Making Use of the Foreign

'Wanderschaft' in Artisans' Autobiographies

Abstract

The rereading of autobiographical texts of artisans shows, that the 'Wanderschaft', the journeying from place to place - which at first sight appears to be clearly determined by traditions, to be normatively and institutionally defined and protected - is in fact open to various interpretations and ambitions. 'Wanderschaft' does not simply appear as a phase of training and socialisation, but provides some scope for ambitions of distinction and rise in the world, which far surpass the bounds of a particular trade. The article attempts to develop a tendencially desubstantialising perspective in respect to what - beyond collective representations - single craftsmen contribute to the making of a trade. The article thus questions the time honoured perception of the Central-European artisan of early modern times, a perception characterised by collectivism, petrification and particularism and based on historical sources generated by seigneural and governmental administrations.