“Fossen” and “Partekenfresser”

Students as the enemy in the Middle Ages and early Modern Age

If one is to believe contemporary complaints about the undisciplined behavior of students in the 15th and 16th centuries, their preferred activities were making noise, nightly loitering, binge drinking, violent confrontations with citizens, visiting “women’s houses” (the contemporary name for brothels), playing dice and chess, and other prohibited pastimes. All of this in provocative, fashionable clothing that ran counter to the regulations. The sources also include the swear words that were used to describe these undesirable people: “Fosse” (good-for-nothing, rascal, vagrant), or, more specifically, “Partekenfresser” (“Parteken eaters”; “Parteke” was the name for the piece of bread that was given to poor students as charity).

These stereotypes were not only prevalent in Vienna, but in the whole European university world. They informed a distorted picture that did not necessarily correspond to reality, but did actually have a background in reality.