peddler
As peddlers from house to house going to be traders referred. In contrast to sales representatives or commercial travelers who travel on behalf of a company, they offer their own range of goods for their own account. Nowadays, peddlers in Germany are subject to door-to-door sales and need a travel business card .
history
In the past, the term peddler also applied to providers of services, e.g. B. tinkerers and scissors grinders . Specialized peddlers had their own names and individual ethnic groups specialized in certain ranges of goods:
- If a peddler offered entertaining or sensational content, he was a colporteur .
- Haberdashery was the preferred item offered, especially by Jewish peddlers. In Austria the haberdashery dealers were called Bandlkramer .
- The so-called Kiepenkerle were particularly well known in northwest Germany .
- The peddler trade was formerly also called chess trade (first use in 1813). Jews going about this activity, to be called the haggling Jews .
In addition, there were certain products in which the manufacturers worked with the peddlers from the outset or went out as peddlers themselves, such as wire goods and mousetraps from Neroth .
While he was doing his job, the peddler or colporter transported his goods on his own in a wheelbarrow or handcart, in a backpack basket or a thrown cross sack, or he offered them in a vendor's tray . A team of dogs , bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles and, in times of increasing technology, an automobile were considered social advancement .
Peddlers often belonged to ethnic minorities and were Gypsies , Jews, or Yeniche . They were an integral part of the rural social structure in particular, and people were prepared for their welcome, often longed-for arrival. Their range of goods mostly comprised items that were not available in rural areas and that could not be manufactured in-house. One of their most important ancillary functions was that they conveyed news and information from the wider area. The peddler is therefore an important figure in the dramaturgy z. B. Jacquier ( Michel Simon ) in It happened in broad daylight or Jéricho ( Pierre Renoir ) in The Children of Olympus .
On the other hand, peddlers belonging to minorities in particular were viewed with suspicion; they were accused of theft or spying on behalf of thieves; Fraud with inferior or overpriced goods was also rumored again and again, not least because the peddler moved on after the sale and therefore, unlike a local dealer, could not be reached for complaints. In the 20th century, various regulations were enacted that regulated the peddling trade. In addition to the obligation to carry a travel trade card , pedestrian trading in jewelry is only permitted up to a sales price of 40 euros.
The various trades of the flying traders were represented in the 18th and 19th centuries in print series under the term "purchase calls".
At the present time, the importance of the classic peddling trade in Germany is only minor, since a broad supply is now guaranteed by retailers and the mail order business also delivers all kinds of goods to remote areas. The changed life situation, in which in many households all residents are absent during the day (whereas in the past the classic housewife was always to be found and therefore could be considered as a customer) should play a role here.
Similar trades
The usually intrusive form of peddling that occurs today is called the pusher in Germany . Here, traveling columns often sell magazine subscriptions, memberships in an association or goods allegedly manufactured by disabled people on behalf of a company. A widespread method is also the pretender of former imprisonment on the part of the trigger, which leads to more difficult search for regular work. If this deception contributes significantly to the conclusion of the contract, it is a fraud offense .
However, there are also reputable companies that still sell their products exclusively (or at least predominantly) directly to customers through agents (usually called consultants ) and are not represented in retail stores , for example Vorwerk (vacuum cleaner) or AMC (cooking pots). Vorwerk now sells and advises in its own shops. The advantage for the customer is the bypassing of the retail trade (saving on the profit margin) and the demonstration of new products in their own home with the possibility of testing them; Customers perceive the disadvantage that they have to let the representative into their apartment (and feel pressured by his presence) or that they cannot easily get in touch with a contact person if they have problems with the goods they have bought.
The presentation of goods at a party to which a host (who usually receives a product from the company in question as a thank you) invites interested friends and acquaintances to whom the relevant products are then presented by the consultant also belongs to the area of related trades . This is common for dishes (e.g. Tupperware ) or cosmetics (e.g. Avon ).
A term for small outpatient traders with market stalls is Fliegender Händler . These in turn are similar to the drivers of sales vehicles who drive from place to place in rural areas and offer their goods there at fixed times, e.g. B. eggs, meat, baked goods but also other foods. What both have in common is that, unlike peddlers, they usually do not go to the individual houses in a targeted manner. B. build your stand in the center of town or park your vehicle and be visited there by customers.
See also
- Humpback
- Humpback Pharmacist
- beggar
- Homeless man
- Traveling people
- Gypsies
- Lepers
- Antisocial
- Scammers
literature
- Franz Jung : peddler. Socially critical novel , cover and typography by Jan Tschichold , Der Bücherkreis , Berlin 1931
- Kurt Kuntze: The peddling of the statutes (Saxon Ore Mountains) - an economic-statistical study . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898 ( digitized version )
- Albert Vogt (ed.): Unsteady. The curriculum vitae of the Ärbeeribueb, chirisier and crockery dealer Peter Binz , told by himself, Chronos Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 978-3-905311-76-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chess trade . In: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 12 , issue 1/2 (edited by Andreas Deutsch et al.). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-7400-1245-8 ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de ).
- ↑ Korbach Memorial Portal. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Marburg State Archives, file number 180 HEF 1365 and 1369.
- ^ B. Miehe: Gershausen. In: Home calendar of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district . 1986, p. 69.
- ↑ Leaflet travel trade card from the IHK Berlin. P. 21
- ↑ Karen F. Beall: buying calls and street vendors. A bibliography. Hamburg 1975