Art and economic history
The term „Wesersandstone(s)“: This newly created term includes today's geological provenance of different sandstone occurences from the Lower Cretaceous in the area examined by us. (mainly „Bentheimer“ and „Bückeberger formation“). Secondly, our definition also includes the contemporary perspective on all "gray stones", which had a variety of names in the records of the early modern period (e.g. „guild houses“ and „Bremer Stone“). From the perspective of a Dutch or Bremen merchant for example, who thought mainly in trans-border dimensions, the Weser region marked the eastern edge of a cross-border sandstone market. In addition, the cipher "We(ser)" symbolizes a river, which in reality and metaphorically connects the various stations of sandstone processing from mining to the final use.
Research strategy: At first, the attention is centered around the reconstruction of the historical transaction paths and personal networks of the international sandstone trade. We study the material, financial and idea historical infrastructure of the quarries, the central transfer sites and construction of representative individual objects. Starting from the central mining areas in North-West Germany at Bentheim and Oberkirchen, the historical subproject follows the path of sandstone around the world. The historians examine the spread of prefabricated building elements in the early modern architecture by looking at two combined land, river and sea ways ("West track" and "East track") along the Vechte, IJssel and Weser.
Examination objects: The subproject analyzes the production processes and production contexts of selected secular buildings, which occupy central positions in the international transaction network. Representative from a chronological and architectural point of view, we will examine town halls, merchant exchanges, fortresses and ports, but also former stone storage yards and transfer sites from the 16th to the 19th century. In addition to the architectural language of architectural sites, which is inscribed in prefabrication, the historical interest focuses on issues of dispositive skills in the "pre-modern" stone trading business: How did the individual crafts (mining, shipping, processing, shoring) cooperate within the transport chain? In what forms of organization did the individual companies, from the small family business to the international corporation ("Dutch stone trading companies"), work together in order to operate the stone trade profitably for centuries? Last but not least: To what extent did this system depend on the economic situations that motivated the continuous change in the construction industry and architecture? How important were punctual events such as wars and the change of leadership, medium-term economic cycles in the wider economic life or even the environmental factors of long duration which determined the system "WeSa" during the "Little Ice Age"?