Introduction
The earlier research on the structure and governance of the Free and Royal City of Osijek as the local authority was mainly focused either on competences of the respective bodies and officials, based on the provisions of the 1809 royal city charter2 and other legal documents or the members of the mentioned bodies, the electoral procedures, etc.3 However, only limited interest has been devoted to an important segment of the early 19th century local authority in Osijek: the officers, that is, the administrative staff, as well as other employees, mainly providers of various services employed by the city council. The research on the principal municipal bodies in Osijek, the City Council and the Elected Community, can, indeed, provide some crucial insights into legal, political and sociodemographic aspects of the way the local authority functioned in that period. However, our knowledge of the governance is incomplete without examining other segments of the municipal administration and public services supplied by the city. This paper deals primarily with the municipal personnel after the elections held on 11 September 1815, with the analysis of the available sociodemographic data on the individuals employed on that date as the central part of the article. It also discusses the development and categorisation of municipal public services of the Chamber City of Osijek (1786-1809) and the Free and Royal City of Osijek (1809-1815). The aim of the research was to systematise and analyse the available data to get an overview of structure of city’s public services and characteristics of the personnel after the 11 September 1815 elections. The idea was, on the one hand, to have a better understanding of the administrative history of Osijek, by collecting more precise information on the offices in the municipal authority, especially the lower ranking ones, as there has been very little research on the topic to date. On the other hand, the analysis of the specific sociodemographic data, namely the available data on the professional status of individuals, their legal status, place of origin or residence, their age and their religion, gives a systematic overview of characteristics of the individuals employed by the city of Osijek in the studied period. These results provide further insight into how the central government policies regarding the professionalisation of the local authority were implemented. They also help determine the principles of representation of certain demographic categories in the local authority, which can be viewed both in the context of the administrative history and social history of Osijek in the early 19th century. The obtained results and the published data from the primary sources can be used in further comparative studies of free and royal cities in the lands under the Crown of St. Stephen, including the prosopography of the municipal officials and staff on the general and local level.
Besides the mentioned 1809 city charter, the primary sources used for the research include relevant documents from two archival units kept in the State Archives in Osijek: the archival fonds “The Council of the Free and Royal City of Osijek”4 and “The Chamber City of Osijek”,5 the latter containing records for the period before the city gained its privileges. Among the most important sources are minutes of the city council,6 royal commissioner’s instruction (the second 1809 charter supplement)7 and reports on the elections,8 population censuses9 and registers of citizens,10 lists of employees and their incomes11 etc. For some individuals, it was necessary to consult the ecclesiastical baptism and death registers12 or canonical visitations, where the individuals were clergymen.13
A Brief Overview of Earlier Research on Municipal Officers and Employees of the Free and Royal Cities
The systematic research on municipal officers and employees of early modern cities in the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen to date has had a more significant role in Hungarian than in Croatian historiography. However, since the parts of the modern-day Hungary and Croatia for centuries comprised a single state, the legal status and practices regarding the free and royal cities were very similar and sometimes the same. Therefore, the research methods and results of research done by Hungarian historians can be used for the study of the Croatian and Slavonian free and royal cities in the early 19th century. In recent decades, in Hungarian historiography there has been some progress in the study of municipal officials and public employees, as well as the beginnings of the creation of intellectual elite in the early modern Hungarian free and royal cities. Among other, we find attempts to describe the course and manner of differentiation of city officials and public servants, their competences and how the central government influenced the election of suitable individuals to certain offices. According to István H. Németh, such a practice in Hungarian free and royal cities became common in the 1670s, when central authorities began to appoint royal commissioners to oversee local elections. Besides the elections, they were also entrusted with providing detailed information to the government on various segments of city life, from finance and administration to the social and religious life of the local population. The reason why the government interfered in the previously autonomous affairs of cities was the implementation of an economic reform that aimed to increase pubic revenues.14 H. Németh therefore concluded that the state, in its desire to pursue its own interests,
...on the one hand, wanted to make the city administration even more differentiated, more complex and more subject to greater control, and on the other hand, it wanted to form a group of employees that would consist of individuals who possess the necessary knowledge, are loyal to the government and manage the city's property in a safe manner without using it for their own purposes.
