Miner farmer

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Bergmannsbauer was the name for part-time farmers in the Saar region and the neighboring Palatinate in the period from approx. 1850 to approx. 1970.

In other regions of Central Europe the term worker farmer was common.

history

The profession emerged after industrialization began in the Saar region in the mid-19th century. The state Prussian Mining Administration opened a large number of coal mines within a short time after the construction of a railway line had made it cheap to transport the coal to the customers. A flourishing iron and steel industry developed. At the time, the available arable land was increasingly fragmented and reduced in size due to steady population growth and the principle of real division. Many sons from these smallholder families looked for a livelihood in the new coal mines in the Saar region.

In order to avoid an uprooting of the working masses, as had been observed in other industrial areas, the Prussian and Bavarian mine administrations in the Saar region tried to train a settled and down-to-earth working class. To this end, they rely on the premium house system introduced by Bergrat Leopold Sello and on benevolent support for the miners' part-time farming. For many formerly self-employed smallholders, these opportunities offered a gradual transition to industrial workers. In this way, the special profession of miner farmer, which is typical for the Saar area and the neighboring Palatinate, came about.

Despite the name, not only miners had part-time farming, but also other industrial workers, ironworkers or post and railroad workers.

A miner's farmer's farm usually included two cows, which were also used as draft animals in the fields, some pigs and chickens. In order to cope with the agricultural tasks in addition to the wage labor, the whole family had to work. Most of the work had to be done by hand, as it was financially impossible for the miners to buy expensive equipment. Despite these difficulties, the families of the miners' farmers were usually better off there than the pure workers. They were able to save money through the self-produced food and were better cared for in times of need during the world wars, and often even contributed to the food supply in the villages.

The end of the miner farmers came through the better and cheaper food supply from the 1960s and through higher wages in industry. In the period from 1950 to 1970, most of the small farms therefore gave up.

See also

literature

  • Karl Heinz Janson: The Saarland miner farmer - A vanished way of life (= contributions to regional history. Vol. 31). Association for Industrial Culture and History Heusweiler-Dilsburg, 2015
  • Karl Heinz Janson: On the rise and fall of the miner farmer. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. September 3, 2015, p. C6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Baumann: workers farmers. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 23, 2001 , accessed September 5, 2015 .
  2. ^ Karl Heinz Janson: Premium houses . Association for Industrial Culture and History Heusweiler-Dilsburg e. V., accessed on September 5, 2015 .