#historycycle #history #cologne #koeln

Why Cologne

As I’m living here, and as Cologne provides 2000 years of history, this is as good a place as any to look at as an extended retirement project.

Cologne is situated directly on the Rhine and has had harbour infrastructure since Roman times. Also Cologne lies at the point where the Lower Rhine transitions into the Middle Rhine which need quite different vessels to use.

Below Cologne the Aak(e) was the freight ship adapted to the Lower Rhine and for coastal shipping.

The Oberländer (Mainzer Lade) was a flat bottomed ship that could also drive up the shore. These ships traded up the Rhine to Mainz and beyond.

But the city also was at the crossing of various land based trade routes, for example the Via Regia connecting the Atlantic and the Cracow.

What trade

In any village, town or city trading will occur. If the city lies on a trading route, traders will pass. If it lays at a cross road, many traders will pass. If, like Cologne, it lies at the heart of many roads and a major river, where also for navigational reasons two different ship types are used for travel up stream versus down stream, you have opportunities

Also Cologne was an important administrative center. First as the capital of the Roman province of Lower Germany, as a bishops, later archbishops seat and the Center of a church province that included the sees of Cambrai, Lüttich, Minden, Münster, Osnabrück and Utrecht.

The Archbishop of Cologne also, at one time or another, as the Duke of Lothringen, the Chancellor of the HRE for Italy, an Elector of the HRE, the so called Erzstift which included large landholdings including much of Westphalia.

For a long time they were also the undisputed, later disputed, later titular, head of the city itself (again a slight simplification of several hundred years of development.

In any case these factors led to Cologne being one of the largest trading cities north of the Alps.

What is a Sarwoerter

Sar(w) is an old German word relating to or meaning armour. A Woerter, Worter or Woerter is someone who makes, in this case armour.

Specifically the Sarwoerters started out making mail and then, later, also plate armour.

The trade is documented in Cologne from 1396 onwards. In that year various guilds but also brotherhoods of merchants and similar were grouped into 24 Gaffeln, who (1) were who elected the city councillors (much simplification here) and (2) were responsible for the defence of a section of the city walls and (3) were part feasting and part mutual aid societies (much simplification here).

What this tells us, the trade needs to be (much) older, because in a “revolutionary” setting you don’t become the eponym of one of the new Gaffeln who will share power in the city, if you are small and new.

How long do they go back?

Who knows?

The oldest known Schreinsbuch entry (medieval land registry) has an Ezelin Loricator as a witness in 1150. His “colleague” Arnoldus receives half a house as dowry when he marries Agnes, the daughter of Gerardus some time before 1200.

In the late 13th century we find Adam, and (another?) Adam plus wives Gertrude and Reynerus with wives Elisabeth.

This shows at least 2 centuries before the Gaffel formation.

