“Bridges of Power”

Kinship Ties and Female Intermediaries in the Urban Administration of Eighteenth-Century Kronstadt

Abstract

The study examines the kinship-based power structures of eighteenth-century Brașov’s (Kronstadt; Brassó) urban leadership, with particular attention to the political influence exercised through female lines. The research demonstrates that the offices of city judge and city administrator did not function as isolated institutional roles, but as parts of multi-generational family networks in which several leading families—such as the Seuler, Draudt, Herrmann, Filstich, and Fronius lineages—maintained a continuous presence. The analysed marriage patterns reveal that women’s marriages played a strategic role in sustaining connections between elite groups and often served as “bridges” linking different kinship blocs. The methodology based on network analysis uncovers the structure of these relational patterns, the degrees of kinship distance between officeholders, and the individuals occupying key positions within the network. The study concludes that Brașov’s leadership formed a selfreproducing, closed elite in which kinship networks and female intermediaries were essential in the transmission of power.