Basin worker

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The basin workers as manufacturers of copper and brass vessels were an important branch of the non-ferrous metal processing trade in the Middle Ages . The Beckenwerker guild was one of the oldest and most distinguished in Braunschweig .

The handicraft tradition of the basin workers is continued in modern times in the red foundry and Apengetern, a profession that was particularly important in the 18th century . A street in Braunschweig is dedicated to the basin workers, in which this handicraft was exclusively located in the Neustadt, founded around 1200, and in the production facilities that were only available here because of its fire hazard .

After the final melting and remelting processes were carried out here, panels were obtained that were partially sawed and knocked out into sheets. In arduous driving work (later with the help of water-powered hammer mills ), the main product was large, shiny, golden brass basins or basin bat bowls , such as those known as barber basins , the trade mark of hairdressers.

Not infrequently chased and hallmarked according to ancient and religious models , some turned out to be splendidly designed products of an outspoken handicraft, which accordingly also served purely decorative purposes. Some specimens are u. a. have been preserved as baptismal bowls in churches up to our times.

Both the raw materials (copper, tin and zinc ) and part of the finished products were long-distance trade products.

This long-distance trade was largely taken over by basin workers. These were also the owners of the workshops who did not practice the craft themselves, where, as factory owners, they had casting and forging technology work in the publishing system at their own expense. In Braunschweig, the patrician and councilor family van Twedorp and, to an extraordinary extent, Fricke van Twedorp (approx. 1355 - 1428) stand out as such .

See also

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  1. ^ Professions B (PDF; 123 kB) from a directory of old German (and Latin) designations for professions and activities and their meaning
  2. ↑ Bergholz, Gerda: The basin workers' guild in Braunschweig. - Braunschweig, 1954. In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke, Vol. 17.
  3. ↑ Joachim Lehrmann : Fricke van Twedorp / von Zweydorff - From the life of a patrician and basin worker entrepreneur in the Braunschweiger Neustadt - around 1400. In: Braunschweigische Heimat, 2016, Vol. I, pp. 8-19.

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