Dressmaker

The garment tailors , also known as wall tailors , were medieval merchants who dealt with foreign cloths . Their merchandise initially came from Tuscany , the Netherlands and Flanders , and later also from Swabia , Aachen and England .

They sold the goods in bales or in "clippings". The right to cut, i.e. to sell the cloth in sections, was often the cause of a dispute with the shopkeepers , weavers and tailors . The dressmakers organized their own prices and thus came rich early on and connected with the patricians . They soon sat on councils in many German cities and thus gained political influence. In the Middle Ages, the wall tailors were organized in guilds and guilds , and the wall tailor's guild usually also provided council members.

In Hamburg , Dortmund , Münster and Lübeck , wall cutters are guaranteed to be civil members of the council.

The garment tailors based in the old town of Braunschweig founded their own guild , the garment tailors in other parts of the city joined the guild of sheet makers. The Gewandhaus , built in the old town in the 13th and 14th centuries, is a testament to the reputation and wealth of the Braunschweiger Gewandschneider, who were the most distinguished and oldest guild in the city .

literature

• IHK Braunschweig (ed.): The Gewandhaus in Braunschweig. From "Kophus der Wandtsnidere der Altstadt" to the "Braunschweig Chamber of Commerce and Industry" , Braunschweig undated (around 1933)
• Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig. History and stories , (= Braunschweig City Archives and City Library. Small writings; Volume 18), Braunschweig 1988
• E. Kober: The beginnings of the German wool industry , 1908
• Werner Spieß: History of the City of Braunschweig in the Post-Middle Ages , Braunschweig 1966
• M. Stöven: The garment cut in the German cities of the Middle Ages , 1915