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Ideas from AbroadGerman Weavers as Agents for Large-scale Cloth Production and a

Continental Lifestyle in 17th Century Sweden

Jönköping – the castle and the town in the late 17th century

Claes Pettersson, Jönköping County Museum, Sweden

To Modernize a Country on the Outskirts of Europe…Know-how and Skilled Craftsmen

German weavers to Jönköping

The Walloons, master blacksmiths to Swedish ironworks

The Swedish Realm at its greatest extent in 1658

In the beginning of the 17th century Sweden was undergoing a rapid process of modernization

• administration• judicial system• monetary system• education• manufacturing• town planning• fortification• armed forces

Know-how and skills had to brought in from abroad…

Guarding the southern border – three city fortresses

An Important Link in the Chain… Town fortress Strategic production – arms & cloth Storage facilities for the Army Local administration

The new ideal town – draft from1617

The preparations needed – a town built on landfill

Dark brown – landfill made by the crown in the first years. Mainly in the area where the royal chartered factories were established later on

Army barrack in the castle, similar to houses built at the arms factory site around 1620

A Helping Hand from the Authorities

Landfill and timber foundations at the arms factory site

During the first years the crown together with local businessmen provides funding and labor for the new town project – building an infrastructure suitable for the factories soon to be established.

VantmakerietThe Royal Chartered Cloth Factory at Tyska maden (the German meadow) in Jönköping 1621 – 1655

Main production - cloth for army and navy

Established 1620 by royal decree

Initial planning & preparations

Skilled German craftsmen recruited 1621

Support from the Crown until 1623

Becomes as important as the arms factory

In production until1655

Excavated 1984-87 / 2006-07

Core area

Phase 2

Vantmakeriet – small tools and threads

Tin thread for embroderiesThimble from Nuremberg

Brass crook

Spun metal thread

Brass pin

German imports used in the workshops

Jeton for counting board

Water powered mills, stamp and hammers along the Dunkehalla river west of town

Sheep farm at Klämmestorp est.1620

Vantmakeriet in the hinterlandFacilities outside theTyska maden area in Jönköping

Facilities for processing of linen

Dams for bleaching

Pump mill

Other large sheep farms at Gudhem, Nydala, Byarum and Mulseryd

Lead seal for textiles from Burtscheidt by Aachen, Germany

Of Better Quality – import of wool and textiles

The cloth factory had to rely on imports for its production of high quality fabrics during all of its existence…

Exclusive tankard with polychrome decoration and gold foil. Made in Saxony

Stone ware beer jug, Westerwald

Dish with floral decoration, Werra Weser type

How to identify an immigrant household?

What kind of items were brought along, from Germany to Sweden?

Few true pottery imports were to be found at the Vantmakeriet site…

Chance Meetings with the Individual

The face of the past

Padlocks of German design

Wedding ring

Glass button with engraved heart flanked by turtledoves

“Personal items” …what can be

interpreted as that?

Dutch claypipe,1620s

Claypipe of Jona-type, 1630s

Living the Good Life... …in Jönköping during the 1620s?

Glasses for red, white and liquor…

Pepper Figs

Luxury among craftsmen – to be able to uphold a continental, urban lifestyle in remote Sweden

A sacrifice – ¼ öre copper coins, minted during the reign of Queen Kristina. Found at regular intervals beneath the wooden sill of a tailors workshop, built around 1640

Well paid in a somewhat primitive local economy…

Large quantities of copper coins have been found by metal detector in both factory areas in Jönköping.

evenly distributed, not just found in houses connected with trade and commerce

often found in secondary use seldom hidden or in hoards …just dropped…

often in mint quality

So – what could minted money buy in a Swedish garrison town of the 1630s?

Genuine Maximilianthaler – minted in 1615

Lucrative Opportunities in a Foreign Land?

A “Balkanfälschungen” an official forgery from the mints of the Holy Roman Empire to be used in a trade war against the Turks!

Silver coin from Central Europe. Plated with a thin surface of gold…

Forged coins show that some people used “get rich quick”-schemes in the 17th century.

But how much of a risk did a counterfeiter really take in a remote Swedish town?

Refugees in a war-torn world?

Pendant – coin, Riga 1593

A small treasure-find from the site Vantmakeriet site – jewelry and coins from Estonia and Latvia, then parts of the Swedish Realm, suffering from a Russian invasion in 1656

Silver buckle

Curonian pendant, for belt, female dress

Swedish silver coins, minted in Reval (Tallinn) in Estonia

Hidden and lost under the floorboards of a storehouse in the German speaking part of town…

Tyska kyrkan – the German church in the prosperous 17th century port of Gothenburg

A Room for the German Congregation

The German annex

In Jönköping a room for the German community was added to the first timber church, built in 1625.

But in the new stone church of the Christine parish, consecrated in 1673, there was no such separate section. The cloth factory had become history…

A German Interlude…

Lingonberries

Blueberries

Vantmakeriet, the Royal Chartered Cloth Factory, existed from 1620 to the mid 1650s – a period of a mere 35 years.

The enterprise failed and production ceased because of a number of reasons, among them:

problems with raw materials (local wool) a reduced inflow of orders from the crown the severe floods of 1650 difficulties in recruiting new craftsmen specialists seeking employment elsewhere

The distinct German enclave in the Tyska maden-district faded away, leaving no traces in the register of property owners from 1696. By then the blocks were populated by craftsmen with mostly Swedish names.

But maybe there’s a small remnant of a Continental lifestyle left in the local food culture of the 18th century, with more use of sweeteners like different species of forest berries…?

Jönköpings läns museum = Jönköping County Museum

For more information about current excavations and research, visit us on Facebook and check our home page at:

http://www.jkpglm.se

This Powerpoint presentation about the German weavers will also be available on www.slideshare.net