Störarbeit#

Stoerarbeit, rural crafts in which neither the farm owner and his family nor the servants were skilled. Wandering craftsmen (the so-called "Stoerer") worked as masons, saddlers, smiths, cartwrights etc. and made shoes, clothing and textiles in the customers´ homes in exchange for board and daily pay. This practice constituted a violation of the rules regulating crafts (from which the term derived: stoeren = impair). Some craftsmen were dependent on this source of income, as neither the yield from their own land nor their regular workshops provided enough income. Today this form of work is no longer practised.