In other words, “the state increasingly considered the city officials to be state servants”.15 In addition to the necessary knowledge and qualifications in law and economics, the civil servants were required to be Roman Catholic due to the Counter-Reformation effort. The careers of these individuals were primarily based on better education, but their career development was still strongly influenced by social affiliation (noble status, possession of citizen rights). By fulfilling the requirements set by the court, they became the “precursors of the new city civil service elite” that began to emerge during the 18th century.16
According to Károly Vörös, the increasing number of individuals with intellectual interests at the end of the 18th century was the result of social changes caused by the development of the economy and the weakening of feudal relations, which ultimately led to formation of individual groups that could not be included in the usual class frameworks. These individuals comprised new social elite, whose members were commoners, and they advanced in society through education.17 In a way, the confirmation that they indeed constituted a separate group within the society is provided by the instruction for conducting the census of the commoners from 1810, and then by the sections of the census itself, conducted in Osijek in 1814. According to the instruction, the sub-section “Officials and Dignitaries” (Officiales et Honorationes) was intended for men “who are scholars (...) and ardently perform useful, public activities, such as doctors or lawyers, teachers, caretakers, etc., if they are not nobles”. The group also included various state and manorial employees.18 Joseph II’s decree, making higher education more accessible to serfs contributed to the increase in the number of educated professionals in the population. The peasantry and the impoverished petty nobility also saw the opportunity to climb the social ladder through education.19 The most numerous among them were the individuals with a degree in law, most of whom were civil servants in the cities.20 Among the members of what was a relatively small intellectual elite at the end of the 18th century, Vörös lists priests, lawyers, clerks, estate managers, surveyors, doctors, pharmacists and teachers, mentioning also the emerging group of intellectuals in culture (writers, painters, actors etc.), whose income was rather low in this period.21
Árpád Toth and Erika Szívós also studied the career development of municipal staff in the early modern cities. Szívós took the example of Pest at the turn of the 19th century and concluded that individuals usually spent a long time serving as lower-ranking clerks before they advanced to higher positions, eventually becoming the decision-making officials of the municipal authority.22 In her reconstruction of Pest municipal officers and employees’ families, Szívós concluded that they “separated themselves from the traditional city’s craftsmen social class”. That was because they did not continue the family businesses, despite predominantly being the sons of craftsmen. They instead focused on education.23 However, very little is known about the education of civil servants in the studied period. For example, the municipal officers in Pest spoke several languages, including Latin and German, but not all individuals coming from other parts of the Empire employed in the city administration spoke Hungarian. Most of them had degrees in law and accounting and, depending on the service they performed, some had military, technical, humanistic or artistic education.24 Vera Bácskai analysed the portion of the civil servant intellectual class in the total population of Hungarian cities based on services they performed at the beginning of the 19th century. She concluded that the relative number of highly educated individuals in the cities was low, with half of them being civil servants. However, she also called for caution, pointing out that residents of cities in intellectual occupations were exempt from paying taxes, so those who paid taxes appear in the tax lists because they owned real estate, and their number cannot be accurately determined.25
One of the topics relevant to the study on that status of the municipal staff in early modern cities in these parts is the question of their income. Dénes Oszetzky wrote about the problems of underpayment of city employees, referring to the opinion of Joseph Mailath, who concluded in 1791 that the cause of the shortage of quality staff was their underpayment, in addition to “local intrigues”. Low incomes were often caused by the poor economic situation in the cities. This issue was also addressed by Joseph II, whose initial goal was to cut the number of employees in city administrations and then to increase the salaries of those who remained in service.26
The first categorisation of city officers and employees based on preserved archival records from the studied period was devised by a Hungarian historian Árpád Tóth, who classified them into four categories according to the kind of service they performed. He also took into consideration who else, apart from the members of the city councils, could be regarded the leading members of the municipal administration based on their job descriptions and authority. He divided them as follows: 1. officers – lawyers responsible for the legal functioning of the city; 2. officers – clerks supporting the work of notaries; 3. officers responsible for economic affairs and city revenues; and 4. experts – intellectual workers.27
Offices and Public Services of the Osijek Municipal Authority
