Bourgeoisie
![The prototypical bourgeois: Monsieur Jourdain, the protagonist in Molière's play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670).](/Images/godic/202501/01/Le-bourgeois-gentilhomme2253.jpg")
![The 16th-century German banker Jakob Fugger and his principal accountant, M. Schwarz, registering an entry to a ledger. The background shows a file cabinet indicating the European cities where the Fugger Banker conducts business. (1517)](/Images/godic/202501/01/Fuggerkontor2253.jpg")
![](/Images/godic/202501/01/Marx_and_Engels2253.jpg")
![Thomas Mann (1875–1955) portrayed the moral, intellectual, and physical decadence of the German upper bourgeoisie in the novel Buddenbrooks (1926)](/Images/godic/202501/01/Thomas_Mann_in_19262253.jpg")
The bourgeoisie (Eng.: /bʊərʒwɑːˈziː/; French pronunciation: [buʁʒwazi]) is a polysemous French term because it can mean:
The "bourgeoisie", in its original sense, is intimately linked to the existence of cities recognized as such by their urban charters (e.g. municipal charter, town privileges, German town law) so there was no bourgeoisie "outside the walls of the city" beyond which the people were "peasants" submitted to the stately courts and manorialism (except for the traveling "Fair bourgeoisie" living outside urban territories, who retained their city rights and domicile).