Spuren der Arbeit

On January 15, 1801, Friedrich Hölderlin moves from Constance to Hauptwil, to take up a position as a tutor in a family of factory owners. At the time, Hauptwil was a single textile factory, a model proto-industrial village.

Diessenhofen is 50 kilometers away. Since 2013, has been home to one of the world's most important server centers for international payment transactions. What connects the Hauptwil of yesteryear with the Diessenhofen of today?

Stefan Keller's large-scale historical reportage shows 200 years of labor history in the canton of Thurgau on Lake Constance as an example, a development that has happened in a similar way in many places. The connections of this world history only really become visible when we look at the individual events: we learn about embroiderers and embroiderers, about iron foundries, farmhands and maids, about child labor, famine and the happiness of textile merchants at the other end of the world, about young Italian women who go on wildcat strikes and are hosed down by the fire department. Success stories, setbacks, economic crises, revolutionary upheavals, social upheavals - a wide panorama, consistently told from the perspective of the people and their biographies.