Reisetischlerei Boetticher
Traveling German Craftsman and Cabinetmaker
Travel - Work - Learn
In Germany there is a centuries old tradition amongst young craftsmen called the Walz: after their apprenticeship, they set off on journey from shop to shop and site to site. This way, companies profit from an agile job market, while the young craftsmen profit from the broad experiences of many decades from different masters, trades and regions, thereby learning more, than they ever could, working as an employee in a single Company. ​
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I decided agaings the traditionall Walz (as it is still practiced by multiple gruoups of craftsmen in Germany). While strongly convinced of the basic Idea and its benefits, I did not want to bow to many of its rather strickt rules and regulations. That is why I am interpreting this concept in a more liberal and modern approach: with my own van and contemporary tools and technologies, on my own terms. And so I can simply go, where projects, colleges or pay seem most attractive.
Die Walz
The origins of the Walz are to be found in the middle ages: Once a young apprentience finished his education, one was worried, that he would directly arise as a competitor to his former master. Therfore he was "fremd geschrieben". He now had to leave his hometown oder -village and was not allowed to return for three years, within a circumference of 30 Miles. This ist the origin of the "Walz" the traditional journey, which often led the young crafters over thousand of miles through foreign lands. For a long time, this journey was even considered mendatory, for a craftsman to earny the Meister-Titel, necessary to settle in an own shop and instruct his own pupils.
This compulsion by now is history, but still some hundred "Gesellen"of all traditional crafts set off for their Walz, bound by many ancient rules, some well known, others still a secret for outsiders: One is only allowed to take with him, what fits in a cloth-bundle. Unthinkable to take a phone. They allways weare - on all occaions - their crafts specific, traditional clothing and they are not allowed to pay for travel or accomodation. And until this day, the Walz lasts for three years and one day, in which no foot is to be set upon the home soil, within a boundary of 30 miles.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-1210-001 / CC-BY-SA 3.0