from Heinrich Klockenbusch
The "Kiepenkerl" - a folkloristic, touristy figure in a blue linen smock, red scarf, woven basket (Kiepe), stick and pipe, who comes across as cozy and telling tales. - Is this a beautiful image or an illusion that does not do justice to the history of these traveling merchants?
The fact is that for around 5 centuries there was a trader in the villages who carried the goods from his village and the surrounding farming communities to the nearest metropolis. The "Kiepenkerl system" can be found in the area between Bruges in the west, Tallinn in the east, the low mountain ranges in the south and Denmark in the north.
Heessen also had such traders, who carried the goods with their panniers (weighing around 50 kg) and, during harvest time, with two woven round baskets (an additional 25 kg each), mainly to the Prinzipalmarkt in Münster. The goods were all local produce such as linen, sausages, ham, eggs, vegetables, fruit, poultry etc.. On the way back, they brought back goods that were needed in their village, e.g. buttons, iron, oil, ribbons, stockfish, indigo, spices, etc...
They mainly made their way via small and very small roads. This meant that annoying customs duties and taxes to the respective nobility could be avoided. The route from Heessen to Münster (around 38 km) took a merchant around 8 hours. In comparison, a wagon on the larger trade routes took around 1½ days. Road tolls also made goods transported by wagon more expensive. Today, the Kiepenkerle's form of trade would be described as "producer-oriented marketing".
But the Kiepenkerle were more than just traders for their home town. In times without post, radio, TV, telephone and internet, they provided information. Many a marriage was arranged and they reported on births, deaths, fashion trends and other small and large events on the individual farms. Even legal norms, including mobilization, were usually only brought to the villages by these people.
When the "Tödden" - cloth merchants with trading houses in the major cities - sent out "peddlers" to open up the smaller towns for their business, the Prussian state decreed a "peddling ban" for the central and eastern provinces in 1703. The list of measures issued provided for the confiscation of all goods (official bankruptcy). Excluded from this drastic
The "Kiepenkerle", which were valuable to the state, were expressly excluded from this drastic legal norm.
One of the Heessen Kiepenkerle is said to have been called "Jan Dümmelkamp". The Ludgerus-Blatt (IV Jahrg., Nr. 38, page 602-604, v.23.09.1894) describes this person in a poem in Münsterland Low German. Prof. Dr. Hans Taubken attributes this poem to the 18th century. According to this poem, this "Kiepenkerl" from Heessen regularly spent the night in the Minorite monastery after his journey to Münster. As "Jan Dümmelkamp" often returned drunk from his business on the nearby Prinzipalmarkt, the priests played a prank on him, which is recounted in epic detail in the poem.
Today, a bronze statue by the artist Bernhard Kleinhans commemorates the Kiepenkerle of Heessen. It stands in front of the parish hall of the Catholic parish on the former market and court square (Heessener Dorfstr.), which became the first school building in Heessen in 1677.