Known Sarwoerter

• Ezelin loricator (n. 1150)
• Arnoldus loricator (12. Jh.)
• Heinrich Gladiator (1200/1239)
• Adam loricator (1273–1283)
• mag. Reynerus (Reynardus) loricator (1291–1311)
• Gerardus Helmslegere (1298)
• Ec(k)bert Armificus (1334)
• Rutg. Sarwortere (1305)
• Reynorus Sarwortere (1311)
• Conr. Sarwortere (1335)
• Bertram Armificus (1343)
• Bertrami sarworter (magister, † v. 1358)
• Thilmannus sarworter (1358, Sohn des Bertrami)
• Heinrich von Aulstorp (1428, Harnischmacher)
• Heinrich van Ailstorp (Harnischmacher)
• Heinrich van Alfter, gen. Kruch (Harnischmacher, 1466)
• Johann van Droilshagen (Lehrling bei Harnischmacher Heinrich van Alfter, 1466)
• Simon van Wipperfürde (Harnischmacher, Kölner Bürger; seine Tochter Giertgin (*ca. 1385))
• Toenis van Mölheim (Harnischmacher, 1489, 1494)
• Der alde Neve (Sarwörter, 1473)
• Yelle (Sarwörter, 1473)
• Meister Mais (deutscher Harnischmacher, aufgenommen 1473)
• Peter van Alfter (Harnischmacher, 1473)
• Clais v. Ense
• Jan Kemper
• Jacob v. Wedich
• Evert v. Wedich
• Goedert Gryn der junge
• Heinrich v. Bercheym
• Johan Koelgijn
• Hans v. Berckervelde (Schwager eines Sarwörters)
• Joh. Wilh. Lohkamp (letzter Bannerherr)
• Thijs / Matthias Sarwoerter (Aachen)
• Johan Zylman (1397)
• Herman aen deym Maltzbuchil (1397)
• Joris Paffehase (1397)
• Henkyn swertveyger (1397)
• Heinrich Swertveger (1397)
• Konrad Swertveger (1397)
• Gierhart Franck (Schwertfeger, 1483)
• Berthold Harnischmacher (16. Jh., Tumultführer)
• Caspar Harnischmacher (16. Jh.)
• Damian der Harnischmacher (16. Jh.)
• Johann von Attendorn (Harnischmacher, Gaffelbote, 16. Jh.)
• Johann von Wermerskirchen (Harnischmacher, 16. Jh.)
• Christ. von Holte (Sarwörter-Amt, 15. Jh.)
• Heinr. von Rollenberg (Sarwörter-Amt, 15. Jh.)
• Glas Reyderade (Sarwörter-Amt)
• Mart. Reve (Sarwörter-Amt, 15. Jh.)
• Walter de Beche / de Besche (1665–1716): Hauptmann der Harnischmacher-Zunft, Ratsherr 1709–1715 für das Sarwörteramt
• Sebastian Honvalle (* 1675): Barbierer bei der Harnischmacher-Zunft
• Johann Josef Eichen (1748–1809): Bannerherr der Sarwörter, Kaufmann, Ratszugehörigkeit 1786–1797
• Benedikt Josef Wolter de Beche (1751–1831): Bannerherr der Sarwörter, Schreinsherr bei St. Columba, Laurenz und Martin, Ratszugehörigkeit 1786–1796

But what about the quest?

The quest was to identify places in or around Cologne, having to do with a traiding good, go there by cycle and take photos.

Places got identified, but, due to progress and of course the second world war, there are no historic buildings left to photograph. Even the part of the city walls that the Sarwoerter were responsible for, no longer stands.

I’ll do the trips anyway while I ponder a new research topic and collect armour collection museums to visit.

The start

www.zahr.koeln/2025/11/0…

So, how is my “research” going?

The answer is “perhaps” - new sources are going into my stash (Obsidian), information piles on, BUT, the goal remains elusive.

The goal remains, spent my retirement time cycling with my camera to places where trading goods of medieval Cologne had been produced, traded or used.

After the “success” of looking at Rhenish Stoneware I thought that medieaval harnesses might be a good next topic.

Oh my.

Getting the internet to even acknowledge an armour making industry in medieval Cologne was tricky. Mainly because the internet focuses on the flashy princely armour made in places like Augsburg and Nürnberg and ignores the workman like stuff, provided to troops in the 30 and 80 year wars.

Also the scholarly reception of armour and of specific guilds and trades seems to be sketchy. Here I’m open (desperate) for correction.

What we know:

• There is a guild of armour makers (Sarwörter)
• They are the naming guild of the Sarwörter Gaffel, one of 22, which are important parts of the constitutional reforms of 1396 in Cologne. A Gaffel sent elected representatives to the City Council, was responsible for the defence of a section of the city wall, …
• Cologne traded armour
  • in the City
  • in the Rhine and Maas Region
  • south, down the Rhine into France, Switzerland, …
  • north, up the Rhine into France, Netherlands, England, Skaninavia and the Baltics
  • etc.

But all that is not really cyclable or photographable

Thankfully @bookandswordblog@scholar.social helped with some sources, of which

• Pierre Terjanian, “The Armourers of Cologne: Organization and Export Markets of a Foremost European Armour-making Center (1391-1660),”
• Hermann Kellenbenz und Klara von Eyll eds., Zwei Jahrtausende Kölner Wirtschaft, Band I (Greven Verlag: Köln, 1975)

proved especially helpful.

The “Zwei Jahrtausende …” confirmed what I already knew, but also provided a few hundred suources for my overall “trading goods” search, but also for the harnesses. In the meantime I found a physical copy online for 7 € including shipping, so I’ll never be without it again, even when I get my loaner back to the library.

