Page - 268 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

268 Gabriel Zeilinger 12thcenturies, filledbymercantileactivityandsettlement that isarchaeologically recorded.The bailiwick over these manors, most prominently the exercise of high justice, was taken over by theHohenstaufen king, later emperor, Friedrich II andhis localmen around 1212/1214. The diplomatic traditionshows thepresenceofministerialesandotherofficialsofall of those ‘exter- nal’ rulers at theplace in thedecadesbeforeandafter,manyofwhomwould settledown there and form the first urban elite. In 1212 and again in 1214, theburgenses (not yet citizens by full right) ofColmar soldparts of their commons–whichprobably includedstretchesofwater– in order to use the revenue to enclose their churchyard. For these acts, the emerging community ofburgenses, obviouslyheadedby followersof theHohenstaufen, firsthad to legally,politically and socially appropriate the commons and then persuade the landlords proper to consent to the sales–which theydid, or ratherhad to. In the following3 to4decades, Colmarwas encir- cledwith the first comprehensivewall, grewsubstantiallyboth inpopulationandcentral func- tions, andmaintained its role as a stronghold for theHohenstaufen kings and their partisans in the region. It attained the statusof a royal city through this, somethingwhich itmanaged to retain farbeyondtheendof thisdynasty–with increasingmunicipalautonomy.Unfortunately, wedonot findmuchmentionofwater in thisearlyphase–except for theaforementionedhints in the chronicles, and the catastrophic ones to be treated of later. There is lots of timber dealt with in the sources, though. But this aquatic deficit in the traditionwasmended towards the endof the 13th century. The internalgrowthand thedevelopmentof several suburbsatColmarmadenecessary two extensions of the city wall, one around 1250 and again around 1287. This led to all sorts of structural re-arrangementswithin the (new)walls, too: in a charter ofMay 14th 1295, the Prior of the Dominicans in Colmar declared that the city council had granted an extension of the convent’sgroundsandbuildingsbeyondthe ‘old’wallandtrenchandtheconstructionofbuild- ings for its needs.17 Yet, thiswas to bedone in awaydazwir die flusse sollen lassen fliessen in aller der friheit, als die burger vndochdie stat bedorfent (thatwe should let the streams flow in all freedom, as the citizens and the city need). Also, over those streams theDominicanswere tobuild twoopenchamberswith four seats, towhichall townspeoplewouldhave freeaccess– to take care of their (in this case ‘special’) necessities. By the way, for the years 1292 and 1302 the Annales Colmarienses maiores – a tradition alongside the above-mentionedDominican– find it noteworthy, that in the first-namedyear, a ‘technician invented amachine to pipe thewater through the streets’ of Strasbourg, and that, at the latter date, the citizens of Colmarwere able to channelwater to all city quarters. In the year 1293, as the Chronicon Colmariense records, the king (or anti-king) Adolf of Nassauwas besieging Colmar in his fight for sole power against Albrecht of Habsburg. One of his troops’ measureswastodivert theMühlbach, themill creek,whichsupposedly ledtoablatantshortage of flour in the townand topeoplehaving topush themillwheel –with ameagre outcome.18 Water asanenvironmental hazard for towns Butwith that,wemoveontocover, ifonlybriefly, thehazardousaspectsofwaterandurbanisa- tion.Having initiallyportrayed the large-scaleenvironmentaleffectsofurbanisation19 (not least by deforestation) – which even the contemporaries were able to discern – and having intro- duced the problems of sanitation and sewage20 with the last-mentioned episodes, the cata- 17 CAOU5, 515. 18 Pertz 1861, 165f. 219. 226 (theLatin again translated). 19 For aneco-archaeological perspective, seeSchreg, this volume. 20 SeeArndt, this volume.