Station: [22] Crafts and Trades

This large wooden contraption was originally invented in England in the late 16th century. Thanks to the Huguenots, the apparatus finally made its way to Germany. It's a stocking frame, a highly complex piece of machinery with way over a thousand parts. Of course, the Huguenots didn't carry this heavy machine with them as they fled. But they did have the designs for the invention. A stocking frame can knit the individual sections of a stocking from a single thread – and then you simply sew them together.
Such modern manufacturing processes were completely unheard of among German weavers and textile workers. The Huguenot craft workers were way ahead of their German counterparts. Many worked in the textile industry, making gloves, hats or wigs. Other typical Huguenot trades were silk processing and what's called passementerie – the art of making elaborate braids, buttons, fringes and other trimmings.
The skilled refugees from sophisticated France knew how to make luxury items. They produced soaps and perfumes, wove Gobelin tapestries and created particularly ornate gold and silver work such as jewellery and watches.  
In agriculture, the Huguenots introduced new plants and vegetable varieties. Thanks to them, tobacco growing gained in importance In Brandenburg's Uckermark region and in Baden. 
Despite their excellent training and skills, and although they received subsidies from the state, many large Huguenot businesses were forced to shut down after just a few years. The French refugees didn't really have a sense of what would appeal to German customers, so they weren't producing what the market wanted. 

Foto: © DHG