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Extinct Professions - Reaper, Ranger, and Rootseppen
contents
- reaper
- pointed makers
- Weingarten guardian
- Wurzelseppen and herbal women
- Forest sign Schneider
- Ranger
- Kienrußbrenner, Harzer and Schmierbrenner
- Harz
- Pechsieder and lubricating burners
- Köhler
- The raftsmen
The landscape, agriculture and forestry also differed a lot from today's Germany around 1600 or 1800: gravel plains in river valleys, lowland meadows, heathland, bogs, meadows and open forests covered most of Central Europe. Today conservationists receive the last remnants of these preindustrial cultural landscapes with great effort. Collectively used grazing land for cattle, sheep, goats and horses created open areas, often lawn-like vegetation and in the hat forests park-like landscapes that lacked the undergrowth.
The reaper is a sought-after specialist in ecological landscape management. (Image: silentalex88 / fotolia.com) The "German Forest" became a place of longing in Romanticism, "forest solitude" the epitome of "German mind". It had nothing to do with the real forest, romance was a stream of the city's unsettled bourgeoisie, and that was torn between the fiction of a premodern idyll that had never existed and the technical modernity that made much simpler but also anonymity and hectic. At that time there were professions that were very important at the time, but are now almost completely gone.
reaper
As a reaper, we now know the figure of the godfather Death, who with his scythe is mowing down people like grain trees. The template for this metaphor of death was a hard manual work. Reapers were right down in the hierarchy of agriculture. These were farm laborers who harvested the grain with scythe or sickle. Often these were seasonal workers who wandered from farm to farm offering their services. Her tools were brought with her. They only made it through the rounds because the grains ripened rye, barley and oats at different times. There were also the different temperatures in mountain and valley, sun-flooded plains and shady north sides, which led to early or late harvest time even with the same varieties.
The reaper was a typical profession of pre-engineered agriculture, not necessarily of the Middle Ages. Thus, the number of reapers increased rapidly after 1871 in the German Reich. These "Sachsengänger" moved in masses from the structurally poor areas east of the Elbe into the Magdeburger Börde, where they harvested on the most fertile soils of the empire sugar beet. They did not cut them, but dug them out, but the name was preserved. The seasonal cutters lived in hastily constructed reaper barracks, which today represent monuments.
There are no reapers in Central Europe today. With the combine harvester the profession died out and the scythe smith lost its importance. However, mowing by hand is often necessary for the preservation of species-rich meadow biotopes. The German Federal Agency for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND e.V.) and the German Nature Conservation Association (NABU) find it difficult to find experts who can handle scythe or sickle. The edge of the scythe must be at a certain angle to the grass or grain as well as to the ground, so that it mows, instead of stabbing into the ground. This method must first be learned and trained. Reapers are still widespread in India and Africa.
pointed makers
The Meadowmaker created arable land that could be used for agriculture. He was from the Middle Ages to modern times. This profession is mainly known from Ravensberg, but also in East Westphalia and in northern Germany.
In Ravensberger Land many smaller rivers and streams crossed the valleys. The ice age formed these hollow or Kerbtäler (Sieken). Arable and pasture land had already become scarce in the early modern period, as many people settled here to use the heavy loess soil. In the 16th century the Wiskenmaker (meadowmakers) worked here. They cut off the edges of the valley, diverted the brooks sideways, creating hanging green spaces together, enough for two to three cuts a year, all with tools like spades and shovels. On the steep slopes trees were created, which used the locals as lumber and fuel. It is therefore not a natural landscape in these very species-rich areas.
Today, old beech trees and oak trees are planted on the steep edges of the meadows, which were planted by the farmers. They served not only as firewood, but also as a shelter for cattle and as an enclosure. The activity of these meadow makers is still handed down from the 19th century. Hundreds of men from Sudenburg and Oldendorf moved to Prussia, Silesia, Poland and even Russia to create farmland with their own hands. At Gifhorn in what is today Lower Saxony, they created in 1840 at least 3,500 hectares of irrigated Riesel meadows. These served, among other things, beekeeping. Also for the meadow makers there was no need with the emergence of motorized agricultural machines.
Those who stole grapes from the vineyard had to expect harsh punishment if the vineyard keeper caught him. (Image: JackF / fotolia.com) Weingarten guardian
In the Middle Ages was between the beginning of grape ripeness and the grape harvest of the vintage ban. During this time, the vineyards were closed. The vineyard keepers ensured that no unauthorized person entered. Duke Albrecht II mentioned these guardians of the vineyards in the Austrian Wine Regulation 1352.