The Chamber City of Osijek
The offices and services in the municipal authority of Osijek, of course, did not dramatically change with the newly gained status of the free and royal city in 1809, as the city was already a settlement with a developed urban life and administrative tradition dating back to the late 17th century. Nevertheless, the number of offices and positions for the municipal officer and employees did increase. One of two key sources for examining the status before the privileges is the proposal of Hungarian Royal Council of Governors on the method of unification of the three chamber municipalities (The Upper, Lower and Inner Town of Osijek), issued on 8 August 1786. The second are the minutes of the Council of The Chamber City of Osijek, which provide information on how the instructions by the Council of Governors were implemented and who were the elected officials. The second article of the proposal defines the number of the high municipal officials, as well as the category and number of administrative staff, while their salaries are listed in the supplement. The employees can be divided into three categories: administration - 1 notary (notarius), 2 vice-notaries (vicenotarius), 2 office clerks (cancellista), 1 treasurer (perceptor); public security - 1 commander of the guards (vigiliarum magister), 2 corporals (decurio), 10 constables (panduro), 5 night watchmen (vigiliarum nocturnis), 2 field guards (campi custos), 1 forest guard (silvarum custos); and auxiliary serviceman - 1 drummer (timpanotriba).28
The Free and Royal City of Osijek
Toth’s categorisation can, of course, be applied to the highly educated civil servants in the Osijek municipal authority after 1809, e.g. the higher and lower ranking clerical staff and various professionals such as physicians, teachers, priests etc. But there are other groups of employees on the city council payroll, many of which possess lower or no formal education at all. According to payrolls, the city nominally provided salaries for 78 people. However, just 75 of them will be included in this analysis. The reason for this is that one chaplain's position remained vacant in the Upper and Lower Town parishes. Also, Luka Budorović (Lucas Budorovich) simultaneously performed two duties in 1815: from 1814 he was an announcer and a house servant.29 In fact, in the years that followed the first elections in 1809 it was not unusual that one person performed duties of one or more offices. This was partly because it took time for the central government to allow the city council to employ the necessary personnel. To compensate for the shortage of personnel, skilled and educated individuals were sometimes appointed to an honorary position as aids (e.g. honorary attorney), usually to eventually be recruited as full employees in case of vacancy. Certain duties or services were sometimes assigned to municipal officials, namely the members of the City Council or Elected Community, without additional compensation.30 This is why certain duties were not stated as individual offices in the salary lists.
Having in mind all types of services listed in the salary and personnel table dated 11 September 1815, the day of the municipal elections, as well as Toth’s categorisation, we can divide the municipal officers and employees into several groups, or sectors:
In the case of the municipal administration, the highest-ranking offices were established by the fifth paragraph of the 1809 city charter. The paragraph stipulates that the Council is allowed to freely appoint the highest officers of the municipal staff, namely the notary,31 vice-notary, registrar,32 attorney, chamberlain and treasurer of both treasuries,33 who also held the office of the custodian of orphans and, finally, sub-chamberlain, as well as other lower clerks and employees.34 The same paragraph explicitly states that their service was for life.35 The lower ranking clerical officers that were not mentioned in 1809 charter include at least three office clerks, one land registry officer, who kept records on the land property in the city, and one treasury clerk.36
As previously mentioned, their vacant positions were filled in the following period and there were minor changes that occurred due to practical reasons, some of which were not entirely in line with the 1809 charter. Also, there were examples that duties and services initially intended to be performed by different officers were, at least temporarily, assigned to a single individual. For instance, although the charter regulated that the duties of the treasury supervisor and orphan’s custodian were performed by a single officer, in the session minutes for that year Michael Czach appears only as the Orphans’ Custodian and Hospital Inspector.37 The explanation can be found in the 1812 minutes, session no. 53, which state that, although Czach was elected and inaugurated as both the Treasury Supervisor and Orphans’ Custodian in 1809, he was almost immediately relieved of the treasury supervisor duties at his own request, with the duties then transferred to the Treasury Clerk Vincent (Vincetius) Minasz. Minasz performed both duties until the 1812 elections, when he assumed the duties of the Chamberlain, while Franciscus Götzinger was appointed Treasury Supervisor.38 In 1810, Czach resigned from the duty of Hospital Inspector, after which, on 10 April 1810, they were transferred to Pavao (Paulus) David, an elected citizen.39 On 20 April 1811, Czach also resigned from the Orphan’s Custodian office, to which the Council later appointed Luka Ježević (Lucas Iexevich), who remained in the service after the 1815 elections.40 The offices of treasury supervisor and orphan’s custodian remained separate until 11 September 1815.41
