Gutsherrschaft

Gutsherrschaft is the German term for the manorial system that developed east of the Elbe from the 15th and 16th centuries. Noble landlords, such as the Junkers of Brandenburg and Prussia, ran large grain-producing estates worked by peasants bound to them by heavy labour services, and held judicial and police powers over them. It shaped the society of eastern Germany until the agrarian reforms of the 19th century.