Spazzacamini

Spazzacamini (Italian language, meaning chimey sweep children; widely used in German-language Switzerland as Kaminfegerkinder) were called child laborers in 19th and early 20th century Switzerland.^[1]

Spazzacamino (singular), end of the 19th century, Museo Sonogno

Spazzacamini (plural) in Milano, end of the 19th century, Museo Sonogno

History and origin

Most of the usually 8 to 12 year old boys were from the canton of Ticino, coveted by their padroni chimney sweepers, because they were small and narrow, and therefore able to climb the narrow chimneys and to clean them. When the usually boys reached the top of the chimneys, they had to shout "Spazzacamini" to prove that they were actually climbed up the dark, stuffy fireplaces. The working conditions were catastrophic. For lunch, the children often had nothing to eat and had to go begging for bread, and they had often to sleep in stables. The boys were hired in the winter, so at the family table at home in the valleys of Ticino was one less mouth to stuff. At that time, there was in Ticino partly bitter poverty and hunger in the winter months. Many children came from the Valle Verzasca, the Cento Valli and also from the Italian Val Vigezzo valleys,^[2] and frequently worked in northern Italy.

In culture

Every autumn in Vigezzo meet chimney sweepers from all over the world; in memory of the chimney sweep child slaves.^[2] The children book Die schwarzen Brüder (the black brothers) was first published in two volumes in 1940/1941. The story bases on facts of Giorgio, a little boy from Sonogno in the Verzasca Valley which has been used as Kaminfegerjunge. Lisa Tetzner had read in ancient chronicles the fate of such small boys from the Verzasca Valley and other valleys of the Ticino. The book is very popular, and among other a film, a television serial, a musical and a radio play base on the novel, as well as a hiking route starting in Sonogno in the Verzasca Valley.^[3]

Literature

Elisabeth Wenger: Als lebender Besen im Kamin: Einer vergessenen Vergangenheit auf der Spur. Books on demand, 2010.^[4]
Lisa Tetzner and Kurt Kläber: Die Schwarzen Brüder. Erlebnisse und Abenteuer eines kleinen Tessiners. First published in 1940/1941, Sauerländer, Aarau/Mannheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-7941-8104-9.
Lisa Tetzner and Hannes Binder (illustrations): Die Schwarzen Brüder – Roman in Bildern. Patmos Verlagshaus, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 978-3-7941-4900-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spazzacamini.

Thomas Gull: Kinderarbeit in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 13 October 2008.

References