Table 1. Administrative personnel in 1815
The public healthcare personnel consisted only of several professionals. The one with the highest education was the city physician, with a medical degree. He was accompanied by two surgeons, who were trained in performing simple medical treatments, and two midwives.42
Table 2. Public healthcare personnel in 1815
| Office | In Latin Sources | No. |
|---|---|---|
| Physician | Physicus | 1 |
| First Surgeon | Chyrurgus Primarius | 1 |
| Second Surgeon | Chyrurgus Secundarius | 1 |
| Midwife | Obstetrix | 2 |
Five out of eight educational workers on the city payroll on 11 September 1815 were primary education teachers.43 Two clerics are also in this group, one secondary education teacher and one catechist. The 1815 salary and personnel table also lists the teacher of the local drawing school.44
Table 3. Public education personnel in 1815
| Office | In Latin Sources | No. |
|---|---|---|
| Normal School Teacher | Normalis Scholae Magister | 5 |
| Preparatory Professor | Preparandorum Professor | 1 |
| Catechist | Catheheta | 1 |
| Drawing School Teacher | Scholae Graphidis Magister | 2 |
According to the 1809 charter, the Free and Royal City of Osijek had the right of patronage over the local parishes, i.e. the right to suggest candidates for the Roman Catholic priests.45 If we refer to salary list, we see that salaries of local priest were financed from the city treasury together with the salaries of other employees. It is rather unusual, however, and without obvious explanation, that the salary and personnel table dated 11 September 1815 does not contain entries on the Inner Town parish priests and chaplains and the Lower Town Orthodox parish priest.46 The data on those individuals had to be obtained from other sources.47 As previously mentioned, two out of three offices for second chaplain were vacant on 11 September 1815.
Table 4. Clergy on City Council payroll in 1815
There were several positions in the Osijek local authority reserved for the workers with lower education carrying out duties regarding the public safety and order, namely the ones patrolling the city streets and keeping watch on the public and private property, arresting and keeping in custody lawbreaking individuals.48 The most numerous were the constables, nighwatchmen and field guards. We also find two island guards in the records, keeping watch on two river islands, Borova and Nemetin.49
Table 5. Public safety personnel in 1815
The auxiliary personnel perform various duties and services either for the Council or the citizens. Some of the jobs in this category require no skill and are among the least paid in the municipality service, such as night bell ringers.50
Table 6. The auxiliary personnel in 181551
Sociodemographic Analysis of the Municipal Officers and Employees on 11 September 1815
A sociodemographic analysis of the municipal officers and employees of the Free and Royal City of Osijek is possible by examining data from several sources of secular and ecclesiastical provenance from the studied period, most significantly, the payrolls of the free and royal city of Osijek (1812 - 1815), the individual census of the ignoble population of Osijek in 1814, the registers of citizens, minutes of the council sessions, as well as the ecclesiastical registers (of baptisms and deaths) and canonical visitations of the three Osijek parishes.52 Based on the salary and personnel table from 11 September 1815, the type of service, date of entering the service or its duration until 1815, gender, origin, religion and occupation of the individuals were analysed. The 1814 census made it possible to determine the age of individuals and their place of residence by city district based on data on the year of birth, while the citizens’ registers answered the question of who acquired the citizen status and when. Data from the ecclesiastical registries and canonical visitations contributed to determining the beginning of the service of individual priests and chaplains in the city, as well as their year of birth and the information on their origin and education.
As previously mentioned, we can divide the local authority personnel into six groups. The most numerous groups are the employees whose work is related to public safety (42.67%) and administration (18.67%). They made up 61.34% of all city employees. An equal number of people were employed in auxiliary services and public education (10.67% each). Also, the city clergy (parish priests and chaplains) were equally represented. The fewest were the ones providing the public health services, only 6.67% of the overall number of employees.53 To fully interpret the received results, further research on the representation of the personnel groups in previous period is required, as well as the comparative study of similar cities in Croatia and Hungary. The increase in the number of the administrative staff after 1809 was, as mentioned earlier, connected with the change of the legal status of the city and central government policies regarding the professionalisation of the local authorities. The number and higher representation of the public safety officers could be related to a relatively large surface area under the city administration, especially the agricultural land. The earlier administrative divisions and physiognomy of Osijek, with physically separated districts, influenced the number of clergy and, probably, the healthcare workers.
