(Still in Hesse.)
Mention was made of the communal building used for worship, school, and civic meetings. In Trupbach (not in Hesse, but not far from it), where many Germanna descendants have an ancestral home, they built, ca 1740, such a structure in the center of the village. It still stands, and is, today, the home of the local history museum. There was another type of communal building found throughout Germany. This was the bakery. Baking in the home was discouraged. There were two reasons. One is that it was a fire hazard for everyone to be baking in the home. The second reason is that it was a waste of wood which was often scarce. In Trupbach, they have restored a communal bakery to operating condition. We (my wife and I) visited it on Saturday when they bake. We could readily see that another purpose of the bakery was social. It was a meeting place. Use of the bakeries as schools, teacher quarters, or poor houses has been noted. The community owned the bakery and they hired a baker who earned his living by selling the principal output of the bakery, bread.
Because of the hazard of fire, special attention was given to preventing and detecting them. The night watchman, besides being a security guard, was a fire detection method. Generally, late night fires were prohibited and he observed whether a home owner was keeping a fire late at night. In Nassau, compulsory fire brigades were maintained as early as the Seventeenth Century. Sometimes they had a structure for storage purposes.
Villages in the Eighteenth Century grew more compact. As the population grew, the village tended to fill in around a central square. The streets between homes were narrow, with little regard for future needs. [Last May, we had the opportunity of visiting Ostheim, a village still mired in the middle ages. It had no streets as we think of them. Instead, it had walk ways for people and these were sometimes interrupted by stairs.] In the town square, a linden tree was popular, for it warded off witches, storms, lightening, and other evils. Here, also, would be found the communal well, and perhaps the public buildings. But, sometimes, the bakeries would be outside the village as a fire prevention technique. The village met here to discuss common problems and to learn of their communal obligations. The town crier might make public announcements. Wandering players might put on a show here.
Trades that might be found in the village included forges. If the village was where there was a source of water power, then mills or hammers might be found.
Sheep became a mainstay of the Hessian economy in the Eighteenth Century. This created, in turn, many jobs such as spinning the wool into thread which could be sold. This could be a part time job to supplement the other work. Again, the raising of sheep led to conflict between the Landgraves and the peasants.
(04 Feb 03)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.