From a modern point of view, the obviously constant model of tria genera hominum (nobles, clerics and peasants) of social and economic order seem to mark a stable society in the Middle Ages and the existence of a social elite of noblemen and clerics. Was a medieval elite exclusively legitimized by dynastic birth or religious conversion? Was there any possibility of personal mobility or career? The success of lower noblemen and especially learned citizens, both becoming counsellors in princely or even royal service, indicate an alternative story: Individual expertise as chance of a new performance-based elite! The creation of such a new elite widened elder strategies of legitimation and initiated fundamental changements in narratives of social and cultural identity.
- Lehrende/r: Martin Kintzinger