EN
This study analyses the status and activity of two significant Austrian burghers, Paltram from Freithof and Gozzo from Krems in service of Ottokar II, the King of Bohemia and Duke of Austria. They were the supreme clerks under Austrian administration, whereas their financial options as well as their organizing abilities allowed them to get among the elite of high society. They also, like the nobility, could support various clerical institutions particularly monasteries and in the case of Paltram significantly interfere into political events, too. We can see through the example of their different destinies the rise of town elites and general increase of the importance of towns in the middle European area.