Migrant brickwork
The term migrant brick creature describes structures of seasonal migrant work that have been detectable since the beginning of the 17th century. Particularly well-known and often cited as an example of early modern labor migration is the Lippe migratory brick system .
Migrant workers from Lippe in Frisian brickworks
Because of the poor earning opportunities in hand spinning and hand weaving and triggered by the increasing mechanization of this work, young men migrated from the agrarian Lippe region to brickworks in Friesland every season . They worked there over the summer and returned to their homeland in the winter. In winter they often worked again as linen weavers . The Lippe government tried to stop the emigration of workers by decrees in order to maintain the labor for the Lippe agriculture.
It was not until the first half of the 19th century that the Lippe government recognized the benefits of migrant work, namely money for the economic cycle of the backward state of Lippe.
The hikes took place on foot and later by train. During the season the workers lived in kotten , small houses by the brickworks. They were housed together and mostly fed themselves. In small brickworks, 5 to 7 brick workers usually worked together in a group, the so-called plow . One or two plows worked in a brick factory due to production. A plow consisted of the walker, swamp, Einspetter, cart man, former, possibly with a piercer, hag setter with clapper and field fire setter, who often provided the work of the former in smaller brickworks. In order to have enough workers in the brickworks every year, an employment agency, the so-called brick messenger, developed as early as the 17th century. The Museum Ziegelei Lage provides information about this social problem.
Other regions
This trade also existed in other regions with rich clay deposits . The brickworks museums in Glindow and Zehdenick (along the German clay road ) in the state of Brandenburg are a reminder of this time, which only came to an end with the displacement of hand-painted bricks by extrusion in modern brickworks.
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Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 30 ″ N , 8 ° 46 ′ 43 ″ E