As he takes stacks of photos out of the box, Daniel Poguntke excitedly dives into stories and memories brought on by the snapshots of his time on the road as a journeyman – a period he is happy to recall. He remembers 13th August 2001 well, when he and three other carpentry journeymen said goodbye and set off into the world under the guidance of the ‘Fremder Freiheitsschacht’, the society which officiates the journeyman’s travels. He remembers his various stops around Germany, as well as his time in the USA, Canada, the Bahamas, Australia and New Zealand. His ‘wanderbuch’ or travel log, which he guards like a treasure, is full of handwritten notes and stamps from Thüringen, Switzerland, New York, Sydney and Wellington. Poguntke was on the road for four years, never entering the ‘no-go zone’ – the 50 km radius around his home town.
On the road
A glimpse behind the scenes on the exciting travels of a young carpenter
An adventure on the road – then and now
Journeymen have been taking to the road since the Middle Ages: Stonemasons and bricklayers, joiners, furniture makers and above all, carpenters. Taking to the road was even compulsory at the beginning, and it was only once the journeyman period and the ‘grit years’ had ended that a craftsman was able to settle down and ply his trade in one place. But even after it stopped being compulsory, the tradition has continued. Men and women take to the road even today. They still follow written and unwritten rules which have hardly changed over the centuries. And even in modern times they wear the traditional uniform and have to limit the belongings they take with them to whatever they can wrap in a cloth called a ‘Charlottenburger’ – to create a ‘bindle stick’ of sorts.
The Festool magazine offers him an insight into where his road may lead next, and the equipment a carpenter might need
