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Poor charcoal Peter …

 

Charcoal burning also has a long tradition in the Black Forest. In many respects it behaved with it quite similarly as with the glassblowing. In the Black Forest, not only was quartz for glass production sought early on, but also copper, iron and even silver. For their further processing, great heat was needed, for which the burning of bare wood, as the glassblowers did, was no longer sufficient. For this purpose, there were charcoal burners, who prepared the wood in such a way that it was charred, its energy density was increased, so that it radiated higher temperatures when burned.

 

The charcoal burner built a kiln from a cone-shaped pile of logs, which was then covered with brushwood and sealed with earth and moss. Only one opening remained, through which some embers were pushed into the interior of the charcoal kiln. This ember then had to gradually spread to the wood in the pile and smolder it. It was important that the temperature inside remained constant. The wood was not allowed to burn, but only to smolder in order to become coal.

 

Since charcoal burning was a very dirty trade, charcoal burners usually enjoyed a rather bad reputation, for which, however, they could not help. This circumstance was taken up by the writer Wilhelm Hauff in his fairy tale "The Cold Heart". In this fairy tale, the poor charcoal burner Peter Munk has three wishes from the little glass man, a good forest spirit. He squanders two of them on wealth, which is why the third is initially denied him. Therefore, Peter turns to another, evil spirit, who grants him even more money, but puts a stone instead of a heart as the price. As Peter becomes increasingly stingy and callous, even neglecting his mother and killing his wife in anger, he wants his heart back, but does not get it back from the evil forest spirit. Instead, the good one helps him with some advice. So Peter seeks out the evil spirit again and accuses him that the cold stone heart is not working properly. The evil forest spirit does not want to believe this and gives him back his real heart as a comparison. No sooner has this happened than the good forest spirit grants Peter protection and reunites him with his mother and his revived wife. By the way, there is a Hauff Fairy Tale Museum in Baiersbronn, which is dedicated to this fairy tale and to the author himself.

 

The charcoal burners soon had a similar fate as the glass blowers. Since they needed a lot of wood for their work, they had to clear more and more forests and adapt their charcoal kilns to the location of the available forest. Thus, they too caused the almost complete clear-cutting of the Black Forest towards the end of the nineteenth century.