“…and they lived happily ever after”? Commercial Retirement in an Early Modern Hospital in Regensburg, 1649-1809

Sammanfattning: The way how retirement is organized in a society is linked to multiple basic social processes such as the evolution of family ties, migration or inheritance. Intra-familial care and charity dominate our view of retirement in the pre-industrial past, while commercial arrangements hardly play a role. This thesis delivers a case study on how the commercial retirement home of St. Catherine’s Hospital in Regensburg worked in the early modern period (1649 to 1809), utilizing a brand-new archival dataset. The relative cost of retirement changed much over time, rising steeply in the 18th century after a long period of very affordable prices in the 17th century, partly due to macro-economic developments. The institution’s retirees were overproportionally single or widowed women, had a migration history and came mostly from middle and lower classes. Based on daily calory intake they there enjoyed a well-above average living standard. We find that some personal aspects such as sex, confession and age mattered much in the pricing, while others like income did not. There is much evidence that St. Catherine’s underpriced its retirement offers.