The guardians had far-reaching powers. For example, they were allowed to kill anyone who entered the guarded vineyard with weapons. Anyone who stole only three grapes could henceforth be called a "harmful man". In the medieval society in which trade and communication took place, especially face-to-face, this amounted to a social ostracism. Anyone who resisted an arrest by the vineyard guardian was declared outlawed. The Austrian guardian order of 1707 even stipulated that grape thieves, depending on the size of the theft, should have their ears cut off or their hands cut off.
Signs of straw and wood indicated that the vineyard was closed, the contemporary counterpart to our "forbidden entry" signs. Guardians were only allowed to be punish men whose law-abiding was out of the question, who were physically fit and knew the district. Guardians were well remunerated and the work increased their social prestige.
They had to swear on the guardian order to provide their service day and night and live in huts in the vineyards during working hours. At first they were simple houses made of straw and grapevines, later the garden owners made permanent accommodation for them. The huts were mostly camouflaged to surprise potential lawbreakers. Hütersäulen are known from tree trunks, at the top of a Hütrad was attached to the guardian rose to survey the land for invaders. In the vicinity of Vienna, such guard columns were made of blackened pines.
The Keepers carried axes, which were also called Guardian Hedgehogs, and sabers. In modern times, the arsenal of the vineyard keepers has been expanded to include pistols and rifles. The firearms were rarely used to kill thieves. Rather, they served to frighten those who were caught red handed. The task of the guardian was to arrest the convicts and to transfer them to the authorities. In the early days they handed over the deliquents to the owner of the vineyard, later to the police. For delivered thieves they got a premium, which called themselves then Stinglgeld. The guardians wore bugles, in Traiskirchen as Hiatapfoazn referred, also whips, the Hiatagoassln. They also drove out birds such as starlings and thrushes that were haunting the vineyards.
The end of the spell was October 10th. A blast of black powder indicated that the vineyards were open again. The guardians entered the towns and were solemnly welcomed. Often, this entry of guardians coincided with Thanksgiving.
The guardian profession existed until the 1970s. The last two deployed guardians in Rust am See are mainly chasing away birds. Since the 1990s there has been a re-performance of the old Hüterfeste in Austria. Some of the vineyard huts have been restored to give visitors this piece of cultural history.
Wurzelseppen and herbal women
The name of this once recognized profession sounds like Waldschrat or Dorfdepp. Its other name, root collector, sounds like a poor swallower who digs the plants out of the ground so as not to starve to death.
At its core, it was herb collectors. Contrary to the idea of herbal or herbal witch, men usually, but not only, performed this activity. The "collecting" was hard bone work. The roots had to be dug out intact - with small spades, hatchets or even bare hands.
The root collectors from Arnsdorf in Lower Silesia became known. They dug out the herbs growing in the Giant Mountains. The pharmacies in the village then processed them
- teas,
- Anoint,
- pastes,
- tinctures,
- stomach drops
- and also made herbal liqueurs out of it.
Theodor Fontane wrote in 1891 in "The Last Laboratory" about the last herb collector. (Image: Heike Jestram / fotolia.com) In 1690, such a herb collector was described:
"He was a peculiar figure - tall, all dressed in green, with a mighty wreath of all sorts of herbs on his head and an equally powerful beard. Around his neck hung living snakes; he allowed himself to bite them bloody, and then to demonstrate the healing properties of snake bacon, with which he brushed the fresh bite marks. He had different herbs. It was said that he even had funds against spells. "(Poznaj swój kraj, no. 12/2002, p.27)
The decline of the root collectors had the same reason as the end of the rat poison vendors and the hikers on the fairs: the control of medicine with official test methods. In 1843, the industrial code under Friedrich Wilhelm II permitted only officially approved drugs. The surviving root-eels got a right to keep their herbs alive for life (ad this vitae), but successors were not allowed. Theodor Fontane wrote in 1891 about the last lab technician of Krummhübel, Ernst August Zölfel. He was one of the last of his profession.
Forest sign Schneider
Waldzeichschneider marked paths in the woods. Their activity is handed down especially from the Dresden area. The creation of such road networks extended over centuries. In the early modern period, paths from the Middle Ages were measured, mapped, expanded and expanded. The woodcutters carved symbols into the bark of trees. For this they cut out a piece of bark, carved the respective form into the wood and painted it red.
The Dresdner Saugarten
Johannes Humelius designed in 1560 a road network in the form of a star around the Dresden Saugarten. From this core ran at a distance of 45 degrees eight axes. In addition, there were five circular routes in a concentric formation - Cross Two to Cross Six. In 1589 the complete network appeared in a map of the Dresdner Heide. Sense of this system was an easy hunt, because the heath was the hunting ground of the Dresden Elector. Over 270 black icons marked bridges, hills, springs and so on. Even today, there are around ten of these hand-carved symbols in the heath.