Fig. 1. Municipal officers and employees according to type of service54
[CHART]
As for the gender distribution, almost all positions were reserved almost exclusively for men, who made up 97.33% of all those listed. The only exception was the midwives. Although, according to sources, there were several women during that time who assisted mothers during childbirth, for which they did not receive salary from the city treasury, according to the analysed payrolls, there were only two midwives (2.67%) in the city service, both Roman Catholics and Hungarians. Ana Fuchs was a midwife in the Inner Town since 1784, while Anna Szlonin worked in the Lower Town since 1811.55
With respect to the religious affiliation, Roman Catholics were the most numerous among municipal officers and employees, making up 81.33% of all personnel. The share of Orthodox Christians was 18.67%, however, they held important offices.56 For example, on 11 September 1815, three out of four lawyers in the municipal administration were Orthodox Christians: the Notary Konstantin (Constantinus) Bozda, Vice-notary Petar Jovanović (Petrus Ioannovich) and the Honorary Attorney Demetrije (Demetrius) Papphazy, while Matej Petrović (Mathaeus Petrovich) was the only Catholic among the lawyers, serving as a regular attorney. This could be merely a coincidence, but, it could also be a result of an intention to ensure that the members of the Eastern Orthodox community are adequately represented in the high-ranking offices. In any case, when an office of higher-rank was vacated, it seems that it was made sure to fill the vacancy with a member of the same social class and religious affiliation. For example, when Đuro Filković, the Vice-notary, who was Eastern Orthodox, died in 1811, he was replaced by Toma Stič (Thomas Sytch), also Eastern Orthodox.57 So, whether the representation of the Eastern Orthodox minority in the group of legal experts was initially intentional or spontaneous, it was later, most probably, intentionally maintained. On the other hand, the city finances were managed exclusively by Catholics: the City Chamberlain and Treasurer Vincent Minasz, Sub-Chamberlain Franjo (Franciscus) Svoboda, Treasury Supervisor Franjo (Franciscus) Götzinger and Franjo (Franciscus) Kellner as the Treasury Clerk. Orphans’ treasury was managed by Luka Ježević. Also, lower administrative staff was mostly Catholic: Josip Moslavac (Josephus Moszlavacz) as the first, Andrija Kovačević (Andreas Kovacsevich) as the second, and Andija Vlaškovac (Andreas Vlashkovacz) as the third office clerk. The head of the Land Registry office was Bazilije Nikolić, the member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.58 Out of the remaining city employees in intellectual professions, only two belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church: the teacher Jovan Topalović (Ioannes Topalovich), and, of course, the Lower Town Orthodox parish priest Aleksandar Stojanović (Alexander Stojanovich).59
The salary and personnel table dated 11 September 1815 contains the data on the origin (ethnicity) of 68 individuals (90.66%).60 By consulting the records from canonical visitations, ecclesiastical registers and historiography, in addition to finding out the names of the chaplains, which are missing from the payroll, it was possible to reconstruct their places of birth. Such information was also available for the Inner Town parish priest Josip Jozepac (Josephus Josephacz), but it was not included in the analysis due to the unclear criteria for determining the origin of individuals in the studied period. In other words, it was uncertain whether term “natio” in those sources referred to the place of birth or to the place where the individual lived before moving to the city.
The conducted analysis (see Fig. 2) confirms that most of the city officers and employees were of local origin, as 69.33% of them were recorded as Slavonians.61 Only two officers came from other regions of the Habsburg Empire: the Honorary Lawyer Demetrius Papphazy, who was of Hungarian origin, and Chamberlain and Treasurer Vincent Minasz, who was of Bohemian origin. They were most likely recruited from outside of Slavonia because the City Council was unable to find qualified personnel among the local staff for these offices. Among the employees of non-Slavonian origin, the most represented group were the Hungarians (14.66%). Besides the two Hungarian midwives, who were already mentioned, the city physician Leopold Bischoff62 was also from Hungary, as well as the 50% of all city’s education workers for whom we have the available data, which is an interesting detail for which we find no explanation in the municipal records. Without further research, we can only assume that there were more individuals with adequate qualifications available in the nearby Hungary proper. The Commander of the Guard Augustins Moecke was Silesian, while two Austrians were employed in auxiliary services: Michael Kaltneker as a chimney sweep and Ignatius Vaisz as a night bell ringer.63
Fig. 2. Origin of municipal officers and employees based on the 1815 payroll64
[CHART]
By analysing the Register of Citizens data, it has been found that by 1815 only 13.33% of municipal officers and employees had the citizen status. Eight out of the ten citizens acquired the status in 1809, and two a year later. Four worked in the municipal administration as the legal experts and financial officers (attorney, treasury supervisor, orphans’ custodian, sub-chamberlain), while the notary Konstantin Bozda took the oath a year after his appointment, in 1816. The city chamberlain and treasurer Vincent Minasz also belonged to the small group of civil servants and employees (6.67%) who acquired their citizen status after 1815, by taking the oath two years later. According to the register data (Fig. 3), it can be determined that in 1815 the citizen status was no longer a requirement for performing lower-ranking public service duties in the municipal administration, which is strongly supported by the fact that 80% of employees did not have this status.65 On the other hand, it was still expected from the higher-ranking officers, especially in the legal and financial sectors, as in the case of Bozda and Minasz. The two surgeons, Jacob Resch and Wolfgang Rathgeb, also acquired the citizen status, the former in 1809 and the latter a year later. Therefore, we can say that, in that respect, the higher-ranking officers had the status in the local authority very much like the municipal officials, who were also expected to take the oath after they were elected.66
