Around 94,000 employees in Lower Franconia alone: because of this number alone, the skilled trades in the region call themselves the “economic power next door”. It is undisputed that the mostly small companies characterize the strong middle class in Mainfranken.
But as natural as plumbers, carpenters, bakers and co. are in everyday life, some facts about their trade are surprising. A selection:
1. Crafts can also children’s book
Margit Rosentritt is a master hairdresser with her own salon in Schweinfurt. A job that normally fills up a working day alone. But the foreman of the Main-Rhön hairdressers’ guild feels so connected to the craft that she has also become an author this year. Rosentritt has the booklet “I know what I want! And you?” released.
Rosentritt is targeting children to whom she wants to teach them about the advantages of trades. With a print run of 2000 copies, the work is primarily intended for kindergartens. On the website of the Chamber of Crafts for Lower Franconia You can read the book online or have it read to you.
2. Crafts as an economic factor
The approximately 19,000 craft businesses in Lower Franconia are an economic engine: in 2021 they generated a turnover of 11.3 billion euros. That is, for example, almost twice as much as Bosch Rexroth AG achieved worldwide during this period (6 billion euros). Bosch Rexroth is one of the largest employers in the administrative district.
Another comparison: Lower Franconian crafts employ 94,000 people. This roughly corresponds to the total population of Schweinfurt, Bad Kissingen and Kitzingen.
3. As many instructors as there are residents in a small town
You can be trained in around 130 professions in the trades. It is important that there are employees in the companies who take special care of the apprentices. According to the Chamber of Crafts, around 7,500 such trainers have passed an aptitude test in Lower Franconia over the past ten years. That is as many people as Münnerstadt (District Bad Kissingen) has inhabitants.
The aptitude test is about proving special knowledge in the job and in work pedagogy. According to the chamber, the examinees have thus acquired the basic ability to train junior staff.
4. Lower Franconia’s craft is international
The trades in the region have maintained international friendships – and have been since 1966. At that time, the Chamber of Crafts in Würzburg forged ties with the Chamber in Calvados-Orne in France.
Since 2001 there has been a sealed friendship between Lower Franconia and the Gdansk-Pomeranian Chamber of Crafts in Poland. Since then, young tradespeople have been able to do a one-week internship abroad in one of the three countries. According to the Chamber of Crafts for Lower Franconia, a trinational exchange of bakeries will take place in Würzburg for the first time this year.
5. Crafts with a long history: rare documents
It was February 1927 when the legislators of the Weimar Republic obliged the chambers of crafts in the German Reich to keep a register of all self-employed craftsmen in their area. That was the beginning of the handicraft roll, which is still known today.
It is now managed digitally and lists all self-employed craftsmen and women. In the past, this directory was created by hand with a lot of effort. In this way, documents were created that are part of the economic history of a region.
In the Chamber of Crafts for Lower Franconia in Würzburg there are still old-style craft rolls. The oldest specimens date from the 1930s. Entries in the book “Meisterliste” are even older. The first information about completed master craftsman examinations in Lower Franconia dates back to 1904.
6. Crafts – and lots of education
Craftsmanship is something for the brain: With up to 3500 organized examinations per year in the field of training, further education and master craftsman’s certificate, the Chamber of Crafts for Lower Franconia and its subsidiaries are among the largest educational institutions in the region.
This part of the professional training is also good business for the chamber: it turns over a good eight million euros a year. Because of the Corona crisis, however, there had recently been cuts.
7. Craftsmanship is not just manual work
Handicraft means handicraft because it is handwork. This also applies despite digitization, but times are changing. The Chamber of Crafts for Lower Franconia has launched a project in Aschaffenburg to digitize inter-company training in precision mechanics. The core of the project is to create components with the help of special software. According to the chamber, 3D printing is also used here.
How augmented reality (AR) can be used in the trade is being tested at the training center in Schweinfurt. Among other things, AR glasses are used, which digitally display the additional information desired by the human eye. Both projects are supported by the Federal Ministry of Education.
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