The tree signs cut by the Waldzeichner used to be common signposts in the forest. (Image: Bernd Heinze / fotolia.com) Ranger
We know the Ranger from the novel Lederstrumpf and from Karl May's characters like Old Firehand. In fantasy role-playing he takes a place in pseudo-medieval player groups as a ranged. As a self-made man who lives on the hunt for fur animals and profits on his own, he would have ended up as a poacher at best in Central Europe and the early modern era as a poacher. In fact, these rangers only emerged in America, where hunting privilege did not exist, as did other privileges of the aristocracy.
Called 'coureur des bois' in French, these men, from the colonies on the east coast, moved west, to the Great Lakes, to the Rocky Mountains or to the endless forests of Canada. They lived with the Indians and exchanged their furs at the branches of the large trading companies.
The first known coureurs were Médard Chouard, also known as the Sieur of the Groseillier, and Pierre-Esprit Radisson. In 1660, they returned to the French settlement of Trois-Riviéres with 60 canoe furs back from the Great Lakes. Rangers were the first pioneers in the West and they opened trade routes into land that was new territory for the Europeans. The business was great. Fur animals like
- lynx,
- beaver,
- otter,
- marten
- or raccoons
there was still aplenty.
The beaver was a favorite target of trappers for its fur, today it is under conservation. (Image: Stan / fotolia.com) Those who had the courage to turn their backs on the cities of the East and live in the wilderness could earn a rich nose. But soon many of the rangers were no longer interested in gain, for they lost faith in profit as the measure of all things. When they exchanged their furs, they spent the money on celebrations together with their Indian friends. Then they went back to the woods to live in freedom, far from the bureaucracy of everyday life. That became her meaning in life.
The great time of the French Rangers came to an end when the Hudson's Bay Company penetrated even to the west. The former independent fur hunters now worked as employees of the big companies. The rangers experienced a big boom at the beginning of the 19th century when beaver cylinders became fashionable in Europe. In the 1820s, however, this fashion was over and many of the fur hunters quit their job.
In the 19th century, independent Trapper (trappers) emerged again, the Mountain Men of the Rocky Mountains. When citizens of the cities of the East met these nature boys, they met two worlds. Dressed in skins and suede, with proliferating beards and long knives, they appeared to the bourgeoisie in New York or Chicago as "wild" as the Indians with whom the Mountain Men lived in intimate friendship. Often they married Indian women. In 1821, James Feminore Cooper immortalized the Ranger in the novel Lederstrumpf.
The Rangers and Trappers also hunted and lived in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. (Image: John Hoffman / fotolia.com) Kienrußbrenner, Harzer and Schmierbrenner
The soot burner was one of the extinct professions in the woods. Kienrußbrenner smoldered cones of softwoods, twigs and shavings and added resin grease, a waste that was produced by harvesting tree resin. The ashes that remained were called Kienruß, an almost pure carbon. The soot served as the basis for paints, printing ink and shoe polish, and ink was also produced from it.
The soot burner worked on a kiln resting on a stone foundation. Next to the stove was the soot-smoking room, where smoke collected from an opening in the back of the stove. The soot now stuck to the walls in the soot space and there the soot burner knocked it off. 50 kilos of resin grease yielded up to six kilos of soot.
A boom of the early modern era
Soot burners were of enormous importance in the early modern era and that is due to Gutenberg's printing press. Without the fine carbon produced in the smelters, mass printing of books and pamphlets would not have been possible. Only in the Industrial Revolution did the Kienruß producers lose value. For the industrial smoldering of hard coal required much less effort.
What did a sootburner deserve??
A sootburner did not get rich, but did not gnaw at the hunger-wipe. First of all, he had to invest a lot in fuel, furnace, auxiliary staff, levies and interest. The bottom line was that a medium-sized hut, producing about 40 quintals of soot a year, provided an income that would allow life to be financed. The few sootburners, however, only worked on the kiln. Most worked at the same time as Harzer or Pechsieder, sometimes they also hung with the charcoal burners.
Harz
Harzers gained resin from trees, especially using pine trees. They removed the bark from the trunk and cut into the wood below. The injured tree spewed out resin, the Harzer caught it, collected it and processed it further. Resins were heavily regulated throughout Germany, because it has always been in close competition with forestry, because the wood is almost worthless due to the drying process.
Pechsieder and lubricating burners
The soot boilers often worked at the same time as Pechsieder and lubricating burners. They burned tree resin into lubricants, supplying brewers who sealed their barrels, pharmacists who used to make pitch-oil, and butchers who used grated pitch to remove the hair of slaughter animals.
