Society of righteous foreign masons and stone cutters
The Society of Righteous Foreign and Local Bricklayer and Stone Carver Journeyman is a profession-specific association of craftsmen who are or have completed a traditional three-year journey . The age of this journeyman organization cannot be precisely recorded. The oldest utensils still in existence, such as the willkomm (ritual drinking vessel), craft shop and room signs, date from the seventeenth century. The society of righteous foreign bricklayers and stone masons has no legal form, such as "registered association" or the like. Financing is done exclusively through member contributions. The number of members is currently around 300 journeymen.
aims
The aim is to promote the tradition of journeyman journeys and the associated professional and human education, well beyond the actual travel time of 3 years and 1 day. In doing so, they use rites and customs that partly stem from the tradition of the Gothic construction huts , but partly also from the journeyman's shops of the guilds .
history
The masons' masons were independent of the guilds until the 17th century. When the builders ' huts were banned as an independent professional association around 1731, they were finally incorporated into the masons' guilds , which had long tried to take over the profitable field of church building for themselves. The journeymen of the construction huts took the most important part of their ritual, including the brotherhood of stonemasons , into the journeymen's association of guilds.
The journeyman's associations of the guilds were created to counter the tutelage and oppression by the masters, and the journeymen of the various trades had organized themselves under the journeyman's shops. These had their own set of rules and their own code of honor .
The most important part was the cohesion and solidarity. If there was a labor dispute - and this is evidenced by a number of reports from that time - the whole city was “blackened” in the worst case, that is, all journeymen of the relevant trade had to leave this city if they did not want to be expelled by their comrades. Such labor disputes sometimes dragged on for years and sometimes meant the ruin of the respective guild of the respective city. Such labor disputes were often triggered by the fact that the journeymen sometimes took out the right to celebrate “ blue Monday ” or that the masters tried to prevent this with sometimes draconian punishments.
The journeymen, who adhered to the code of conduct of the journeyman's shop, called themselves upright and in numerous utensils from that time, such as shop, welcome, flags and the like, partly from the 17th century, preserved from the upright and foreign masons and stonemasons, this title is inscribed. In earlier centuries, belonging to the righteous was essential for every journeyman. Bricklayers and stonemasons who were not in the brotherhood were marginalized; Masters who employed such apprentices were made black.
Freedom of trade and the dissolution of the guild around 1860 did not directly affect the independent foreign association. She looked after the traveling journeymen and continued to cultivate the craft and custom. With the exception of a few corrections made in the 19th century - including the amalgamation of foreigners and locals - the customs and traditions of the righteous masons and stone cutters have demonstrably been preserved unchanged for more than two hundred years.
Since 1890 - after the end of the guild economy - new shafts for traveling builders appeared. A climate of mutual aversion developed between the righteous and the later shafts. The rising rivalry led to clashes and bloody brawls. It was not until 1951 that these conflicts were overcome with the establishment of the Confederation Compagnonnages Européens (CCEG), an umbrella organization of European journeymen's associations. This moving closer together certainly had something to do with the fact that the shafts had had massive problems with young people since the 1960s. There were almost no travelers left by the 1970s, and the customs were exclusively upheld by the locals.
Since the 1980s, journeymen have been traveling again with the righteous foreign bricklayers and stone masons. Since the sense of tradition in this professional group has not been preserved as it is among carpenters and the number of bricklayers and stonemasons working on construction has also generally declined, the righteous foreign masons and stonemasons are now one of the smallest shafts a traveler population of 20 to 30 journeymen. For this reason, the righteous foreign bricklayers and stonemasons have since the 1990s also adopted metalworkers whose traditional journeyman associations have not survived.
gap
In the second half of the 19th century, today's eye-catching gaps with the characteristic character developed from the fashionable folk costume of the traveling companions . The traditional dress code was retained, consisting of a black hat, black shoes, a jacket with at least three buttons and the waiver of green colors. The tie-like black respectability was added as the most important outward sign of belonging . Although the gap has largely prevailed among travelers, it remains a fashion, albeit a fairly constant one. As always, only the dress code is binding.
admission
Craftsmen who have acquired a journeyman's certificate in a stone or metalworking craft are accepted. They must be under 30 years of age, male, unmarried and free of debt and they must not have any financial obligations such as alimony payments or the like. Political and religious tolerance are just as much a basic requirement for journeymen who want to become righteous foreigners as the readiness to behave righteously and honestly in a foreign country.
Wandering
In addition to the old ritual of brotherhood, the journeymen belonging to this association are linked by the experience of traditional wandering, which the young journeyman undertakes when he is accepted. After his admission, the so-called "hike", he has to leave his hometown within 24 hours and may not come closer than 50 km away for 3 years and 1 day. During this time, he has the opportunity to travel the world and gain professional and interpersonal experience. The special status of a traveling journeyman, which he demonstrated to the outside world with his clothing during this time, helps him, at least in German-speaking countries, when looking for work and finding accommodation when he is on the move. In addition, he has a network of contact points of the so-called "societies". There the traveler finds contact with comrades and usually also a place to stay.
local people
After the wandering, the righteous journeyman reports locally. Depending on how actively he wants to participate in journeyman life, he visits the journeyman's evenings more or less regularly, keeps in touch with traveling and local comrades and takes part in the maintenance of the old rituals and customs.
swell
Theo Gantner: With grace and permission , accompanying publication by the Museum für Völkerkunde Basel from 1985.