You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (October 2020) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,945 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at :de:Bürgertum; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Bürgertum}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Bürgher was a rank or title of a privileged citizen of a medieval to early modern European town. Burghers formed the pool from which city officials could be drawn,^{[citation needed]} and their immediate families that formed the social class of the medieval bourgeoisie.

Admissionedit

Entry into burgher status varied from country to country and city to city.^[1] In Hungary, proof of ownership of property in a town was a condition for acceptance as a burgher.^[2]

Privilegesedit

Any crime against a burgher was taken as a crime against the city community.^{[citation needed]} In Switzerland, if a burgher was assassinated, the other burghers had the right to bring the alleged murderer to trial by judicial combat.^[3]

In the Netherlands, burghers were often exempted from corvée or forced labor, a privilege which later extended to the Dutch East Indies.^[4] Effectively, only burghers could join the city guard in Amsterdam because in order to join, guardsmen had to purchase their own expensive equipment. Membership in the guard was often a stepping stone to political positions.

Britainedit

Germanyedit

Low Countriesedit

Switzerlandedit

South Africaedit

Specific citiesedit

• Bourgeois of Brussels
• Bourgeois of Paris
• Bourgeoisie of Geneva
• Hanseaten

Referencesedit

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