Swabian children

This story is set around 150 years ago. It tells of children sent by their parents to the Swabian region to earn a little money helping out in homes and on farms. The writer Elmar Bereuter wrote a novel about one of these children. 

The boy’s real name is Kaspar Ignaz, but everyone calls him Kaspanaze. He is 9 years old. He lives with his parents, his grandfather and his younger sister on a small farm in the Bregenzerwald.

Their village is in Vorarlberg, Austria’s westernmost state. The family owns two cows and a sow, whose piglets they raise for meat. One day, the sow falls ill and has to be slaughtered. Since they can’t afford another sow, Kaspanaze’s parents decide to send him to Swabia to earn some money. Today, most of Swabia is in Baden-Württemberg, with a smaller part in Bavaria.

Many children at the time were in the same situation as Kaspanaze. They lived in Graubünden, Montafon, Tyrol and a number of other regions in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria. Some even came from South Tyrol. Their families were very poor. They made their living from the produce of their small farms.

There are no jobs in industry or tourism. The farmers' work is hard, and everything has to be done by hand. The mountain slopes are steep, the winters are long and bring heavy snow. Food is often scarce, and people go hungry.

In Swabia, by contrast, the farms are larger. People work with draft animals, the land is flatter and easier to cultivate. Above all, it yields more. Here, too, it is customary for children aged around six and up to help with the work. They herd geese, cattle and cows, muck out the stalls and help with the harvest. But for centuries, farmers in Swabia have hired children from the Alpine regions. They are much cheaper than adult farmhands.

These “Swabian children” set off between late February and mid-March and return in October or November. For several months of work, they receive a small wage and a “double Häs”—one outfit for Sundays and one for everyday wear—and sometimes a pair of leather shoes.

They are given a place to stay and food to eat, so their families back home no longer have to provide for them. Some have a better life away from home, while others are poorly housed, barely get enough to eat and are often severely punished or even abused. Almost all suffer from homesickness.

In mid-March, Kaspanaze and 18 other children set off for the children’s market in Ravensburg. The youngest is six years old, and the oldest are fourteen. The group is led by a man who lost a leg in the war and gets around with a wooden leg and crutches. In the weeks before they set out, a little money is collected in the village church so they can stay in cheap lodgings and get a meal along the way.

The group’s destination is the town of Ravensburg, about 70 kilometres away. The children and their leader walk there, some barefoot despite the cold, others in wooden clogs or shoes patched over and over. They follow the rivers; the paths are often steep and narrow, and in spring they are frequently muddy as the snow melts.

It takes the group five days to reach Ravensburg. They spend the first night in a hay barn, the second at an inn, and the third at a monastery. Then they cross the border, spend the night on a farm, and finally arrive in Ravensburg.

Children from Graubünden are often on the road for a whole week, while those from Tyrol and South Tyrol sometimes travel for several weeks. Some groups have to cross high mountain passes. The cold and poor footwear lead to frostbite. 

The children should really be going to school. But in their homeland, the Swabian children are exempt from school. Although schooling has been compulsory in the Kingdom of Württemberg since 1836, the law does not apply to children from other countries.

Children’s markets are held every year in Ravensburg, Friedrichhafen and Kempten, and sometimes in Wangen, Weingarten, Tettnang and Bad Waldsee. They usually take place around March 19, the feast day of Saint Joseph.

According to a report in an American newspaper, around 300 to 400 children are put up for sale in Ravensburg alone each year. At the market, farmers, traders and other people inspect the children. The group’s leader negotiates a price, and the children leave with their new masters. Some return for several years in a row and are already expected.

However, some have had bad experiences. They try to draw a chalk line on the backs of their former masters. This is meant to warn other children.

A farmer hires Kaspanaze. He discovers too late that the man has a chalk line drawn across his back. The farmer first goes to an inn. Completely drunk that evening, he lets his horse and the frightened child find their way home.

Kaspanaze is given a place to sleep in the hay. He is immediately assigned jobs. He has to help with milking, muck out the barn, watch the cows in the pasture, and do hard work during the hay harvest. His working day starts early in the morning and lasts until late evening; there are no fixed hours. 

He is given very little to eat and is scolded and beaten almost every day by the farmer and his wife. Sometimes, while tending the cows, he gets so cold that he warms his bare feet in fresh, warm cow pats. 

Everyone goes to church on Sunday. There he meets children from the group he came to Swabia with. This is a small comfort in his loneliness.

One day, the farmer repeatedly dunks him underwater in the farm well for some trivial reason. Only the farmhand Vinzenz saves him. That’s when Kaspanaze decides to run away.

After dark, he leaves the farm. He walks through the night for hours, not knowing where he is or where the road leads. Eventually, he lies down under a tree and falls asleep at once. Suddenly, a herd of wild boar comes charging towards him, and Kaspanaze just manages to scramble up a tree.

The next day, he catches sight of Lake Constance in the distance. Starving, he asks for a piece of bread at a farm. The farmer’s wife is kind to him and gives him something to eat. Since they need a farmhand at the farm, Kaspanaze stays, as he doesn’t know where else to go.

Here he is treated much better than by his previous master. He gets a room with a proper bed to sleep in and a wardrobe to keep his belongings in.

On this farm too, the Gründingerhof, he has to work hard from morning till night—harvesting hay, hops and apples, milking cows, taking the milk to the dairy and mucking out the stables. But he gets plenty to eat, and he is no longer beaten or insulted.

Because there is a mouse infestation, he catches mice and cuts off their tails. He gets a small amount of money for each dead mouse. He saves up and buys his first book just before returning home, even though he can’t really read yet.

At the end of October, Kaspanaze and the other children who had gone to Swabia in the spring are collected again by the man who had accompanied them. Each child receives a “double outfit,” and the agreed wages are handed to their companion. The money will help their families back home get through the winter a little more comfortably. Kaspanaze and most of the other “Swabian children” will set off again next spring to work away from home.

Many years later, compulsory schooling is finally introduced in Württemberg for foreign children, too. This means farmers no longer have any reason to recruit children from Switzerland and Austria. But it will take until around 1940 before children are no longer sent to Swabia.