VISITING AUTHOR-ARTICLE

JULY 2010

German Traditions

On the Road – auf der Walz

The Traditional Journeyman Years of the Craftsmen

Forwarded by German American Society, Portland

          The journeyman travels of the craftsmen have a storied tradition in Germany that has survived until today with a few modern adjustments. Starting in the late Middle Ages, in the 15th century, going "on the road" – also known as "auf der Walz" or Tippelei– was a training requirement in many towns and trades for journeymen preparing to become master craftsmen. Only as a master was it possible in those days to become registered as a citizen of a town.

          With ensuing industrialization in the 18th century, the tradition of traveling to different towns and cities to gain experience in a trade became less important; yet, even into the 1920s, it was still widespread in Germany.

          Today, between 600 and 800 journeymen are on the road in Germany and abroad and approximately 10 % of them are now women. However, travel is no longer a mandatory requirement to practice a trade or craft. Craftsmen who do spend the traditional journeyman years on the road commit to travel for three years and one day and not to come within a radius of 50 km of their hometown during this time. Because the overwhelming majority of traveling journeymen – known as Fremder or “strangers” – are skilled construction workers, many people are not aware that other crafts- and tradesmen, such as carpenters, boat builders, pottery makers, blacksmiths, tailors and instrument makers, may also go on the road to develop their skills.

          The aim of their travels is primarily to learn new trade practices as well as to get to know foreign places and countries. In addition to expanding and passing on their occupational knowledge and expertise, they also view their travels as a means of promoting mutual understanding and international relations.

Customs with Long Tradition

          Craftsmen who are on the road traditionally belong to craftsmen associations or brotherhoods, known as Schächte, with colorful names such as the Rechtschaffene Fremde, the Rolandsbrüder, or the Fremde Freiheitsschacht.

          Some of these brotherhoods have been in existence for several centuries and have a status similar to student organizations. Some of their symbols, including flags and ceremonial chalices, have been preserved since the 17^th century, and many of their customs and rituals have remained virtually unaltered since the Middle Ages.

          Given these roots, the brotherhoods have often also played a political, mostly liberal and socialdemocratic, role in the past. Particularly in the modern age, many brotherhoods represented and embodied the revolutionary principles of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Brotherhoods, whose members often address each other with “dear brother,” have long accepted members of all political convictions, of every religion, and of every nation.

          The last remaining vestige of the past was that women remained barred from joining the brotherhoods for a very long time. In the 1980s, some brotherhoods began also accepting women. Moreover, a growing number of journeymen are now going on the road as free agents – Freireisende or Wilde – who do not join a brotherhood but who, nevertheless, continue to observe the traditional rules of the

craftsman’s journey.

Meeting the Requirements

          Regardless of whether a traveling journeyman joins a brotherhood or not, he must meet a string of conditions: Only those who have passed the journeyman’s exam, are single, and have no children or debts, may go on the road. They are allowed to travel only on foot or by hitch-hiking; public transportation may be used but is frowned upon. A journeyman may interrupt his travels only for urgent reasons, such as a serious illness, otherwise the interruption is considered disreputable and his Wanderbuch is taken away and he must “hang up” his Kluft, the traditional clothing worn by traveling journeymen. Every traveling journeyman is required to wear the Kluft in public at all times, which simultaneously serves to identify the traveling journeyman as such. It generally consists of a wide-brimmed, black, floppy hat or cylinder, a collarless white shirt – called a Staude – a vest and jacket with pearl buttons, bell-bottomed trousers, and durable shoes. The color of the Kluft varies according to the journeyman’s occupation. For example, in the case of masons and stone cutters, it is beige or gray; in the case of woodworkers, it is black.

          In the Wanderbuch, journeymen collect the city seals of the places they’ve visited after calling on the city’s mayor to present themselves as craftsmen. When they travel abroad, they often call on embassies and consulates to have the

seals stamped in their journeyman’s books.

          While on the road, journeymen may travel wherever they wish, even to distant lands, for example, by working for a berth on a ship to America or Australia. When they finally return to their hometowns after three years and one day, they can look back on an often austere, yet eventful, period of unattached freedom.

http://www.gahfusa.org/gahm/gahm.html