The inn of the Middle Ages, the tavern, had much more important and far-reaching functions than its modern successors. A connection between taverns and the emergence of markets has already been established for high medieval Poland. Wilfried Kerntke demonstrates in his study the role of the tavern in the economic structure of several regions of the German-speaking world: the role of a seedbed for the market in many suburban settlements that did not yet have an institutionalized market. For the first time, the tavern is presented in a comprehensive monograph not as a folkloric antiquity, but as...