Servants' market
The servants ' market ( Dingmarkt , in Luxembourg Kënnerchesmaart ) was a form of job placement for servants ( servants and maids ) until the 1870s .
The servants' markets traditionally took place in December , because the working agreements traditionally expired on Candlemas (February 2nd).
Until the beginning of the 1870s there were such markets in Bitburg , Wittlich , Wetteldorf near Schönecken , in Neuerburg , Cochem and Münstermaifeld .
The servants then stood in the open air on market day and offered their services. There were, among other things, master servants, lodgers, master maids, sub-maids, herding boys, kitchen maids, first maids, grooms, and cow maids.
Payment was already fixed then, as is the case today with collective agreements . It got z. B. the first maid 60 thalers, 75 thalers and two pairs of shoes from the master servant.
The contract was concluded orally and sealed with a handshake .
In the literature
In his play, Bertolt Brecht lets Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti both go to a servants' market in order to hire new workers.
In the first act of the opera Martha by Friedrich von Flotow , too, there is a servants' market.
literature
- Willi Steffens: Servants' markets in the Eifel , in: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Düren 1969, Eifelverein in cooperation with the district administration Düren, Düren 1969