Gemene grondtonen: Het geslacht Koningsberger 1485-1995

Abstract

This dissertation describes the social history of the Königsberger / Koningsberger family from 1485 to 1995. Drawing on the theories of Weber, Bourdieu and Braun, it is a study of both a social elite and its migration and integration. The history of the Koningsberger family can be divided into four phases. The first of these comprises the four 16th and 17th-century generations whose heads of family served on the city council of Mainbernheim (Franconia) in Germany, a position they held based on their wealth, descent and prestige. They were part of the patriciate. The second phase comprises the next three generations, who lived in the 18th century. Of these three generations, the first two heads of family moved to another city within Germany and the last emigrated to Holland. These migrations caused a decline in status. The family was now middle class. In the third phase, which began in the late 18th century and continued into the early 19th, the heads of family of the eighth and ninth generations successfully integrated into society in the Dutch Republic and later the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The family rose through the social ranks to the bourgeoisie. The fourth phase took place in 19th-century Rotterdam, where the twelfth-generation heads of family were able to re-enter the upper class, mainly due to the family’s new-found wealth, which was acquired largely through wholesaling tea. Two heads of family became Dutch Reformed minister, and also joined the upper class. In the 20th century, the thirteenth generation, academically trained, consolidated this position, which led to the inclusion of the Koningsberger genealogy in the Nederlands Patriciaat (‘Dutch Patriciate’, a register of distinguished and influential Dutch families who are not part of the nobility). The heads of the family in the first and fourth phases owed their place in the elite to their integrated capital, which consists of at least three forms of capital, two of which are economic and social. In the 16th and 17th century, the family possessed economic capital (real estate in particular), social capital and managerial capital stemming from the family’s service on the city council. In phase four, the family’s integrated capital was based on more elements. The family had not only economic (real estate and securities) and social capital, but also cultural and managerial (private-legal) capital. Some family members also had political capital and/or managerial (public-legal) capital. In phases two and three, the heads of the family possessed only economic and social capital, but in phase three slightly more than in phase two. Thanks to the financial support of their father, the social decline the family experienced in phase two was less steep than the drop in income and status that most migrants tend to experience. Intergenerational transfer of especially economic capital was the norm in the family. This provided all the heads of family with a house and a solid start to their careers. There were other constants as well; all the heads of family married a woman from virtually the same social class as their own. In addition, they shared a sense of great responsibility, not only for their families, but also for the society they lived in. To an unusual extent their actions were guided by principles, in part religious and based on their Lutheran roots.