kätner oder Kotsassen, vor allem in Preußen und Mecklenburg auch Kossat(h)en, Kossater oder Kossäten, waren Dorfbewohner, die einen Kotten bzw. eine Kate besaßen. Kötter können in Deutschland ab dem 14. Jahrhundert belegt werden.
Die Höfe der Kötter waren meist am Dorfrand angesiedelt oder von alten Höfen abgeteilt. Da der Ertrag häufig nicht für den Lebensunterhalt ausreichte, verrichteten sie meist zusätzlich handwerkliche Arbeiten oder arbeiteten als Tagelöhner auf Bauern- und Herrenhöfen. Ihr Landbesitz betrug meist eine achtel bis zu einer halben Hufe, sie besaßen wenig Vieh und nicht mehr als ein Pferd."
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kötter

German: Kate - English: cottage

"Cotter (farmer)
Cotter, cottier, cottar, Kosatter or Kötter is the German or Scots term for a peasant farmer (formerly in the Scottish highlands for example). Cotters occupied cottages and cultivated small plots of land. The word cotter is often employed to translate the cotarius of Domesday Book, a class whose exact status has been the subject of some discussion, and is still a matter of doubt. According to Domesday, the cotarii were comparatively few, numbering less than seven thousand, and were scattered unevenly throughout England, being principally in the southern counties; they were occupied either in cultivating a small plot of land, or in working on the holdings of the villani. Like the villani, among whom they were frequently classed, their economic condition may be described as free in relation to every one except their lord.
A cottar or cottier is also a term for a tenant renting land from a farmer or landlord."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotter_(farmer)

Peer comment(s):

neutral AllegroTrans : Both terms are virtually archaic, so everything depends on the era here
11 mins
Exactly. I tried to find the archaic English equivalent for this outdated German word which now only appears in family names etc. Please have a nice evening.
agree Ramey Rieger (X) : Also good.
14 hrs
agree Lancashireman : Manages to avoid the pitfalls of 'cottager' in its modern sense. Convincing arguments also in the Discussion Box.
15 hrs
Thank you really very much, Andrew.
agree Yorkshireman : Agree - though I've seen it more often as "Kötner" here in Lower Saxony - there's a "Kötnerholzweg" not far from here, with a superb Spanish restaurant..
16 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you very much. This is helpful information"
+4
16 mins

cottagers

Muret-Sanders

COTTAGER A rural labourer, A tenant who leased a cottage and plot of land where they grew their own produce and often kept a small amount of livestock.
http://www.worldthroughthelens.com/family-history/old-occupa...
Peer comment(s):

agree Lucas Zimmerman : Agreed, this is the best definition I can came up with for the term.
12 mins
agree BrigitteHilgner
13 hrs
agree Ramey Rieger (X)
17 hrs
agree Yorkshireman : Agree - though I've seen it more often as "Kötner" here in Lower Saxony
19 hrs
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3 hrs

smallholders

I have made the assumption that the asker wants UK/European English. If this is for USA it might not work.

smallholder
English
Noun

smallholder (plural smallholders)

(UK) A person who owns or runs a smallholding.
(US) A small slaveholder, a person who owns a smallholding.

"…planters and smallholders alike controlled far more than their equitable share of the political power and economic resources in their communities. Because small slaveholders aspired to be planters, they did not often align themselves with the political and economic interests of nonslaveholders." (Wilma P. Dunaway

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1 day 6 hrs

crofter

Quite a common term for farmers farming a small area of land.

Definition: a person who rents and works a small farm, especially in Scotland or northern England.

(British) an owner or tenant of a small farm, esp in Scotland or northern England

Croft: a small rented farm, especially one in Scotland, comprising a plot of arable land attached to a house and with a right of pasturage held in common with other such farms.

A UK term. The US equivalent is "sharecropper"

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Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2015-01-26 00:40:37 GMT)
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Plural: crofters

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Note added at 2 days14 hrs (2015-01-27 08:57:47 GMT)
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There is also the term "tenant farmer", possible if they were farming land belonging to larger landowners.

A person who farms the land of another and pays rent with cash or with a portion of the produce.
Peer comment(s):

neutral AllegroTrans : Not "wrong" but very localised to Scotland (e.g. term never heard in Ireland)// by gum no, me from Stockport
16 hrs
Then you're not from Donegal :-) Know it well - used to travel by train from Stockport to Stalybridge on the way home to Leeds from college every weekend A bloody cold station in winter.
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