A bricklayer or mason is a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The term also refers to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry.[1] In British and Australian English, a bricklayer is colloquially known as a "brickie".
The training of a trade in European cultures has been a formal tradition for many centuries. A craftsman typically begins in an apprenticeship, working for and learning from a master craftsman, and after a number of years is released from his master's service to become a journeyman. After a journeyman has proven himself to his trade's guild (most guilds are now known by different names), he may settle down as a master craftsman and work for himself, eventually taking on his own apprentices.
A notable person who laid bricks (as a hobby) was Sir Winston Churchill.
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The modern process can be different. A craftsman still begins as an apprentice, but the apprenticeship is carried out partly through working for a qualified craftsman and partly through an accredited technical college delivering level one, two and three brickwork qualifications to learners (in the UK). These come in a variety of forms; City and Guilds, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced Construction Awards and site-based NVQ Levels one to three. After about two years college, the learner/worker is ready for site as an improver having attained level two, and works under guidance until he or she is well-rounded in the craft. From start to finish it takes at least four years, and even then there is still more to be learned; modern construction methods are always developing, and a typical brickie will be expected to turn his or her hand to allied trades. Fully qualified doesn't mean expert, which is why employment ads often state 'must have ten years experience in the trade' - a longer learning curve than a junior doctor.
The German word for a bricklayer is Maurer. In Germany bricklaying is one of the most traditional trades.
The aspirant bricklayers start their careers as apprentices (Lehrlinge) and learn from a master craftsmen (Meister) the skills necessary for the trade. They also attend a vocational school (Berufsschule) to gain theoretical knowledge.
After three years of training they graduate by successfully completing an exam held by the guild (Innung). The apprentices must show that they are able to construct masonry, know how to protect a house from humidity or water ingress, know about thermal insulation, know about the science of construction material and about occupational health and safety. If the apprentices are successful they are awarded with the journeymans's certificate (Gesellenbrief) and are now allowed to call themselves journeyman (Geselle).
After graduation the journeymen may choose to go on a three years and one day journey known as the "journey years" (Wanderjahre, Walz, Stör, Tippelei). For this purpose he may join an association for journeymen (Schacht). The most important journeymen associations are as follows:
1. The righteous journeymen (Rechtschaffene Fremde)
The members of this association wear traditionally black (aka the blacks) to express their decency (Ehrbarkeit). The association is more than 200 years old. The members have a secret ceremonial which they are not allowed to describe, but people say that its content and language are of great beauty. This association is very near to the Unions and many of its members are members of the unions as well.
2. The free journeymen (Fremder Freiheitsschacht)
This association was founded on Mayday of 1910 by the famous bricklayer Hermann Schäfer. They wear red and are called the reds. Their maxim is "we all are brothers, we all are the same" ("Wir alle seins Brüder, wir alle seins gleich" dialect). They call each other "Dear Brother" (Bruderherz).
3. Association of Roland (Rolandschacht)
They wear blue and are called the blue ones. Their maxim is "loyalty and friendship and brotherhood will unite us brothers of Roland all the time" ("Treue, Freundschaft, Brüderlichkeit, vereint uns Rolandsbrüder alle Zeit" )
After their journey years the craftsmen are allowed to settle down ( to become a local/citizen (Einheimischer)), but they will only be allowed to do so, if they behaved respectably on their journey.
A person who has had many years of experience in their trade will be allowed to become a master. They will have an exam again. In this exam they will show that they are an expert of the trade. They also must show that the can work well with other people and have some teaching skills, because as a master he will be allowed to educate younger bricklayers.
If he did well in the exam he will be rewarded with the master craftmen's diploma (Meisterbrief) by the chamber of crafts.
As a master he will be allowed to start his own construction company.
In several novels and short stories by Italian-American author, John Fante, hod carriers, bricklayers, and stonemasons feature prominently (perhaps most notably in his debut novel "Wait Until Spring, Bandini," "Brotherhood of the Grape," and "The Orgy"--one half of the posthumously released collection "West of Rome"). This is due to the highly autobiographical nature of much of Fante's writing. Fante's father, Nick, was an Italian-born bricklayer descended from—at least in Fante's fictions—a long line of Italian artisan bricklayers and stonemasons. Moreover, the author spent a significant portion of his youth apprenticed to his father, experience that lent him the knowledge to write accurately about various details of the trade: from descriptions of the actual work, the physical toll it took on workers, the color and character of those workers, and the pride and satisfaction of a job well done. Because Fante looked up to his father (despite their numerous quarrels and fallings-out) he thus held the trade in very high regard, at times verging on romanticizing the quite difficult work it took. To him, bricklaying (and hod carrying) was something that ennobled poorer classes; it was a respectable manual labor that required a degree of artfulness, and was a manly occupation.