“The armourers …” went into details and also provided more sources, many of which were downloadable which is kind of ideal for Obsidian ;-)

I’m now more confident, that I can find places to cycle to and photograph.

So, thanks to @bookandswordblog@scholar.social and @mrundkvist@archaeo.social who made the connection

Well, my research is going poorly. What research I hear you ask? Well, short version I want to cycle to the production sites of medieval Colognes trade goods…

www.zahr.koeln/2025/11/0…

The first trade goods were Rhenish Stoneware goods. And it went quite well, apart from a few museums being closed for renovations.

Cool, I put the missing museums on a list and contemplated my next coup.

I chose harnesses. Why, I hear you ask!

Easy, in my collection of digitised books, and there’ll be a post about that later, the making and the makers of harnesses are well attested.

Turning this into actually visitabel locations remains elusive.

It turns out, I was lucky with stoneware. In the mid 19th century stoneware was first discovered by collectors and the systematised by scholars. And the books have been digitised and are easily accessible.

#history #geschichte #historycycle

Today visit was a little frustrating.

Nice exhibits, appropriately labelled, starting with Roman period earthenware and continuing to contemporary and technical ceramics.

How clay is dug, how a potters wheel is used, how stoneware is burnt, including a very nice replica Kannenofen.

Of course Bartmänner are also on display.

Some of the connections to Siegburg, Raeren, Frechen, Cologne are mentioned, but, of the complex trade that carried the finished wares all over the world, no mention.

Of how the decorations on the stoneware aimed at a growing affluent group of lesser nobility, clergy and trades and let the potters compete with cheaper earthenware and more expensive pewter, no word.

There is a whole wall of stoneware bottles. There is a mention, that they were produced to order for Portuguese wine, English gin, sparkling water… But again, no mention of the trade routes.

The website is better, but has no links to sources. Still, if you are close, a fun morning or afternoon.

#historycycle #RhenishStoneware #photography #fotografie @photography@fedigroups.social

www.keramikmuseum.de/home-engl…

Rhenish Stoneware

You thought I was done, but you’d be wrong. I ended the “research” but there’s still, well, stuff to do.

For one, I did not yet go to the Westerwald. This is the “other” continuing stoneware pottery centre.

The Westerwald is where potters from Siegburg and Raeren went at the end of the 16th century. Siegburg was running out of wood and losing customers to the newer Rennaisance designs of Frechen stoneware.

Raeren ended up in the Spanish Netherlands which drove some of the protestant potters to the Westerwald.

Both Raeren and Siegburg were heavily impacted by the 30year war.

So we ended up with 2 surviving centres.

Frechen, which converted over time to the production of stoneware tiles and water/refuse pipes (until the early 2000).

The Westerwald (Höhr-Grenzhausen) which took up mass production and kept it up also until the early 2000).

The trip to the Westerwald is planned for May, including the Keramikmuseum.

I’ve also compiled a list of photographs I want to take in Cologne and Siegburg. There’s also another three museums I haven’t seen yet (two are closed for renovations atm)

#history #archaeology #rhineland #stoneware #steinzeug #retirement

A series of posts on Rhenish Stoneware
#history #archaeology #rhineland #stoneware #steinzeug #retirement

When I retired I decided on a “project” to keep busy and learn and see interesting things. As I live in Cologne, an important medieval trading centre, I had the idea to follow some of the trade goods, ideally by bicycle and taking photos on the way.

The first trading good I followed was stoneware.

• Stoneware was produced close(ish) to where I live
• Several good museums
• And it was nice looking, easy to photograph

Ok, done

In November 2025 I jumped on my bike and visited Frechen to visit the Keramion and see what there was still to see of the stoneware pottery history.

There was a lot, industrial stoneware eg sewage pipes were produced there until quite recently. Of course the medieval stuff was more difficult.

Anyway, this is, what the most “famous” product of Rhenish Stoneware looks like, the Bartmann Krug.

What the visit to the Keramion (a museum for ceramics in Frechen) started to show, is that stoneware is easy to photograph individually, but slightly difficult to capture what makes it interesting besides being pretty.

First question, what is it, and what makes it special?

