Reidemeister
Reidemeister (also: Reitmeister or Reidtmeister , Raitmeister in Siegerland , cycling master in Styria ) is the name for a historical occupation that, in pre-industrial times, included both metalworking manufacturers and ironworkers as well as managers of medium-sized equestrian workshops .
Origin and Distribution
The etymological origin of the term is ambiguous depending on the region. The word "Reide", "Reidt" or "Rait" (common in Siegerland) comes from Middle High German and means something like "prepare", "prepare", "prepare" but also "calculate", "calculate", "account" . In miners' language, the word “raiten” or “raitung” is used for “billing” or “giving an account (of the mine budget)”.
The job title was used in some special regions in which the metal manufacturing or processing small businesses played an economically important role. These included above all the Eifel , Siegerland , Bergisches Land , Märkische Sauerland and Harz , but also Namur in Belgium and the Eisenerzer Alps in Styria in Austria .
Economic and legal structures
The Reidemeister were small entrepreneurs who only ran small ironworks, hammer mills or forges on their own, mainly agricultural land. At the height of their importance, they were a central group for the manufacture and sale of metalworking products. They bought the necessary raw materials such as pig iron (ore), charcoal and coal and then sold the manufactured products. The Reidemeister had their own production facilities, which they either owned alone or managed as tenants or part tenants. In addition, they developed into merchants over the decades and had semi-finished products made by other producers in the form of the publishing system , which the Reidemeister had initially processed into finished goods themselves. The high-quality products, especially from the Sauerland and the Eifel, soon became known beyond the borders.
In order to reduce the economic risk, the early riding masters were also often farmers and obtained a second mainstay through agricultural property and the resulting agricultural products. In economically difficult times, the Reidemeister could fall back on it, whereas they often invested the profits in real estate.
Regional features (selection)
Eifel
With the development of riding works in the 14th century, the profession of riding master came up in the Eifel. Even before the arrival of the brass-processing copper masters in the former glory of Stolberg near Aachen , the riding masters were active on the upper reaches of the Vichtbach in Vicht , Zweifall and Mulartshütte and in Schevenhütte am Wehebach . Like the copper masters, this trade received significant impulses from the Protestant families who were given the imperial ban from Catholic Aachen in the course of the Aachen religious unrest and were expelled from there , including in particular the Hoesch family , which was the leading riding master family in the Vichttal for several centuries.
Usually several riding masters held shares in a riding facility, i. that is, they formed a union . These ownership shares were called “days” because they originally meant the right to use the riding facility on certain days within a cycle of 24 days. This common form of economy brought with it a wide spread of modest prosperity.
Initially, the riding masters supervised and organized the production themselves, but with increasing prosperity they hired smelter for this task and shifted to the commercial and technical administration. They also kept in contact with the sales markets and in particular with the authorities.
The increased charcoal prices from around 1700 forced many riding masters to give up or to merge or to relocate their trade to other regions of the Eifel, especially in the Olef and Urft valleys, with a focus on the towns of Hellenthal , Gemünd and Schleiden. Well-known iron manufacturers of those years were the Axmacher , Cramer, Schoeller , Peuchen, Poensgen and Virmont families . It was only in the course of the 19th century that the iron trade was given up and the profession of riding master died out.
Today preserved riding stables and field names in the Eifel regions testify to the work of the riding masters and their riding stables.
Märkisches Sauerland
The Reidemeister of the pre-industrial mining and metallurgy as well as in the metalworking trades in the county Mark were both merchants and publishers of iron works, which they owned either as owners, sole or part tenants. The Reidemeister in Brandenburg thus had a hinge function between production and trade, whose actual hour of birth can be assumed in the 14th century as a result of the change in sales logistics in the Sauerland in the 14th century. In the Sauerland a privileged blacksmith's guild was created, which consisted of Reidemeisters (merchants) and the blacksmiths. In addition to the focus in Olpe and Brilon , there were various scattered plants and some smaller branches, for example in the Sundern and Schmallenberg area .
There were considerable variations in activity among the Reidemeisters, because there were those like the Harkort family , who, as merchants, controlled a wide-ranging long-distance trade network, and others who were still involved in the manufacturing process by hand. The latter were also divided into "Osemund", "coarse wire" and "wire master" according to their products, with the Osemund-Reidemeister mainly to be found in the Volme Valley. The transitions between the functions described above were fluid, as promotions and transfers were possible. As a result of the increasing competition for new forms of production, the economic differences among the Reidemeisters increased from 1800 onwards.
The combination of merchant and master craftsman can be seen, for example, with the Brandenburg Osemund-Reidemeisters, who traditionally bought their pig iron in Siegerland and processed it into Osemund billets in their hammer mills and forges. They also bought prefabricated semi-finished products, the end products of which were finally completed in their factories and sold on to regional industry or to external customers.
The Brandenburg Reide Masters were organized in guild-like associations. From a legal point of view, the so-called “right of appeal”, which regulated the employment of other workers involved in the production against wages, was of importance. As a rule, this was limited to a certain branch of production and was granted by the municipal magistrate, for example in Altena , and later, particularly in the 18th century, by the corporations of the Prussian government. In some cases, however, the law was also linked to certain production sites. By acquiring a hammer or part of a hammer, one could usually acquire the right of appeal and the owner could be appointed "Principal Reidemeister". Such a regulation was, for example, laid down in the guild order of the Lüdenscheider wireframe masters from 1694. On the other hand, for example, with the iron wire master craftsmen in Altena, Dahle and Evingsen, the right of appeal could be linked to a person as a personal right and thus be hereditary. However, as soon as a Reidemeister started working as a wage worker for another producer, he lost the right to reid.
Other regions
For explanations of the Raitmeisters in Siegerland and the Radmeisters in Styria, see there.
literature
- Michel Scherm: Small and medium-sized companies in entrepreneurial networks - The Reidemeister on the Vollme in the pre- and early industrial metal trade in the county of Mark . Dissertation Regensburg 2007 ( PDF )
- Johannes Bracht: Ridding - economic action and social place of the Brandenburg metal publishers in the 18th century , Ardey Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 978-3-87023-106-4
- KJ Ley: On the meaning of the words Raitmeister, Hauber and Jahn in Siegerland , in: Journal of the Association for Rhenish and Westphalian Folklore , 3rd year 1906 pp. 98-101 ( digitalized )
- Maja Loehr: The bike masters on the Styrian Erzberg until 1625 . Ulrich Moser Verlag, Graz, Vienna 1941 ( PDF )
Web links
- Definition on Stolberg-ABC
- Definition and distribution on GenWiki