Elisabeth of Anhalt

Elisabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst was Electress of Brandenburg by marriage to John George, Elector of Brandenburg.

Class-based clothing regulations and currency limits

Strict regulations controlled social class appearance; for example, commoners were forbidden from wearing gold, silver, pearls, or silk. A wife of a commoner could wear a simple gold ring worth no more than five or six guilders, without gemstones.

Commoner daily attire and accessories

Ordinary men wore simple tunics, pants often made of wool or linen, and carried belt pouches, while women commonly wore dresses with aprons, sometimes carrying keys or knives on their belts. For warmth or adornment, women added capelets, and unmarried girls were known to wear velvet headbands.

Professional city musicians, the Stadtpfeifer

Stadtpfeifer, or city pipers, were professional musicians employed by councils to perform on towers, in dance halls, and at public festivities using instruments like shawms, sackbuts, and slide brass.

Singing during communal round dances

People often sang while performing round dances in squares or streets, a practice sometimes restricted by city councils to prevent the singing of shameful songs.

Fast river travel downstream

Travelers could use rivers to move faster, sometimes reaching up to 150 kilometers in 24 hours when traveling downstream.

Uncomfortable carriage travel for the wealthy

While carriages existed, they were largely used by the sick or wealthy, as they were uncomfortable, unsprung, and known for their squeaky axles.

Beer was safer than water

Drinking water was often unhygienic and contaminated, so beer was frequently consumed instead because brewing made it safer and provided essential calories.

Cooking with embers and kettles

Kitchens often featured a large metal kettle for boiling, while smaller quantities were baked in bowls placed on a grid and covered with glowing embers.

Rare Festive Pastries

For ordinary families, sweet pastries fried in fat, known as Nonnenfürzle, were rare festive delicacies served on special occasions like church festivals. They were made from choux pastry and, according to local tradition, were named for the hissing sound they made as steam escaped in the hot fat.

Dramatic loss of purchasing power for bread

In 1565, a miner in the Erzgebirge could buy nearly 6 kilograms of bread with his daily wage of 24 pfennige, but by the famine years of the early 1570s, that same wage bought only 1.3 kilograms.

Grain price surge during early 1570s famine

During the severe food crisis of the early 1570s, grain prices in Augsburg and Nuremberg soared to five to ten times their usual level.

Daily wages for city laborers

In 16th-century cities like Zwickau and Nuremberg, skilled tradespeople such as carpenters and masons earned between 15 and 26 pfennige per day, while simple daily tasks like weeding paid about 8 pfennige with food provided. Additional benefits sometimes included bathing money, as guilds often mandated regular time off for hygiene.

Rural work and household roles

Annual wages for rural servants were strictly regulated; a good farmhand earned 6 florins per year, while a general maid earned about 4 florins. Beyond field labor, women managed household gardens and helped with harvesting, and they could occasionally take over a husband's shop if he passed away.

High costs for international mail shipping

When sending mail to England, people paid high rates, such as four Brabantine stivers per sheet of paper in London, prompting them to bundle letters to reduce costs.

Unreliable and slow letter delivery times

Letter delivery was highly unreliable, with some letters arriving after months or taking 26 days on average from Heidelberg to Zurich, and others taking over 100 days.