Carpenter’s Workshop

In the Carpenter’s Workshop from Fulda, the Open Air Museum demonstrates how the carpenter’s craft has developed over six decades. The workshop is shown exactly as it was following its last reconstruction in 1955. The equipment is complete and fully functional. The Carpenter’s Workshop is open on selected dates when it is supervised by dedicated museum employees or volunteers.
Joinery and carpentry, respectively, are apprenticeship woodworking professions. Joiners make furniture and interior fittings, for example, tables, chairs, benches, cabinets, chests and beds. Sawing, planing, milling, and gluing all are steps on the way to a finished piece of furniture. The sanded surface is finally oiled or finished with shellac polish. Finer pieces of furniture are clad in veneer, while for very special pieces this veneer is artfully decorated with marquetry (inlays). Many pieces are also embellished with woodcarvings. These pieces are made in small workshops and are usually commissioned by the customer. For the construction of houses, carpenters make doors, windows, wooden floors and stairways. They prepare as much as possible in the workshop and then install their products in the building. The wood for all this work is supplied by the sawmill, which processes the trunks felled in the forest and turns them into boards and beams. In the Electorate of Hesse, the previously entirely practical apprenticeship in the various trades was given an additional compulsory theoretical component which was taught at specialist schools as early as the first part of the 19th century. These schools gave rise to today’s vocational schools and colleges.