Stoneware pottery is heated to a much higher temperature and for longer than other types of pottery.

Normal pottery is baked between 600 C to about 1100 C. If you want it water tight, you need to glaze it.

Stoneware is baked between 1200 C and 1300 C. The result is water tight and acid proof as the clay is sintered at these temperatures. It is also more difficult to shatter. These properties explain why high quality sewage pipes are still made from stoneware.

But apart from the improved properties stoneware was also more expensive and more difficult to produce.

To produce stoneware you needed: high quality clay, wood, salt (for the glaze) and customers who were willing to pay more than for simple, everyday, pottery.

You also needed fairly tolerant neighbors, as the salt glazing produced chloric acid, which can’t have been a lot of fun.

In summary:

• high quality clay
• good supply of firewood
• good supply of (cheap) salt
• access to customers who were able and willing to pay more

Starting with the customers, Cologne had been a major trade centre from Roman times and was well connected to markets via the Rhine, but also overland routes like the Via Belgica, the Via Regia, the Hellweg etc.

Trading pottery was also a thing since Roman times and Terra Sigillata wares were produced and traded.

This was a good thing for Cologne potters, but also for potters with access to the Cologne market.

This map shows the main pottery centers.

Stoneware is thought to have originated in Siegburg. Siegburg itself was dominated by Siegburg Abbey, which had been founded by Cologne Archbishop Anno II in 1046.

Siegburg pottery was traded locally, but was also sold via Cologne. The Sieg river was navigable in the Middle Ages and led to the Rhine just a bit south of Cologne.

There is a nice museum in Siegburg, which has a quite nice exhibition on stoneware.

My two museum visits showed that a bit more context would be good. Just visiting the pottery towns and their museums to take pictures of very similar looking (to the lay person) would be quite boring.

I started collecting books and academic papers on stoneware, pottery and everything that looked remotely connected.

For that I had to reactivate Obsidian, which I had used professionally before, to keep the stuff /semy/ organized.

Sidequests:

• Obsidian
• The Black Death and population expansion
• Increasing affluence and more discerning buyers
• Printing, woodcuts and the commodisation of art
• Continuity between the Rhineland and the Maasgouw
  • Germania Inferior
  • Germania Secunda
  • Frankish Settlement (Salian and Ripurarian Franks)
  • Regnum Lotharii (or Lotharingia)
  • Eclesiastical province Cologne
    • Cologne
    • Cambrai
    • Lüttich (Maastricht, Tongeren)
    • Utrecht
    • and bits on the right side of the Rhine
  • HRM
• Kiln types and construction
• …

As I had somehow managed to miss the site, I went back to Frechen and looked at some kilns.

This brought me to a visit to Raeren (spring of 2026). With the car, because that exceeds my abilities (80 km one way). And because I passed it, I also visited Langerwehe.

First Raeren is pronounced with a long a (Raaren). Second, it is a German speaking bit of Belgium. Nothing to do with world wars though, it was part of the Spanish Netherlands.

Anyway, Raeren. There is a very good museum with an also very good website.

The museum is in the castle.

And here we find also some of the tools of the stoneware trade, namely molds

And the stoneware that could be made with molds.

My subsequent visit to Langerwehe was a bust. The Töpfereimuseum is closed for renovation (rebuilding?) and the interim exhibition was not yet ready.

I did have a brief talk with the resident potter (quite a nice shop actually). And he told me that while Raeren made stoneware for export, Langerwehe served local markets mainly.

So back on the list it goes

At the end of the Gothic period and the beginning of the Renaissance the cities on the Rhine and the Meuse held an ever larger group of people with a bit of money and a need to represent. A similar need was had by the lower nobility.

They wanted better tableware than their poor “cousins”, but pewter was out of the question. In parallel, more sophisticated (and longer lasting) stoneware drinking vessels could be seen in the taverns.

The stoneware followed the wine trade and the beer trade of the Hanse all the way to Scandinavia, Iceland, the Baltics, Russia, England, and of course what are today the Netherlands and Belgium.

From the Netherlands and England stoneware than crossed oceans.

There is a really fascinating project, Bartmann goes global that follows the stoneware to the Americas, Africa, Asia, South East Asia, even New Zealand and Australia.

