GERMANY: Der Waltzing Matilda
December 2002 - 20 min 16 sec
REPORTER: Mark Davis
It's a path that has been followed for nearly 600 years - a most German tradition and probably the roots of a most Australian song. David is a wandergesellen, a travelling worker, walking the back roads of Europe with nothing more than his swag and the clothes on his back. A journey which he and his fellow travellers refer to as being 'on the waltz'.
DAVID: When the waltz finishes, I don't know. When it's finished, I think I go home to Switzerland and I break off my job. Yes, and is coming a wife, children, blah, blah.
David is in the final year of his long journey. Like all wandergesellen, he began the waltz with no money in his pocket and a pledge not to return to his hometown for three years and one day. His journey is part adventure, part apprenticeship in his craft of carpentry.
DAVID (Translation): It's not just carpenters. There are roof-tilers, bricklayers, stonemasons, pavers. You can travel around as part of this guild. You just have to have your journeyman's certificate. You must speak German well, be under 25 years, not married, you can't be a father... And then... Then you can take off.
The wandergesellen associations or guilds date back to the Middle Ages. They were formed as a kind of trade union for travelling workers. The eight buttons on their vest are a declaration that they'll work no more than eight hours a day. Six buttons on the overcoat means a 6-day week. But the traditions aren't just industrial. The wandergesellen celebrate their status as free men - free of possessions, free of restrictions. They never stay in a town or job for more than a few months, so they're not easily pushed around. In the late 19th century, the guilds of travelling workers enjoyed an explosion of popularity and membership and, as they travelled the world, their reputation spread, particularly with the emerging trade union movements. The fame of the wandergesellen was at its peak when a depression hit Australia in the 1890s and workers hit the roads in search of jobs. The similarities between Australian swagmen and the wandergesellen are striking. Reference has been made to the Germanic roots of the song 'Waltzing Matilda', which celebrates the swagman, but perhaps two world wars have diminished how strong that legacy is. Clearly, the swagmen were "on the waltz", a very specific wandergesellen term, and they also embodied the same spirit of independence and freedom. Impoverished perhaps, but not hobos. Workers, but not slaves. A part of history which, in Australia, is now just echoed in a song, but remarkably, is still alive in Germany.
There is a bar in Hamburg which has been an informal meeting place for wandergesellen for 50 years, a first port-of-call to share tips about places to work or about obliging townsfolk who'll provide a free meal or bed if asked. Many wandergesellen travel the world, abiding by their strict dress codes and customs wherever they are, but the Germanic countries are far more tolerant of their peculiarities.
DAVID (Translation): You get your ear pierced. You don't get that done in some salon. A nail is hammered through the ear lobe, either here on the bar counter or against a wooden post. We also use a plank.
REPORTER: What, they put your ear here?
DAVID (Translation): To get to see the world and not just stay in a Swiss village. To be able to get out and learn more of your trade, to gain more knowledge, to sow your wild oats, to enjoy life and not just stay put at home till you're 65, getting up every morning at seven and going to work.
WANDERGESELLEN (Translation): You get to know people. It's not like just taking a train from one town to another. Sometimes you trot along a country road, through Walachia or some place. You come into closer contact with the people.
The wandergesellen were almost obliterated by the communists in East Germany and the fascists in the Second World War. But a handful survived in the '40s and '50s and the waltz has undergone a resurgence in recent years, particularly with travellers from former East Germany.
DAVID (Translation): When there's no work, people start travelling. It's that extreme in Germany now. In the East of Germany, the former GDR, there's hardly any work and the money's bad. So you find a lot of men in our guild and others who come from the former East Germany.
Some girls have started journeying as well. Although most guilds regard them as illegals, they voluntarily abide by the same rules and customs.
WOMAN WANDERGESELLEN: You find much more men doing this tradition, but we are about 50 women doing this. For me, it's interesting to combine travelling and the job. And you have contact to other furniture-makers or carpenters. We don't know where we sleep this evening, but we will find, we will find a place.
