Anne Mary of Hesse-Kassel

What people wore

Commoner daily attire and accessories

Ordinary men wore simple tunics, pants often made of wool or linen, and carried belt pouches, while women commonly wore dresses with aprons, sometimes carrying keys or knives on their belts. For warmth or adornment, women added capelets, and unmarried girls were known to wear velvet headbands.

Daily life

Beer was safer than water

Drinking water was often unhygienic and contaminated, so beer was frequently consumed instead because brewing made it safer and provided essential calories.

Work

Daily wages for city laborers

In 16th-century cities like Zwickau and Nuremberg, skilled tradespeople such as carpenters and masons earned between 15 and 26 pfennige per day, while simple daily tasks like weeding paid about 8 pfennige with food provided. Additional benefits sometimes included bathing money, as guilds often mandated regular time off for hygiene.

Music

Wedding musician pay based on social status

City councils regulated the musicians employed for weddings based on social status, with pay for brass and wind players reaching two guilders, while bagpipers and fiddlers received half a guilder.

At the table

Rare Festive Pastries

For ordinary families, sweet pastries fried in fat, known as Nonnenfürzle, were rare festive delicacies served on special occasions like church festivals. They were made from choux pastry and, according to local tradition, were named for the hissing sound they made as steam escaped in the hot fat.

Getting around

Walking as the primary mode of transport

Most ordinary people traveled on foot, often covering 20 to 30 kilometers in a day.

What it cost

Mass bread distribution during 1572 famine

During the 1572 famine in Nuremberg, the city council distributed 10,400 loaves of bread in a single day to support the needy, accounting for about one-third of the population.