Absztrakt

The article applies the sociological term social mobility to German Lutheran burghers, a small, yet characteristic social group in Hungary, in the last decades of the early modern period (1750–1850). Since an individual’s social status in the broader sense encompasses various aspects of cultural identity, the concept of social mobility should take into account the changing of legal status (nobilitation, obtaining burgher privileges), local/regional identity (migration within the urban network), shifting occupation systems, schooling patterns, and the decreasing commitment to the community’s cultural boundaries as German and as Lutheran (assimilation in the age of the Enlightenment and the rise of modern nations). The study presents a number of cases of German Lutheran families successfully adapting to the changing social and economic environment.