But enough of bars and illegal girl gesellens. David has official business to attend to. The waltz is coming to an end for a fellow traveller. When word gets out that one man's journey is about to end, other travellers like David will down tools to join him and walk him home the last 50km. To make the rendezvous south of Hamburg, David can walk or hitch, but no other transport is allowed.
DAVID: No, no much, no room.
But, in Germany at least, lifts are never far away.
DAVID: Yes, it's a problem, yeah. A lot of people are really pleased. They say, "Wow, it's still being done." Sure, you sometimes have a bad experience, but it's rare.
The waltz is about to end for Ludwig Henson. He's seen the world and learned his trade and he's been cold and poor and lonely. But, in four days, the grand adventure will end. The real world beckons.
LUDWIG: On your waltz, you're very free. You can do everything, what you like. You can work and you can decide very fast, "Today, I work and tomorrow I go." Nobody can say, "No, you can't go or you have to leave." Nobody can say what you have to do. You are really free. So I think I will miss this.
David makes the rendezvous and meets up with Ludwig. By night-time, the rest of the troops have arrived.
WANDERGESELLEN SING SONG IN BAR: "And then came the count's young wife dressed in white."
WANDERGESELLEN (explaining meaning of the song): He's a travelling carpenter and while there's the wife of the guy who lives in the castle, and they are also young, and so the carpenter and this wife, they are coming together.
SONG CONTINUES: "That's when the devil sent in the chamber wench to peek through the keyhole."
WANDERGESELLEN: She's telling him, "Well, what the hell have you for a wife?" He is together in the bed with this carpenter.
SONG CONTINUES: "The time has come to sleep with me tonight beside my snow-white body."
WANDERGESELLEN: But then we say after that, "If all the girls might be like this wife, all the carpenters travelling would be the nicest traveller in the world." That means this song.
SONG CONTINUES: "Take this, take this, young travelling journeyman. Take it as your wages due."
WANDERGESELLEN: There are many people on the waltz, maybe 500 in Germany, and every people has his own purpose - to get some experience in handcraft. The next - drinking beer and to have party, yeah. And, yeah, for me, it's...yeah, to see other cultures, yeah, other peoples, yeah.
WANDERGESELLEN: You never have lots of money but you never have too less money. You can do what you want. If you've no money, you can sleep outside. If you have money, you can take a hotel or something else. You can really do what you want.
LUDWIG: It's difficult to arrive home alone, because everything is very strange and lots of things have changed, so it's easier with your new family, to arrive home with your new family. You can talk about everything and I hope it will help. To come back is difficult. To go, it's easy, because you want to see something new, to learn more things, to meet other people and to go back, it's like, "I'm going back and maybe they don't like me any more because I've changed, so it's very difficult to go back.
WANDERGESELLEN: For the people in East Germany, there's no, no jobs, yes, and I think it was like 40 years in a jail for the people, and now it's time to go out and to see some things.
LUDWIG: I'm a little bit happy and a little bit sad because, I mean I've finished my waltz and it's finished for the next years, for the next five or six years. Maybe I will never start again. But I'm happy that I can go back to my home place, where I lived before, and I think I'm more happy than sad. It's OK, because I know I can, I can go away again every time.
REPORTER: But you probably won't. This is probably the last time.
LUDWIG: I probably won't, yeah. I'm not sure. If I can't come along with the people, I should go, because it's not good to have so many argues and threats at home but, if you go again and you can phone or something, it's a little bit better.
Ludwig's father and the local leader of the hunt are on hand to pipe Ludwig home. It's a hero's welcome, the musical highlight being this region's own particular tune, celebrating the waltz and the wandergesellen, a kind of Waltzing Matilda of the Waser Valley. For the Henzer family, today is a party, but for the glum gesellen, it's more like a wake, especially for David, whose three years will also be over in a few months.
DAVID: It's another life. The waltz is finished. It's coming a new life and you go. That's no problem. You go home and you work day - every day in the summer, in the winter, all one place, that's, it's, hard. That's, it's really, really hard.
