Work Then and Now

 A weaver from the 14th century

NOW

 

Today many high school students question the wisdom of going to university and locking themselves into decades of debt. They are opting for trades instead. After all, a stopped up toilet needs someone on site to fix it. The job cannot be sent overseas or computerized. Many other jobs are being eliminated by technology, not unlike what happened in the Industrial Revolution.  

 

Some in this new generation saw parents, who followed the traditional corporate role of the 60s, 70s, 80s over work only to be thrown away in the interest of corporate profits at the top. 

 

No matter what the students decide, to work for basic needs has been with us since the cave man went out to hunt mammoths.

 

Methods of working may have changed and will change. 

 

 

THEN

 

The House books of the Nuremberg 12 Brothers Foundation studies the work of Konrad Mendel (14th century) and Matthaus Landauer (16th century). It may not go back as far as mammoth hunting, but it does show similarities throughout time.

 

This documentation in these ancient texts explains and illustrates what work was like and a little about the people who did it.  Many of the jobs that people did still exist today such as

• Zenner, baker 
• Hans Lengenfelder, stone mason 
• Another Hans, wine maker 
• Fritz Richtel,fisherman 
• Reinhold, farmer
• Peter Velner, shoemaker 

 

I can imagine each of these men getting out of bed and starting their work. Because of the illustrations, I can see the tools they used. I suspect Peter Velner is wearing his own product in the art work above.

 

And if we still have trumpet players and carpenters today, we don't have hen carriers.

 

NOW/THEN

 

Some of the jobs have become industrialized, although craftsman may continue with them such as weaving. There are 1430 illustrations that are being digitalized bringing the lives and work of people who lived so long ago into today.

 

Most people work to survive at various levels. Some are lucky enough to find jobs/professions they love. Others do the work to have a bigger house, a third car and a closet full of the latest styles. Work is something which may modernize but the basics have been the same since the mammoth and maybe before.

Note: For more information  www.medievalists.net/2025/08/50-jobs-middle-ages/