Fig. 3. Officers and employees in 1815 with the status of a citizen
[CHART]
In the 1814 census records we find information on the place of residence (city district) of the people of Osijek.67 This detail has been established for 67 city officers and employees (89.33%), while it remained unknown for 8 individuals (10.67%), because their names were not found in the census records. It is, of course, possible that some of the municipal employees moved to Osijek after the census was completed.68 According to data analysis (Fig. 4), the largest number of individuals employed by the City Council, as expected, lived in the most populous districts of Lower (37.33%) and Upper (30.67%) Town. The city employees who lived in the third district, the Inner City with the so called Alodium (also known as the New Town), were less represented (21.33%).69
Fig. 4. Place of residence of municipal officers and employees according to city districts
[CHART]
The salary and personnel table of the municipal officers and employees dated 11 September 1815 also lists the primary vocation of 63 people (84.00%). This detail provides an insight into what kind of professionals were employed in each category of public service and to which offices. Based on the data (Table 7), it is evident that among the unskilled employees the prevailing group were the agricultural workers, i.e. peasants70 (38.67%). They were mainly employed in the public security services. Only one employee who was a peasant worked in auxiliary services as a night bell ringer. The second largest group were the various intellectual workers (22.67%),71 whose jobs required additional education and/or a university degree, and they were employed in the administrative positions (legal and financial experts, office clerks), public health (doctors) and public education (as organ teachers in elementary schools, high-school teachers, etc.). The relatively large number of educated individuals in the municipal service especially among the administrative workers reflects the need to employ educated personnel to make the city function as efficiently as possible. The intellectual workers could in fact be regarded as the newly established intellectual elite in the city, having assumed the leading role in the municipal authority and thus replacing the craftsmen and merchants who were the dominant group until 1809. The remaining professionals in public services were those in specialised non-artisan vocations, such as midwives and surgeons.
Table 7. Primary vocation of municipal officers and employees and their numbers according to groups of service as stated in the 1815 salary table72
| City Service Type | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vocation | Administration | Auxiliary Service | Clerics | Public Education | Public Healthcare | Public Safety | N | % |
| Midwife | 2 | 2 | 2.67 | |||||
| Chimney Sweeper | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Franciscan Friar | 2 | 2 | 2.67 | |||||
| Furrier | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Master Bricklayer | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Organist | 4 | 4 | 5.33 | |||||
| Intellectual Worker | 12 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 22.67 | ||
| Sacristan | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Supervisor73 | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Innkeeper | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Drummer | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Printer | 1 | 1 | 1,33 | |||||
| Teacher | 1 | 1 | 1.33 | |||||
| Peasant | 1 | 28 | 29 | 38.67 | ||||
| Not stated | 1 | 8 | 3 | 12 | 16.00 | |||
| N | 14 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 32 | 75 | 100.00 |
| % | 18.67 | 10.67 | 10.67 | 10.67 | 6.67 | 42.67 | 100.00 |
For 71 individuals (94.66%), it is possible to determine when they entered the public service. They can be divided into three groups according to the time of employment: 1) those employed before the unification of the chamber municipalities of Upper, Lower and Inner Town (that is, before 1786); 2) those employed during the period of the Chamber City of Osijek (1786-1809); and 3) those employed after Osijek became the free and royal city (from 1809). Since the services were for life and individuals resigned mainly due to old age and/or illness, it is not surprising that some of them were employed by three city councils over the course of several years. If we examine data on the officers and employees on 11 September 1815 (Fig. 5), we see that hiring of new personnel is highly connected to the local elections. We see similar numbers of newly recruited personnel during that time. In 1809, in 1813 (after the 1812 elections) and in 1815 the number of newly recruited personnel for each year was 12 (16.90%). One of the reasons for such employment trends can be explained by the fact that some legal experts among the municipal officers were regularly nominated and elected to vacant senatorial positions in the City Council during elections, so it was necessary to appoint or elect replacements. We can add that the individuals employed before 1809 and remaining in service until 11 September 1815 were not administrative workers, but public security, health and education workers or clerics.
