Waidstädte
As Waidstädte the five cities which have in the medieval and early modern Thuringia had the right to their markets with woad to act. The woad was a very expensive commodity. Few cities had the privilege of allowing woad traders to trade in woad. The trade was extremely profitable and led to a comparatively high level of prosperity in the woad towns.
Topographical expansion of woad cultivation in Thuringia
The trade and cultivation centers of the woad
The five Thuringian woad towns are located in the Thuringian Basin , which offered optimal conditions for growing woad:
- Erfurt as the leading woad trading city, whose wealth was based to a large extent on the trade in woad
- Arnstadt , 20 kilometers south of Erfurt
- Gotha , 20 kilometers west of Erfurt
- Langensalza , 30 kilometers northwest of Erfurt
- Tennstedt , 30 kilometers north of Erfurt
Characteristic of these cities are the large hunters' yards near the marketplaces, which are among the most impressive town houses of the late Middle Ages and early modern times. The buildings, built in the Gothic or Renaissance style, mostly have stone ground floors with splendid gateways to the rear buildings and upper floors made of half-timbered houses.
The edge zones
Some other cities also had the right to trade in woad. However, since they were only on the edge of the cultivation area, trade there was neither as extensive nor as profitable as in the five woad towns in the Thuringian Basin. These cities were:
- Greußen , 35 kilometers north of Erfurt
- Mühlhausen , 50 kilometers northwest of Erfurt
- Naumburg , 65 kilometers northeast of Erfurt
- Weimar , 20 kilometers east of Erfurt
- Weißensee , 30 kilometers north of Erfurt
The further negotiation of woad in Europe was also heavily monopolized. Some cities have been given stacking rights for this profitable commodity. The most important trade centers for woad in the German Empire were: Nuremberg for the woad trade in Upper Germany, Frankfurt am Main for the Rhenish region, Lübeck for the East and North Sea trade and Görlitz for the woad trade in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Beginnings and development of woad cultivation
Agriculture specialization since the 13th century
We learn about the large-scale woad cultivation in Thuringia for the first time from documents of the Thuringian Landgraves , as early as the 13th century, agriculture in Thuringia began specializing in woad and web plants (e.g. flax ) in some regions of Central Thuringia , which promised higher profit margins. The simultaneous conversion of other areas to textile production - e.g. B. in Silesia and Hesse - secured sales. The agricultural cultivation system, which was still based on three-field farming, had to be adapted, the special and special crops were particularly suitable for alternating with grain cultivation. The lack of income from hat and grazing rights for the landlords, cities and territorial lords had to be compensated, so a whole system of taxes and duties was created around the cultivation of woad and its processing.
Division of labor
Cultivation and processing took place in a division of labor: the 140 verifiable woad millstones in Thuringia's villages document the cultivation sites and the production of the semi-finished products - the fist-sized woad balls . These were only allowed to be processed into woad powder in the cities and formed the basis of the woad manufacturers . The manufacturing process included drying the balls of woad, grinding and grinding, sieving and packing (in barrels). The production volume and quality of the end product were monitored by special city officials.
Hunting
The woad trade was initially carried out by long-distance traders who bought this product along with others on market days and resold it with their own profit, the profit margin was around 20-25 percent. As early as the 15th century, merchants formed woad trading companies in order to achieve even higher profits through their growing market power. Especially in the Jena and Nordhäuser woad trade, a Swellingrobil family had taken the lead and traded on a large scale to Bremen and Görlitz , and from 1489 to Hayn .
The decline of Thuringian woad cultivation
The yield and quality of the woad have declined since the second half of the 16th century, this was caused by the increasing soil infertility, since in the meantime people began to forego crop rotation and continually cultivated woad. Weeds and pests spread in the growing areas. It was not until 1620 that the dye indigo began to displace woad powder in German textile dye works, but woad production continued. The Thirty Years' War had a devastating effect ; the risks, beginning with the two-year cultivation period of the woad plant, the unsafe transport routes in long-distance trade and the months of processing made the woad trade to create. In addition, grain cultivation and trading were now highly profitable.
In Weimar, the woad trade was stopped in 1619, in Greußen in 1621, in Arnstadt in 1627. In 1755, Erfurt had five woad dealers, the Langensalzaer Waidgilde was dissolved in 1811.
Individual evidence
- ^ H. Müllerrod: woad cultivation in Thuringia. Series of articles, summarized in Gothaer Heimatbrief. Gotha 1994, issue 18, pp. 50-55
- ↑ Michael Platen: A medieval forest trade company between Nordhausen and Jena , in: Meyenburg-Museum (editor) Contributions to local history from the city and district of Nordhausen, born 1986, number 10, pp. 24-25
See also
literature
Stephan Selzer: Erfurt and Toulouse: Similarities and differences between two "woad towns" in Europe in the Middle Ages. In: Martin Baumann / Steffen Raßloff (eds.): City of flowers Erfurt. Waid - Gartenbau - iga / egapark ( publications of the association for the history and antiquity of Erfurt . Vol. 8). Erfurt 2011. pp. 17–41. ISBN 978-3-86680-812-6
Web links
- History of woad cultivation in Thuringia (PDF file; 186 kB)
- Waidstadt Erfurt on erfurt-web