Kitchen Servants as Economic Actors at the court of the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia
Food was at the nexus of the material and representational concerns of early modern courts. At the court of the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia (1640-1688), food and drink comprised a large percentage of the overall court budget and was closely tracked by court administrators. The servants responsible for the production and presentation of food and drink bridged the internal court cosmos and the external world of markets and food producers to provide impressive meals within a budget. This paper follows some of these individuals over their careers at court, revealing a web of relationships of mutual obligation, which counters the notion of dichotomous, absolute systems of rule. Here, servants were empowered to supplicate for increased privileges and their lord responded. Daniel Graupius, for example, one of only two stewards in Friedrich Wilhelm’s long reign, advocated for career advancement that moved him between the different residences of the elector. Thus, he knit together the diverse realms of Brandenburg-Prussia long before there was a unified Prussia. After settling in Berlin to become Hofküchenmeister, Graupius leveraged his court connections to obtain status and property for himself while helping the elector increase his hold on the city of Berlin. Sebastian Kühn likens this to network building by both parties. Although their stories are not found in

history textbooks about the rise of Prussia, the food servants played a quotidian, yet vital, role in the consolidation of power.
Date: 18 November 2024, 17:00 (Monday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Online
Speaker: Molly Taylor-Poleskey (Harvard)
Organising department: Faculty of History
Organiser contact email address: cathleen.sarti@history.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Economic History of Monarchy
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/research-seminar-economic-history-of-monarchy-tickets-130176616765
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Belinda Clark