Hemp in Konstanz on Lake Constance – History, Cultivation and Trade

The "House zur Kunkel" – Rare Treasures of Medieval Wall Paintings

In an inconspicuous alley in the Niederburg, an old district of Constance near the Münster, we make a discovery. Today, the "House zur Kunkel" is used as a residence and restaurant, but when you enter the room on the 2nd floor, a small treasure chamber opens up to the visitor, with old gnarled floorboards and a world full of images from long-gone times. Since this part of the city was mainly inhabited by clergy in the 14th century, the extensive wall paintings are exceptionally well-preserved. We, who are interested in hemp, are particularly taken by the industriously weaving women depicted, highlighting the special significance of weaving art at that time. The Lake Constance region had been one of the centers of flax and hemp cultivation since the late 12th century, and the city of Constance owed its prosperity to linen weaving and the trade of fabrics. The building owes its name "zur Kunkel" to the so-called "Cycle of Weavers". The paintings depict the spinning wheel referred to as "Kunkel" in southern Germany multiple times, a stick-shaped wood on which the unspun fibers are wound during spinning. In several series of images, presented and described under Constance, The House zur Kunkel (uni-konstanz.de), the viewer learns about the necessary work steps and tools of textile production. In all representations, elegantly dressed weavers handle their various working tools and show how yarn is spun from hemp fibers. A text associated with them allows them to describe their craft, so to speak. For example, one of the women "says": "R[H?]ANF ICH WOL REITUR B[K?]AN" – "I can prepare hemp well". The spelling mistakes likely occurred during the repeated restoration of the images due to a lack of knowledge of Middle High German.

From Hemp to Linen

First, the hemp is broken, allowing access to the fiber bundles in the stems. With the swingle, a flat board sharpened slightly at the edge, the remnants of the woody parts are subsequently knocked out. The fiber remnants are removed with the heckle, which has iron teeth, the so-called "werg" is smoothed out while lying on the thighs and then bundled for the spinning wheel. On the hand spindle, the werg is then spun into yarn, and the thread is finally wound onto a hand reel to prevent it from getting tangled or knotted during winding and unwinding. The floor reel, depicted in another series of images, can also be used to measure the length of the threads. The warp threads are "set," meaning they are wound onto an empty roll and then drawn in the longitudinal direction on the loom. The illustration of a treadle loom, where the warp threads can be alternately raised and lowered via foot pedals, represents a relatively new technical invention around 1310. In the linen industry at that time, women mostly worked, often coming from the countryside to the city with hopes of earning extra income. With the introduction of the new treadle looms, specialized workshops emerged alongside production in homes. Weaving was also traditionally done in women's convents, and noble ladies were encouraged to practice weaving to avoid idleness.

Hanfhandlung David Koch, Am Fischmarkt 5_Image signature: StAKN Z1.wolfH49-4473; Ownership evidence: City Archive Constance

Contemporary Witnesses and Testimonies from the Last Century

If you research the harvest reports and land use statistics from 1880-1940, which are stored in the Constance City Archive, the category "hemp" does appear there, but contains no information. Was there really no hemp cultivation in Constance? Because hemp was indeed traded, as entries in the Constance address books confirm. Several hemp shops are mentioned: from the year 1894, the hemp shop David Koch at the fish market, and in 1928, a hemp shop and hackling mill in Münzgasse, also under the name David Koch, but with different owners. The local hemp could probably not meet the demand. For the year 1928, the hemp and flax import company Baumert & Co. is listed in the Rheintorgasse, and in 1940, the hemp shop Baumert & Co. with hemp import in Hüetlinstraße is recorded in the address books. If you inquire in the rural surroundings of Constance, you will indeed encounter hemp. Heinrich Fuchs from Fuchshof near Dingelsdorf, not far from Constance, is quite sure that hemp was also cultivated on his farm at times in the past. There are no pictures of this, as there was no money for a camera back then. The local farmers surveyed, who are now in their eighties and nineties, unfortunately do not remember, but if you browse through the "Dingelsdorf Chronicles", hemp is mentioned here and there. You could buy everything in the shop on the village square: in addition to food, sugar, and salt, wool and notions, also ropes for livestock and hemp to make ropes from the fibers. There was still a linen weaver in the village in 1822. He was probably the last of his trade, and he likely wove his linen not only from flax but also from hemp fibers. The farmer's wives certainly did. After their work in the field, barn, and home, they sewed and knitted for their own needs and to supplement their income, often from self-cultivated flax or hemp. At that time, every family in the village farmed, also in addition to other trades like fishing, a craft, forest work, or road construction. The farmers owned between 3 and 10 hectares of land and had to feed the livestock and family with what they earned. However, it was often not enough, as money was also needed for the few purchased items like shoes and clothing fabrics.

The main street in Dingelsdorf around 1970: on the right in the picture, the Dingelsdorf "Oils" Image source: Archive of the Dingelsdorf local administration

"What we grew" (What was cultivated)

Rye, wheat, oats, summer and winter barley were grown as grain. Potatoes "het me viel, viel g’hett" (had very much), "un Futterriebe für d’Kieh (and feed beets for the cows), Wiisriebe (white beets), cabbage and kale... Flax for oil and weaving was still available during the war years, and in the Third Reich, the cultivation of hemp and poppy was additionally mandated. As a "national raw material", hemp suddenly regained great interest because its fibers were needed, among other things, for the production of uniforms and as sealant. Thus, the area of hemp cultivation in Germany increased from 3,600 hectares in 1935 to over 20,000 hectares in 1940. In Dingelsdorf, hemp was probably difficult to cultivate – and some "hond widder uffghert" (have stopped again). Oilseeds played an important role in the village in the past, evidenced by "d‘Öle", the old Dingelsdorf oil mill, which was still preserved until 1974. In it, valuable cooking oil was pressed from poppy, nut, and beech seeds, and surely also from hemp and flax seeds. During the war, hemp and poppy were also sent to the oil mill in Markelfingen on the Untersee, between Allensbach and Radolfzell.

And today? "Welcome back" in the district of Constance

For three years now, industrial hemp has been returning to the fields in the district of Constance. In 2021, there were already four farmers cultivating it on over 10 hectares of land again. And the forecast from the agricultural office is encouraging: The trend continues to rise!

Sources:
Dr. Bogen, Steffen and Rucker, Birgit: "The House zur Kunkel – Medieval Wall Paintings in Constance"; Kunstverlag Josef Flick, 2016, 1st edition
Dingelsdorf – From a farming and fishing village into the 21st century; Chronicle Volumes 1 and 2; Publisher: Local Administration Constance-Dingelsdorf
City Archive Constance

Image sources: (c) Shutterstock, City Archive Constance, Archive of the Dingelsdorf local administration