What is the occupation "Liendlhuber"?

Gina Palmer

I am researching a family in Freising district of Bavaria in early 1800s. The occupation of the father is listed as "Liendlhuber." I'm trying to figure out what that is and how it is best translated into English. Could "Liendl" be a variant of or similar in meaning to "Lehns-"?

Charlotte Noelle Champenois

It's definitely some kind of farmer. It's a very uncommon term; it only came up in a couple of Bavarian books when I performed an online search of the term, and it isn't on woerterbuchnetz.

One of the results I found read, "Lindlhuber, Oekonom von Wörnstorf."

Another was more specific: "Auf Andringen mehrerer Hypothes-Gläbiger wird das Anwesen des Simon Schustereder, Liendlhuber zu Thalham, dem offentlichen Verkaufe untergestellt ... Dasselbe aus dem zum Damenstifte St. Veir leibrechtigen 1/4 Huberhof [a Huber is a farmer of a half-sized farm], nämlich einem hölzernen Wohnhause mit Stallungen, dann einem hölzernen Stadel, Schwein- und Schafstall, Kasten mit Wagenschupfe, Backofen, dem Hausgarten, 28 Tagw. [Tag(e)werk] 73 Dezim. [Dezimralrute?] Aecker, 9 Tagw. [Tag(e)werk] 36 Dezim. [Dezimralrute?] Wiesen und 1 Tagw. [Tagwerk] 46 Dezim. Holz bestehend, ist gerichtlich auf 1432 ft. 47 fr. gewertet ..."

Since what's listed above is a Liendlhuber's property, this list is probably describing what a Liendlhuber generally had: a quarter Huberhof, a wooden house with stables, a wooden barn, a shed for pigs and sheep, a wagon shed, an oven, a house garden, cultivated land of a certain size, meadows of a certain size, and woods of a certain size.

Since it mentions a Damenstifte (abbey) above, maybe Liendl comes from Lindau, which means an abbey; it could be a diminutive form of the word. So a Liendlhuber could be an abbey farmer--i.e., a farmer near or to do with an abbey.

Gina Palmer

@Charlotte Noelle Champenois Thanks for taking the time to research this and share what you found. In researching the family, I also found the term Lehnhuber in some later records (more recent) associated with the same individual. So I was wondering if Liendl was a dialect or older version of Lehn.

Charlotte Noelle Champenois

You're welcome, @Gina Palmer! That's really helpful you found the term Lehnhuber for the same person in other records. It definitely makes sense for Liendl to be a dialect version of Lehn; the Austro-Bavarian suffix -l (see linked) is often used to make something diminutive. So just like I was thinking Liendl might be a diminutive form of Lindau, Liendl definitely looks like a Bavarian diminutive version of Lehn (Lehn => Lien + epenthetic d and diminutive l => Liendl). Whether Liendl and Lehn both go back to Lindau, I'm not 100% sure, but it is quite possible.