Linen weaving

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Loom ( Laichingen Local History Museum )

Linen weaving is the weaving - production of textile fabrics - from the flax fiber , the fiber obtained from flax (flax) , to the fabric linen.

history

Sheaves of pulled flax (Northern France)

The textile industry is one of the oldest branches of industry . As an extremely labor-intensive production , it contributed significantly to the influence of individual regions .

In the Middle Ages , first wild flax, later home-grown flax, was processed and spun in order to use it in winter for personal use or as a further source of income . As early as the 13th century, flax was grown to a significant extent in Central Europe. Linen was from not only in the Middle Ages a highly regarded fabric shirts , clothes and bedding , but also tunics , saddle pads , Hutbezüge and Paniere were manufactured. With the linen weave, a separate weave was also developed. In addition to this canvas in the real sense, there is also Zwillich / Drillich and Hessian / Rupfen (sackcloth) and the wool blend fabric Barchent .

Linen weavers originally used spun flax as well as hemp and other fibers, such as nettle , into fabrics; since around 1500, hemp was mainly used for house cloth , sackcloth and packing canvas , rough items such as canvas and rope goods , and linen as the main textile product. From this time on, linen weaving developed enormously. The first linen weaving guilds can be found in Enns in 1496, for example , which then spread into rural areas until the 16th century.

Flax crushing hut and kiln in the Creglingen-Burgstall linen museum

In contrast to cloth making (wool weaving), which mostly established itself as an urban handicraft , linen weaving was for a long time widespread in rural areas as a home trade and was often operated by farmers and day laborers . From the early modern period, larger farms also had their own crushing and drying house (Upper German Brechlbad ).

The first decline in linen weaving came about with the introduction of cotton and - coming from England in the late 18th century - the development of the textile industry and machine looms. Cotton became the finer fabric, the linen fabric remained as sturdy but uncomfortable stuff, such as work clothes and bed linen . Except in certain industrial centers, linen found its niche in the artisanal linen manufacture from agricultural in-house production. As the textile industry became an import industry, and the cultivation of potatoes was accelerated at that time, the flax fields were converted into fields for food production. The farmers' drying rooms were widely converted into sauna- style bath houses . The common people still wore linen as everyday clothing. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cotton became the cheapest material and almost completely replaced linen.

In the 1970s there was a further decline in the entire textile industry. Increased imports of textiles from low-wage countries made it increasingly difficult for the remaining linen weavers to compete. For technical reasons, many companies are being forced to relocate production abroad.

A resurgence of linen weaving can be seen in the course of the modernization of traditional costumes (New Costumes) at the turn of the last century, which includes linen as a material for body and outerwear, as well as the greening and regionalization of agriculture, as flax cultivation uses little chemicals requires. Thanks to new processes, linen fabric is no longer a scratchy material, but fine, slightly silky fabrics can be produced. Typically it is not completely bleached, but slightly natural in color . In addition to its robustness, the breathability of this material is valued. These high-quality and low-priced fabrics from small-scale production are now marketed as farm linen .

See also

literature

See also the literature of the article flax fiber

  • Ernst Gräbner: Die Weberei Fachbuchverlag GmbH, Leipzig, 1952
  • Alfred Marks: The linen trade and the linen trade in the country above the Enns from the beginnings to the time of Maria Theresa. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association Volume 95, 1950, pp. 169–286 ( Chapters I, II (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, Chapters III, IV (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at); Abstract also linen trade and linen trade in Upper Austria up to the time of Maria Theresa. In: Weaving Museum Haslach, Upper Austria. Catalog, Haslach 1970. pp. 19-36.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lit. Marks, 1950, chap. I, p. 178 (1st PDF, p. 12).
  2. ↑ cf. also Lit. Marks, 1950, chap. III, 2. The types of goods produced, p. 222 ff. (2. PDF, p. 9 ff).
  3. ↑ During this time the term linen weaving encompasses both the production of flax and flax mixed products as well as - due to the technology of the looms - the production of linen fabrics from other fibers.
  4. ↑ Lit. Marks, 1950, chap. I, p. 183 (1st PDF, p. 17).
  5. ↑ cf. Eugenie Goldstern: Contributions to the folklore of the Lammertal with special consideration of Abtenau (Tännengau). In: Zeitschrift für Österreichische Volkskunde 24, 1918, Verlag F. Tempsky, Vienna 1917 (1918), p. 13 ff (whole article p. 1–29).
  6. ↑ Which means that the myth of the “dirty farmer” is no longer valid by this time at the latest: While the urban population huddled in the community at the bath , the better farmers visited their own house bath every week.
  7. ↑ Peasant linen . In: Marion Ohrendorf: Pocket dictionary of fashion terms. Verlag Schlütersche, 2004, ISBN 978-3-89994-016-9 , p. 51 ( limited preview in the Google book search).