Wikipedia
Inwohner is a German expression for lower-ranking inhabitants of a populated place. The exact significance varies regionally, but the word generally refers to lodgers without real property.
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. Of similar meaning are the expressions Inste and Instleute who were also lodgers in rural communities. Likewise, similarities exist to the expression Einlieger for day labourers without real property who rented living room from farmers. An Inwohner must be distinguished from a member of the household who was either related to the home owner or was a direct employee (e.g. a maid or a servant) of the latter.