Glass Making in the Black Forest

The Glass Making Industry

In the middle ages, glass makers settle in the Black Forest as well. Here, the glass masters can find anything they need for their craft: Quartz sand in the riverbeds, water and a lot of wood. Bottles and knob glasses are the main goods manufactured in the Black Forest. The slight green hue of the glass stems from iron that can be found in small amounts in the quartz sand. On foot, hauling baskets on their backs, glass carriers bring the fragile pieces to the nearby villages for selling.

A High Price

As delicate and fragile as the glass products are, the glass making itself is dangerous and hazardous to one’s health. The danger of burning oneself on the furnaces is high, and the bright embers jeopardize the eyes. Fine dust that develops through the grinding of the quartz sand and the soot of the burning charcoal settles in the lungs. The life expectancy of glass makers is short.

How Is Glass Created?

The basic materials for glass are quartz sand, potash and chalk. These materials are melted together at around 1200 degrees Celsius. During the cooling of the melted mass, glass is created. Quartz sand itself only melts at temperatures of around 1700 degrees Celsius. To lower the melting point for the glass making, potash is added to the sand.

The Ash Burners

To produce potash, oak, beech and spruce wood are burned to ashes, mixed with water and boiled up in large pans (pots). This work is done by potash boilers, also called ash burners. Producing potash requires a lot of wood: more than 20 hectares of forest per glass hut. Once the surrounding forest is deforested, the glass huts and ash burners must relocate.

A Life in the Lap of Luxury

Had it all been merely a dream? Peter rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. No, the little pouch with his guilders still lay next to his pillow.

Huzzah! He jumped out of bed and out of the door he went. On the same day, he bought a magnificent glass hut. Soon after he had a horse and wagon, and happily drove his mother around.
The Little Glass Man had also kept his word in all other aspects: Peter gambled with the rafters and the clock crafters at the inn. And whenever he reached into his pockets they were filled with silver and gold, just like the pockets of Fat Ezechiel.
When the musicians would play a song during the evening, Peter would feel a tickle in his feet. Before he even knew what was happening, he would find himself on the dancefloor, where he would make the most brilliant jumps, even better than those of the King of the Dancefloor.
For the first time Peter felt brave enough to ask Lisbeth for a dance. And when they danced, the people cheered for them. Peter was now met with the utmost respect. Of course, people would speculate how Peter had come to that much money but he shared his possessions, gave to the poor and gifted everybody who asked him to. Thus, he was popular everywhere.

He was so welcome at the inn, that Peter neglected his glass hut more and more. His business went ever so badly. The magistrate even threatened to sell his glass hut, but Peter, despite his pile of debt, only thought: “It will not be that bad. As long as Fat Ezechiel can draw on unlimited resources I can do the same.”

But the day on which Fat Ezechiel lost all his belongings gambling came sooner than expected. And when the creditors encircled Peter at the inn – “Pay us!” – he reached into his pockets and found them empty as well. In an instant, the people stopped being friendly. Peter was seized by the collar, spat on, and thrown out the door.

Feel the various materials of the Black Forest