The journeyman’s Kundschaft

A Kundschaft from Zeitz, about 1800

Museum Schloss Moritzburg Zeitz holds a craftsman’s Kundschaft with a view of the whole town of Zeitz: a copperplate engraving of about 1800 by Gottlob August Liebe (1746–1819). The museum’s sheet is a new impression from the copper plate, which the museum also holds. It describes a Kundschaft as identity paper, reference and letter of recommendation in one, and says town views like this one show the master’s home.

To verify: When this sheet was printed: the museum calls it a new impression from the original plate but does not date the printing

Looking for work, town by town

After his apprenticeship a journeyman travelled from town to town. Arriving, he was given a list of workshops where he could present himself to find work; if none took him on, he got a little money to reach the next town. Leaving, he was handed a Kundschaft, and without one a new place was hard to find. Small travel books replaced these sheets around 1820.

To verify: These details come from a Wikipedia passage without inline citations; check them in Klaus Stopp’s catalogue Die Handwerkskundschaften mit Ortsansichten (1990), which covers certificates from 1731 to 1830; Who issued the certificate: the Zeitz museum says the master, Wikipedia says the guild

Still on the road

The journeyman’s travelling years, the Walz, are still kept by some trades. In today’s journeymen’s brotherhoods they usually last at least three years and a day, and about 800 journeymen were on the road in 2023. They carry a Wanderbuch and ask each town office for a stamp. Wishlore note: we show the Kundschaft as a paper that asked the next door to open.