Sandbauern-Weg - Kulturhistorische Wanderung

Hike in the footsteps of the sand builders

The history of the sand builders

Stone carving has been known in Stromberg since the 1st century AD. Sternenfels was devastated by the Thirty Years' War and stone carving came to a standstill. It was not until 1700 that stone carving flourished again and with it the grinding of residual stones into sweeping sand developed. The increased need for cleanliness led to the construction of numerous sand mills from 1740 onwards. In the middle of the 19th century, there were around 35 sand mills. During this time, 3 million liters of sweeping sand were delivered to Stuttgart alone every year.Despite this, the sand farmers were never prosperous. And as the trade gradually lost its importance due to increasingly changing household materials (porcelain instead of clay and wooden crockery, hardwood parquet and linoleum instead of softwood floors), the sand farmers were destitute. The final blow was dealt by the shortage of materials and the development of the chemical plaster industry. The last sand mill closed in 1935.

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