More possible side quests:

• Kölner Malerschule
• Flemish Painting

These two styles influenced each other and Cologne painters worked in Flanders and Flemish painters in Cologne.

This could be linked to the printing trade including woodcuts, see also the Global spread of the printing press

I now reigning myself in. I don’t want to become an expert. I’m more of a dilettante in the 18th century meaning, ideally a broadband dilettante

What next:

• Revisit Langerwehe
• Museum Hetjens in Düsseldorf
• Visit the Westerwald
• Explore a bit (but only a bit) how masters and journeymen moved between potteries at different locations and how the craft spread
• Have a quick peek at demographics and affluence, what were the typical buyers of stoneware
• Glance at the numbers, apparently there were millions of stoneware jugs made

It’s going to be historical, archaeological, (mostly) cyclable und fun

We are going on a weeks vacation on the other side of the Rhine, which always entails a short moment of hesitation, inhibition, but also a sense of adventure.

The centre of our exploration is going to be Merseburg. While the city itself is an ottonian foundation with some medieval bits left over, we are after older, much older, remains. And Merseburg is smack in the middle of it.

• Firstly the Nebra Sky Disk (Himmelsscheibe)
• The Kreisgrabenanlage von Pömmelte, which strangely enough has no English wikipedia page, anyway, think Stonehenge, but made from wood
• Goseck Circle, again, think wooden Stonehenge
• A couple of dolmen burials, most specifically DOLMENGÖTTIN LANGENEICHSTÄDT, again, German only
• And there is a gaggle of interesting museums (closed on Mondays) in the area also.

Many of these attractions are within cycling (ebike) distance of our hotel, and if I squint at the weather forecast, the weather might be holding up.

There is also a website for the whole region called Sky Paths which gives an overview of the attractions.

#history #archaeology #vacation #cycling

On the way back from Raeren I stopped at Töpfereimuseum Langerwehe which is closed for renovations. Have to come back in a year or three.

#HistoryCycle #history #photography #fotografie #steingut #steinzeugkeramik #stoneware #steengoed

Yesterday I drove to #Raeren (pronounced Raaren) to look at some (more) stoneware pottery. Specifically I went here: Töpfereimuseum Raeren

If you’re ever in the area (think Aachen) than it’s WELL worth a visit.

The museum is in a castle.

Inside a nice collection of Rhenish stoneware and on stoneware production and trade. Raeren traded via Colognes Alter Markt but also served some markets themselves. The relatively close Langerwehe produced stoneware mostly for “local” consumption, Raeren produced mostly for long distance (Hanse) trade.

While picking up some of the popular forms of Rhenish stoneware, eg Bartmann Krüge, they also developed distinctive forms.

And here one of the forms used to emboss the jugs (which were produced by the tens of thousands.

If you were a good (large) customer you got your coat of arms on the jugs, which were also used for religious (pro catholic/protestant) or political messaging. Early propaganda/advertising

#HistoryCycle #history #photography #fotografie #steingut #steinzeugkeramik #stoneware #steengoed

Tuesday, some history

We visited the LVR Landesmuseum Bonn as they have a smallish collection of Rhenish stoneware

They are also part of the Bartmann goes global project, which I’m following somewhat precariously.

Anyhow, this is what they have to say about stoneware

Paraphrasing slightly:

Rhenish stoneware, a variety of clay containers made over 400 years ago, is recognized by its shapes and images. Cups and jugs were especially popular. Rhenish stoneware was sold worldwide, making it a global phenomenon.

Potteries in Cologne, Frechen, Raeren, and Siegburg produced Rhenish stoneware. Soft clay was pressed into molds to create various images, from simple designs like flowers and coats-of-arms to scenes from the Bible or other stories. Finally, the containers were fired in kilns.

Rhenish stoneware is exhibited in museums because it was practical and beautiful. It reflects the people’s desire for both practicality and aesthetics over 400 years ago. Many objects were decorated with pictures, a common practice during that period, even among the less affluent.

I quite liked the stoneware exhibited and also the rest of the museum, well worth a visit if you are in Bonn.

Next trip to Raeren, originally I wanted to go to Brühl first, but the museum is only open on Sundays, which does not work for the next few weeks. So, Töpfereimuseum Raeren