[1] In the Middle Ages and the early modern period in places such as in southern Germany, in Saxony and in Austria the word meant inhabitants of a town or a village who generally did not possess real property and therefore did not enjoy full civic rights.
Likewise, similarities exist to the expression Einlieger for day labourers without real property who rented living room from farmers.
Inwohner in villages were dependent on the farmers in whose households they lodged, and were bound to perform a set amount of work for their landlords, thus providing a reserve of workers for busy times.
[3] Since the domicile of an Inwohner was not defined by real property, special rules had to be observed as to which clergymen were to perform marriage ceremonies among this class of inhabitants.
An Inman who left had to request cancellation of the record, and had to pay a leaving fee, otherwise both landlord and tenant were liable to prosecution.
[9] The increasing number of Inman relationships in the 17th and 18th centuries led to the erection of numerous tenements, e.g. in Linz, and to the development of an urban proletariat even under preindustrial circumstances.