The families then were big. There were two rooms and a chamber for two beds. The children slept under the roof. Sometimes there the snow blew in, which was not all that great. In a bed several children always slept together, and so we were not too frozen.
If we got a piece of nice paper from somewhere, we used it to cover the beams disguised as wallpaper, so that it looked homely. To help it warm up we made a hole over the fire stove.
Glass factory worker, born in 1923
We had chickens, pigeons, ducks, sheep, rabbits, cows and goats. In that way there was always some meat to be had. We grew potatoes, and we had milk and butter from the cow. From the glassworks we brought home soda, because there has been no washing powder. We have also taken ash. The soap was like glue, no trace of foam. It was war time.
Glass factory worker, born in 1923
In my time there were six days of holiday a year. And we had to go out into a part of the forests and make our firewood for the winter. Together with my parents we spent the holidays in woodcutting.
The wood would then had to be brought home from the forest. In the winter went out with sledges or wagons for the wood. Later it was also done with the truck.
Warehouse worker, born 1921
In the Althutte quarter, at half past eleven, a whole group of women with their baskets came down into the works and brought the food to the men.
My mother made this for me and my brother every day. The lunch break was not long. We had long days.
Glass factory worker, born in 1915
The castle in Oberfrauenau was so unique. There was a double passage between the clipped hedges, and below was a circular garden with a hedge, and in the middle was a fountain. If they had turned that on right the fountain was as high as the tower. In the conservatory they grew special things for festivities, and there was a greenhouse too.
When they were building there my grandmother carted sand in a wheelbarrow for one mark a day.
Glass factory worker, born in 1923
Up in Oberfrauenau, in the glassworkers houses, we all had a piece of meadow in front of the house. And a parcel of land for cultivating potatoes, and we lived almost completely from that. Previously there was not a lot of money, and because of that people were used to vegetables and potatoes.
In the larger workers houses of the glassworks they have only had small gardens. But no cattle, just chickens.
Glass factory worker, born in 1915
Ludwigsthal was a real glass works with all the trimmings. A sawmill, a forest as far as the eye can see, the works, the castle with agriculture, and everything belonged together. The farm, which was a four cornered building, had about 60 head of cattle, swine and steeds.
The glassworks director Angerer had a tenancy of the farm, and his wife she served the milk.
There were also the works housing. That’s how it was then: the glassworker’s houses and the castle. And the two forest houses, the church, and the school.
Everything belonged to the works. Anyone who worked there, they got a flat. If you stopped to work in Ludwigsthal, you went into the Regenhütte works, and then you got an apartment there. So that was then.
Glass cutter, born in 1952