BURG, Germany (dpa) – The moment when he tautens the leather and nails it to the wood is Manfred Karolczak’s favourite – it means the clogs, which he makes by a traditional German method, are nearly ready.
Amazingly, Germany still has a few trained clog makers left. The 62-year-old is one, and he’s keen that his techniques don’t die with him.
Although his family now makes most of their money through their bed and breakfast business, you can still see him practising his craft at his home in the little spa town of Burg in eastern Germany.
The smell of leather and wood hits you as soon as you open the door to Karolczak’s workshop.
There are piles of alder and poplar wood, shoe moulds, old machinery and lengths of leather. There are old telephones on the shelves and an ancient cash register; time seems to have stood still here.
Three generations of the family have lived from making and selling the old-style peasant footwear that keeps the feet clear of mud.
After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and Germany was reunited, demand went down, Karolczak says. Emerging from the hardships of communism, his fellow easterners wanted to wear fancy western shoes.
How clogs are made: a willow sole is shaped, then a leather top is added
German clogmaker Manfred Karolczak sculpts the sole of some clogs with a drawknife in his workshop in Burg, December 7, 2015. PHOTOS: DPA
Nowadays he sells clogs online, and people from around the region still drop in to buy wooden shoes in his small shop.
“A lot of people who see the workshop say ‘Wow, I can’t believe this still exists’,” he says with a grin.
Next to his shop there’s a demonstration workroom where he shows visitors his tools and his methods.
A pair of clogs costs a mere 30 euros (US$33 dollars), a third of the price of a good pair of shoes in Germany, and Karolczak wants to make a sales push soon, saying he believes there could be more demand for the niche product.
Clogs have been around for a long time.
In the 14th century, wooden sandals were being worn under thin leather shoes to protect them and make it easier to walk over stones, explains Josephine Barbe, a textiles expert at the Technical University of Berlin.
For the aristocracy, these overshoes were fashionable luxuries, but they later developed another use as shoe substitutes.
The Dutch are the best-known clog wearers – their klomps are all wood without leather – but as Barbe explains, “Simply made clogs got to be worn as work shoes throughout northern Europe after the 16th century. So for a long time they were regarded as being shoes for poor people.”
Searching around, dpa did find another German clogmaker like Karolczak.
Lorenz Hamann from the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said he also learnt the trade from scratch.
“It’s dying out as a profession,” he says, adding that it’s no longer possible to do an apprenticeship as a clogmaker.
He produces several thousand pairs of clogs very year at his workshop in the town of Preetz, but unlike Karolczak he also makes wooden sandals and ankle boots.
“Demand is increasing,” he says, adding that there’s even a trend for wooden shoes at the moment.
Barbe agrees. “Wooden soles made from light, fast-growing willow wood with insoles and rubber joints are making a comeback,” she says.
But why should people wear them?
“Clogs are practical, they’ve got no laces. You can slip them on quickly, when you want to go out into the garden for example,” says Hamann.
And “you always have warm feet”. Not bad in a cold country.
According to Barbe, clogs and other wooden shoes are sustainable and long-lasting.
They’re also good for your feet, because the wood allows them to “breathe”. And they can be more easily disinfected than leather to get rid of any pong.
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