Have Hammer, Will Travel
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 03.20.02 | 9:52 PM ET
The ranks of Germany’s wandergesellen—skilled craftsmen who wander around the country in search of work—are growing as a result of high joblessness and a nationwide construction slowdown after the frantic first decade of reunification. “The first year of the walz must be spent in German-speaking territory, which includes Austria, Switzerland and the Alsace-Lorraine region of eastern France,” writes Carol J. Williams in the Los Angeles Times. “But after the indoctrination year, the wanderers are allowed, even encouraged, to range as wide in the world as their earnings can take them.” According to wandergesellen code, the men must remain 50 kilometers away from home for at least three years and a day.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