Köhler
In the Black Forest, there should be a ghost, the glassman. The charcoal burner Peter went to this, because Peter hated his laborious as well as dirty work, which brought him neither wealth nor recognition. Then he met an even worse forest spirit, the Dutchman Michel. The pact with the spirits gave Peter wealth, but also a cold heart in the chest, so that he felt neither joy nor sadness. The fairy tale "The Cold Heart" by Wilhelm Hauff from 1827 refers much more to the real world than the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and names three old professions: The Glasmännlein is reminiscent of the glassblowing huts in the Black Forest, Peter is a coal burner, and the Holländermichel is emblematic of the raftsmen who transported tree trunks from Swabia to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Social history gives the fairy tale a lot. Romanticism was an art genre of change from the feudal age to industrial society. Peter was a charcoal burner at the beginning of the 19th century on a branch that was just breaking off. While these coal burners still existed, brown and hard coal increasingly replaced charcoal and steam engines. That's also why Peters did not have any profit or status from his career.
The charcoal burner had one of the dirty jobs and therefore not a high level. (Image: Stihl024 / fotolia.com) In the Black Forest, charcoal burners made charcoal in kilns, mainly to smelt iron, but also to make glass and process precious metals. To produce metals and glass, charcoal was necessary because the temperature of firewood fires was insufficient. Köhler were never viewed and lived in relative poverty. They had a bad reputation like those who spent most of their lives outside the village and town community. Added to this was the dirt. Although the hygienic conditions of the early modern period were generally inadequate, the charcoal burner, which smelled of smoke in every pore and adhered to the soot on every naked skin, was considered as disreputable as tanner or skinner. You needed him, but you did not want to have much to do with him.
Today, reconstructed Köhler huts in the Harz, the Black Forest or Deister are reminiscent of this once-in-a-lifetime forest area. They also remind of how wrong today's projections of a "German jungle" are, which usually imagine a "good old time" around 1800. Where today tourists enjoy the dark mysticism of fir forests, the forest was almost cut down 200 years ago. Only when the trades of the Kienrußbrenner, Köhler and raftsmen had no meaning, the forest could grow again.
The raftsmen
Already the Old Testament records that Hiram, the king of Tire, delivered the cedars in rafts across the Mediterranean Sea to King Solomon of Israel. The Romans got timber in the form of rafts from Corsica. In the late Middle Ages, the growth of the population, especially in the expanding cities caused wood scarcity, construction and firewood had to be transported from afar. The simplest and sometimes only method of transporting the heavy strains was running water. "The people living in the Kinzig, especially near Wolfach, feed themselves with the big timbers, which they fill in the waters of the Kinzig in Strasbourg, and conquer a great deal of money every year." Wrote Sebastian Münzer in 1544 about rafting in the Black Forest.
Already in 926 the Hungarians hit wood in the Black Forest to build rafts. Until the Middle Ages, the Black Forest was a sparsely populated primeval forest, but it provided an important resource in quantities: wood. It served to produce charcoal, people used it to build houses and needed it in mines. Made of wood, they made most of everyday objects, water pipes as well as carriages, ax handles and furniture.
The wood pulled the people into the Black Forest. In the High Middle Ages, the new profession of rafters developed. His trademark was a black hat with a wide brim, to the belly reaching cuffs and a pair of leather pants. The rafters tied the trunks with willow rods, a demanding task, as the raft was subjected to heavy loads - river bends, currents, rocks and other obstacles.
In some areas, tree trunks are still being bred in the timber industry today. (Image: Friedberg / fotolia.com) An important tool of the rafter was the raft hook. He used it to loosen wood that had become wedged. This activity was called "blow up". It was very dangerous because the raftsman could also fall into the torrential water and be killed by the trunks. The season lasted from spring to fall, in winter the rafter made his tools, for example, clamping wedges and clips.
The Dutch needed wood, which the Black Forest offered, and the best way to send the heavy tribes was through the rivers. Raftsmen tied the tree trunks together to form rafts, then moved this direction Rhine to Holland, where the river flows at Rotterdam. Small valley rafts in the side valleys came to the raft harbors where they were tied together to form large rafts comprising up to 200 trunks. The "Dutch Tannen" from the Black Forest were in demand, tall and straight and they offered the best material for the masts of the sailing ships.
Although timber is still an important economic activity in the Black Forest, railways and lorries have made the raftsmen unemployed. 1894 left the last rafts Schiltach, 1895 Wolfach. The rafting path from Lossburg to Wolfach reminds of this old trade. Elsewhere in Germany rafting continued until the 1950s. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Literature:
- Otto Kerscher: At home in the Waldheimat. Memories of my childhood. Tales of extinct professions. 1990
- Reinhold Reth. The old craft. From Bader to Zinngießer. 2005