December 2002 - 20 min 16 sec
REPORTER: Mark Davis
It's a path that has been followed for nearly 600 years - a most German tradition and probably the roots of a most Australian song. David is a wandergesellen, a travelling worker, walking the back roads of Europe with nothing more than his swag and the clothes on his back. A journey which he and his fellow travellers refer to as being 'on the waltz'.
DAVID: When the waltz finishes, I don't know. When it's finished, I think I go home to Switzerland and I break off my job. Yes, and is coming a wife, children, blah, blah.
David is in the final year of his long journey. Like all wandergesellen, he began the waltz with no money in his pocket and a pledge not to return to his hometown for three years and one day. His journey is part adventure, part apprenticeship in his craft of carpentry.
DAVID (Translation): It's not just carpenters. There are roof-tilers, bricklayers, stonemasons, pavers. You can travel around as part of this guild. You just have to have your journeyman's certificate. You must speak German well, be under 25 years, not married, you can't be a father... And then... Then you can take off.
The wandergesellen associations or guilds date back to the Middle Ages. They were formed as a kind of trade union for travelling workers. The eight buttons on their vest are a declaration that they'll work no more than eight hours a day. Six buttons on the overcoat means a 6-day week. But the traditions aren't just industrial. The wandergesellen celebrate their status as free men - free of possessions, free of restrictions. They never stay in a town or job for more than a few months, so they're not easily pushed around. In the late 19th century, the guilds of travelling workers enjoyed an explosion of popularity and membership and, as they travelled the world, their reputation spread, particularly with the emerging trade union movements. The fame of the wandergesellen was at its peak when a depression hit Australia in the 1890s and workers hit the roads in search of jobs. The similarities between Australian swagmen and the wandergesellen are striking. Reference has been made to the Germanic roots of the song 'Waltzing Matilda', which celebrates the swagman, but perhaps two world wars have diminished how strong that legacy is. Clearly, the swagmen were "on the waltz", a very specific wandergesellen term, and they also embodied the same spirit of independence and freedom. Impoverished perhaps, but not hobos. Workers, but not slaves. A part of history which, in Australia, is now just echoed in a song, but remarkably, is still alive in Germany.
There is a bar in Hamburg which has been an informal meeting place for wandergesellen for 50 years, a first port-of-call to share tips about places to work or about obliging townsfolk who'll provide a free meal or bed if asked. Many wandergesellen travel the world, abiding by their strict dress codes and customs wherever they are, but the Germanic countries are far more tolerant of their peculiarities.
DAVID (Translation): You get your ear pierced. You don't get that done in some salon. A nail is hammered through the ear lobe, either here on the bar counter or against a wooden post. We also use a plank.
REPORTER: What, they put your ear here?
DAVID (Translation): To get to see the world and not just stay in a Swiss village. To be able to get out and learn more of your trade, to gain more knowledge, to sow your wild oats, to enjoy life and not just stay put at home till you're 65, getting up every morning at seven and going to work.
WANDERGESELLEN (Translation): You get to know people. It's not like just taking a train from one town to another. Sometimes you trot along a country road, through Walachia or some place. You come into closer contact with the people.
The wandergesellen were almost obliterated by the communists in East Germany and the fascists in the Second World War. But a handful survived in the '40s and '50s and the waltz has undergone a resurgence in recent years, particularly with travellers from former East Germany.
DAVID (Translation): When there's no work, people start travelling. It's that extreme in Germany now. In the East of Germany, the former GDR, there's hardly any work and the money's bad. So you find a lot of men in our guild and others who come from the former East Germany.
Some girls have started journeying as well. Although most guilds regard them as illegals, they voluntarily abide by the same rules and customs.
WOMAN WANDERGESELLEN: You find much more men doing this tradition, but we are about 50 women doing this. For me, it's interesting to combine travelling and the job. And you have contact to other furniture-makers or carpenters. We don't know where we sleep this evening, but we will find, we will find a place.
