Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
In the last decade of the 16th century some litigants tried to engage Hungarian proctors in their lawsuits at the municipal courts of the West Hungarian town of Sopron. Soprons residents were mostly German speakers at that time and German was the language of oral communication at court and in the municipal administration. Hungarian was not understood by the majority of the residents or the assessors and town council members either. Therefore, the town council prohibited the use of the Hungarian language in oral and written proceedings. In 1600 a disadvantaged litigant, Wolff Schafferin appealed the decision of the town council to Johannes Kutassy, the Hungarian vicegerent and chancellor of King Rudolf II. She returned to the town council court with a command of the vicegerent in her hand for the council to allow the use of the Hungarian language at the municipal courts even if the opposing parties speak only German. This case triggered action from the town council to protect the “laudable municipal custom” to not allow the use of Hungarian at court by proctors if the opposing parties are Germans. This article explores the details of the debate about the use of languages at court in Sopron and the language usage in court in Pressburg (Bratislava) – Sopron reached out to its town council for advice – at the turn of the 17th century.