Fig. 5. Municipal officers and employees on 11 September 1815 according to the year of entering the service74
[CHART]
If we convert this data to years in service, the largest groups of employees on 11 September 1815 were the ones with two (16.90%) and six years (16.90%) in service, followed by individuals who entered service in 1815 (16.90%), while the average result for all personnel is 4,49 years in service. The longest-serving city employee was the midwife Anna Fuchs, employed in 1784, with 31 years of service, followed by teacher Mirko (Emericus) Turanyi, employed in 1787, with 28 years of service and night watchman Adam (Adamus) Vencz, employed in 1795, with a total of 20 years of service. This greatly influenced the average number of years in service by sectors for public healthcare (10.2) and public education services (9), as the number of individuals working in these sectors was small. The public safety sector follows with 4.25, with higher number of experienced individuals working for the city before or since 1809, followed by the clergy (3.42) and auxiliary services (2.87). The officers working in the municipal administration spent the lowest average number of years in service (2.78).75 This, on one hand, is the result of the mentioned intention to professionalise the management of administrative, legal and financial affairs of cities. However, it is important to mention that some of the administrative officers that worked for the city in 1815 had previously served in the administration of the Virovitica County or in the local authority of other cities. So, the lower average number of years spent in the city service does not necessarily mean that the personnel were lacking experience. Only when we consider the somewhat lower average age of the officers in this sector, we see that the number of younger individuals in this sector is relatively higher in comparison to other services. (See Fig. 7 and 9). However, the administrative affairs were headed by an experienced officer, Konstantin Bozda (age 51), elected in 1815 as the retired registrar.76
Fig. 6. Municipal officers and employees on 11 September 1815 according to the years of service77
[CHART]
Fig. 7. The average years in service of municipal officers and employees on 11 September 1815 per sector
[CHART]
The main source that provides the information on years of birth for every registered male resident of Osijek (not for women) is the mentioned 1814 census of ignoble individuals, while the year of birth of the clergy could be partially established from canonical visitations. Based on these sources, it is possible to calculate both the individual and average age of city officers and employees, as well as their average age by category of service, on 11 September 1815 for 63 employees (84.00%). The average age of those municipal officers and employees in 1815 was 34.76 years. The public education employees were the oldest, with an average age of 37 years. They were followed by employees in auxiliary services (36.37 years), public security (35.68 years) and public health (35.33 years). The average age of the city administration officer was 33.58 years, while the youngest were members of the clergy, whose average was 30.25 years. (Fig. 9). Looking at the established age pyramid of Osijek male officers and employees (see Fig. 8), we see that most of the analysed employees were under 50 years of age (82.53%), with the most represented age group being those between 25 and 29 years of age, followed by those between 20 and 24. Both the youngest and oldest employees worked in the public safety department. The youngest municipal employees were constable Michael Kremer (13) and island guard Ilija Grgurević (Elias Gergurevich) (14). The oldest employees were field guard Matija Šerbedžić (Mathias Sherbegyich) (81) and constable Antun Mađarević (Antonius Magyarevich) (75).