But enough of bars and illegal girl gesellens. David has official business to attend to. The waltz is coming to an end for a fellow traveller. When word gets out that one man's journey is about to end, other travellers like David will down tools to join him and walk him home the last 50km. To make the rendezvous south of Hamburg, David can walk or hitch, but no other transport is allowed.
DAVID: No, no much, no room.
But, in Germany at least, lifts are never far away.
DAVID: Yes, it's a problem, yeah. A lot of people are really pleased. They say, "Wow, it's still being done." Sure, you sometimes have a bad experience, but it's rare.
The waltz is about to end for Ludwig Henson. He's seen the world and learned his trade and he's been cold and poor and lonely. But, in four days, the grand adventure will end. The real world beckons.
LUDWIG: On your waltz, you're very free. You can do everything, what you like. You can work and you can decide very fast, "Today, I work and tomorrow I go." Nobody can say, "No, you can't go or you have to leave." Nobody can say what you have to do. You are really free. So I think I will miss this.
David makes the rendezvous and meets up with Ludwig. By night-time, the rest of the troops have arrived.
WANDERGESELLEN SING SONG IN BAR: "And then came the count's young wife dressed in white."
WANDERGESELLEN (explaining meaning of the song): He's a travelling carpenter and while there's the wife of the guy who lives in the castle, and they are also young, and so the carpenter and this wife, they are coming together.
SONG CONTINUES: "That's when the devil sent in the chamber wench to peek through the keyhole."
WANDERGESELLEN: She's telling him, "Well, what the hell have you for a wife?" He is together in the bed with this carpenter.
SONG CONTINUES: "The time has come to sleep with me tonight beside my snow-white body."
WANDERGESELLEN: But then we say after that, "If all the girls might be like this wife, all the carpenters travelling would be the nicest traveller in the world." That means this song.
SONG CONTINUES: "Take this, take this, young travelling journeyman. Take it as your wages due."
WANDERGESELLEN: There are many people on the waltz, maybe 500 in Germany, and every people has his own purpose - to get some experience in handcraft. The next - drinking beer and to have party, yeah. And, yeah, for me, it's...yeah, to see other cultures, yeah, other peoples, yeah.
WANDERGESELLEN: You never have lots of money but you never have too less money. You can do what you want. If you've no money, you can sleep outside. If you have money, you can take a hotel or something else. You can really do what you want.
LUDWIG: It's difficult to arrive home alone, because everything is very strange and lots of things have changed, so it's easier with your new family, to arrive home with your new family. You can talk about everything and I hope it will help. To come back is difficult. To go, it's easy, because you want to see something new, to learn more things, to meet other people and to go back, it's like, "I'm going back and maybe they don't like me any more because I've changed, so it's very difficult to go back.
WANDERGESELLEN: For the people in East Germany, there's no, no jobs, yes, and I think it was like 40 years in a jail for the people, and now it's time to go out and to see some things.
LUDWIG: I'm a little bit happy and a little bit sad because, I mean I've finished my waltz and it's finished for the next years, for the next five or six years. Maybe I will never start again. But I'm happy that I can go back to my home place, where I lived before, and I think I'm more happy than sad. It's OK, because I know I can, I can go away again every time.
REPORTER: But you probably won't. This is probably the last time.
LUDWIG: I probably won't, yeah. I'm not sure. If I can't come along with the people, I should go, because it's not good to have so many argues and threats at home but, if you go again and you can phone or something, it's a little bit better.
Ludwig's father and the local leader of the hunt are on hand to pipe Ludwig home. It's a hero's welcome, the musical highlight being this region's own particular tune, celebrating the waltz and the wandergesellen, a kind of Waltzing Matilda of the Waser Valley. For the Henzer family, today is a party, but for the glum gesellen, it's more like a wake, especially for David, whose three years will also be over in a few months.
DAVID: It's another life. The waltz is finished. It's coming a new life and you go. That's no problem. You go home and you work day - every day in the summer, in the winter, all one place, that's, it's, hard. That's, it's really, really hard.