Endangered Craft Traditions

The online collection ENDANGERED CRAFT TRADITIONS consists of 42 newsreel segments from the first half of the 20th century, dedicated to professions that no longer exist or that are disappearing. The importance of traditional crafts and trades, which were once common and indispensable in everyday life, was threatened by fundamental changes of the 19th century. The extensive use of steam, coal, and later electricity led to the industrial revolution, which generated a whole range of new industries and technological innovations. The mechanization and automation of production led to the development of assembly lines, factories, and industrial complexes. Large-scale machine production brought about a decline in demand for handmade goods and a correlated decline of craft production. Many craftsmen replaced traditional home-based production or manufacture with factory work. Industrialization was followed by a wave of urbanization, migration of the working class to growing industrial centers, and modernization of the countryside. By the end of the 19th century, the Czech lands had become the most industrialized part of Austria-Hungary. The railway network sped up the transport of goods and supported the development of international trade. Old crafts could not compare to modern competition, despite being, up to this point, the only source of livelihood for many people and the backbone of the economy. The gap between craft and industrial production continued to widen, and by the end of the 19th century, society was inexorably moving towards a consumer model.

The oldest newsreels of the collection depict two crafts that have since disappeared forever: ice harvesting and rafting. Ice harvesting, the extraction and storage of ice blocks for food preservation, experienced a downfall not only because of the invention and widespread use of electric refrigerators, but also the changing natural conditions that made it more difficult for rivers to freeze. The same fate befell rafting, the transport of timber from the country’s forested areas to Prague. The existence of rafting was threatened primarily by the boom in rail transport and motor vehicles. Its definitive disappearence was ensured by the construction of a dam system on the Vltava River, known as the Vltava Cascade, which made it impossible for rafts to move along the river.

Another craft that rapidly declined by the advent of railways and motor vehicles was wheelwrighting. Its methods, reduced to the manufacture of agricultural carts, are captured in a newsreel from the Central Union of Crafts' apprentice wheelwrighting courses. The nature of urban public transport shifted during the 1920s and onwards due to electricity and the development of automobiling. Horse-drawn freight wagons, cabs, and droshky (drožky), as well as horse-drawn trams and omnibuses, were replaced by electric trams and later cars. The last Prague cab drivers and their horses are recorded in a segment from the Christmas charity event of the Animal Protection Association.

One innovation of the modern era was the discovery of synthetic compounds and materials, especially cheap plastic, which largely replaced traditional raw materials. Their use contributed significantly to the disappearance of professions such as curriers and tanners, tow makers, shinglers, tinkers, passementiers, tinsmiths, braziers, thatchers, but also white coopers and wet coopers. Coopering was one of the oldest crafts overall. The production of lager barrels and oak vats for fermenting and maturing beverages is documented in segments about the work of coopers at the St. Thomas Brewery in Prague and at the Bzenec Castle. Segments on straw and bast processing in Lipová, rabbit hide tanning in Slovakia, and the production of goose feather powder puffs in Příšovice showcase craftsmanship using traditional materials.

Many crafts relying on traditional techniques succumbed to the pressure of industrial production. These were mainly tar burning and axle grease boiling. These fields, which were closely related to the burning of charcoal in kilns, had to yield to the industrial production of grease and lubricants. Charcoal burning was also one of the oldest crafts, as charcoal was an essential material for metalworking, glassmaking, and the production of gunpowder. A temporary revival of charcoal kilns is recorded in a segment from the 1939 newsreel Aktualita. However, similliarly, traditional metalworking, represented in the collection by segments of a historic blacksmith's workshop and a hammer mill in Dobřív near Rokycany, was unable to compete with modern technologies.

Among the trades whose decline was accelerated by the introduction of mass production and the easy availability of goods were cloth-making, shoe-making, stocking knitting, glove-making, and the manufacture of everyday items and toys. Traditional handicraft techniques, craft workshop equipment, and special tools are presented in film recordings dedicated to folk woodcarvers of Hora svaté Kateřiny, pipe makers of Proseč, nativity scene makers of Ústí nad Orlicí and Třebíč, artistic glassmakers of the border region, nailers of Svatá Dobrotivá, carpenters of Hroznová Lhota, and makers of wooden kitchen utensils and agricultural equipment of Moravian Wallachia. The old tradition of cloth-making and weaving is depicted in footage of a weaving workshop in Studenec in the Jilemnice region, the sewing of felt shoes in Wallachia, and the embroidery of ecclesiastical vestments in Brno. The ancient art of pottery is featured in segments about the work of the last potter in Vyškov, potters in Modra, Slovakia, and in footage from ceramic workshops in Domažlice and Klínec near Davle. Footage of violin makers in Luby near Cheb, organ builders in Kutná Hora, bagpipe makers in the Domažlice region, and a look inside a bell-making workshop in Brno showcase the masterful craftsmanship involved in building musical instruments.

Almost simultaneously with their gradual decline, collectives and organizations were established with the goal of preserving and commercializing these traditional crafts. The period of the First Republic saw the activity of the Chambers of Commerce and Trade and Institutes for the Promotion of Trades which sought to support folk crafts and home production, and even organized the sale of products. Small craft workshops and private businesses came to a definitive end after February 1948, when they were incorporated into national enterprises or simply terminated. Today, we understand traditional crafts as an integral part of our national identity and an important link to the past. Many of them have been included in the Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, based on the document Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore issued in 1989 by UNESCO.