Fig. 8. Truncated age pyramid of male municipal officers and employees on 11 September 181578
[CHART]
Fig. 9. The average age of male municipal officers and employees on 11 September 1815 per sector
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is necessary to address certain key points. First, it is possible to divide individuals in the municipal authority who perform administrative duties and other services into categories and sub-categories based on their profession, namely the categories for the personnel working in the administration, public healthcare, public education, public safety, as well as the clergy and the auxiliary personnel. By doing so, it is possible to obtain interesting results. The largest group comprised the employees that served in the public security and administration sector, which accounted for more than half of the municipal personnel in 1815. The number of the former group could be the result of relatively large surface area under the city limits, whereas the number of the latter is, at least partially, the result of state policies regarding the professionalisation of the local authority. Most officers and employees were of local origin. Those coming from outside the Kingdom of Slavonia were mainly employed in the administration, public education and healthcare sectors, with Hungarians being the most numerous. Further research may provide some explanation, for example, why half of the educational workers in 1815 came from Hungary proper. The representation of individuals with regards to the place of residence or religious affiliation is proportional with the demographics. While we have little proof that in case of the former it was intentional, in the case of the latter, it seems to be the result of the policy to maintain the representation of the Eastern Orthodox minority established in 1809. An interesting result is that most of the municipal officers and employees, except those in highest-ranking offices, never took the citizen’s oath, which obviously was neither a formal or informal requirement for the offices and positions. As for the local authority, the qualifications and experience of the individuals was the only criterion, aligned with general trends of professionalisation of municipal administration and services. The education of an individual employed by the city undoubtedly depended on the office, and, as expected, the most educated personnel worked in the administration, while the least qualified individuals worked in the public security sector. When it comes to other details, such as the age and length of service, the employees with the most years in service were the ones working in public healthcare and education services, while the lowest result for administrative officers can be explained by the intention to further professionalise the local administration after 1809 by hiring educated young individuals, as well as the fact that some of the officers had previous experience at similar positions before being employed by the city.
As stated in the Introduction, the aim of this paper was first to conduct the systematisation and analysis of the data in the available sources and give an overview of structure of city’s public services and characteristics of the personnel on 11 September 1815. Therefore, this study had a rather limited scope of possible analyses, and, as such, it cannot provide deeper insights into trends and policies for a longer period that could provide more information on how the local authority of Osijek functioned. With that in mind, a complete study on the officers and employees of the Free and Royal City of Osijek, constituting comprehensive research that would encompass the entire period from 1809 to 1850 will be required. The first step could be a catalogue of all offices and posts and all the personnel hired during that time, as well as a broader study on hiring policies etc. Therefore, this paper should be regarded only as an effort to contribute to this broader research topic.
Archival Sources
Državni arhiv u Osijeku (State Archives in Osijek)
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HR-DAOS-500. Zbirka matičnih knjiga (1868-1963).
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Habsburg Empire - Cadastral maps (XIX. century). Accessed on February, 20 2025https://maps.arcanum.com/en/map/cadastral
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Source data
Lovaš, Eldina. “1814 census database” (unpublished).
Časnici i namještenici Slobodnog i kraljevskog grada Osijeka 1815. godine
Cilj ovoga rada je dati pregled strukture radnih mjesta u osječkoj gradskoj upravi nakon izbora provedenih 1815. godine, zatim utvrditi popis tadašnjih gradskih zaposlenika i predstaviti njihova sociodemografska obilježja. Istraživanje je provedeno na temelju nekoliko dokumenata iz Državnog arhivu u Osijeku odnosno fonda Poglavarstvo slobodnog i kraljevskog grada Osijeka. Među njima posebno treba izdvojiti platnu listu gradskih dužnosnika, službenika i zaposlenika nakon izbora provedenih 1815. godine. Ovaj je dokument bio ključan za rekonstrukciju radnih mjesta u osječkoj gradskoj upravi - administrativnog osoblja i zaposlenika u drugim javnim službama. Na temelju te liste provedena je i kategorizacija radnih mjesta prema službama na poslove u administraciji, javnom zdravstvu, javnom obrazovanju, vjerske službe, službe u javnoj sigurnosti te pomoćne službe. Navedena platna lista, osim podataka o imenima, radnom mjestu i plaćama službenika i namještenika, donosi i druge pojedinosti, poput podatke o vjerskoj pripadnosti, porijeklu (zavičajnoj pripadnosti), primarnoj struci te godinama provedenim u službi. Za analizu su korišteni i drugi izvori poput popisa stanovništva iz 1814. godine, upisnika građana, matične knjiga i kanonske vizitacija, na temelju koji su analizirana sociodemografska obilježja općinskog osoblja. Pritom je bilo moguće utvrditi udio domicilnih zaposlenika i onih doseljenih iz drugih krajeva Monarhije, zatim udio zaposlenika s građanskim status, potom udio zaposlenika iz pojedinih gradskih četvrti i njihov udio prema primarnim zanimanjima, te dob zaposlenika i godine u službi.
Ključne riječi: gradski službenici; gradski zaposlenici; sociodemografska analiza; slobodni i kraljevski grad Osijek; početak 19. stoljeća