The Mooskappe is an old, traditional miners head covering. It was intended to protect miners when working underground from the impact of small rockfalls and from hitting their heads against the gallery roof (Firste). The term is German and this type of hat was worn especially in the Harz Mountains of Germany.[1][2]
A typical Harz Mountains Mooskappe
It is known that the Mooskappe was definitely used in the Harz and Barsinghausen mining regions. It appears in steel engravings from about 1850, for example by Wilhelm Ripe, as an important item of safety gear. In 1824 Heinrich Heine visited the Caroline and Dorothea mines at Clausthal, writing about these visits in various works. About the miner's uniforms he says:[3]
These [miners] wore dark, wide, usually steel blue, jackets, usually hanging below their bellies, trousers of similar hue, a hide apron tied behind them and a small, green, felt hat, entirely rimless, like a truncated ball.
(Diese (Bergleute) tragen dunkle, gewöhnlich stahlblaue, weite, bis über den Bauch herabhängende Jacken, Hosen von ähnlicher Farbe, ein hinten aufgebundenes Schurzfell und kleine grüne Filzhüte, ganz randlos wie ein abgekappter Kegel.)
— Heinrich Heine, Die Harzreise (1824)
The Mooskappe was usually made of a hard, green felt, but there were also "crocheted" (gehäkelte) designs. The shape is either clearly cylindrical but it can also be dome-shaped.[4]
^Liessmann, Wilfried (2010), "Kupfer, Eisen und Schwerspat – Die Schätze des Südwestharzes", Historischer Bergbau im Harz, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 259–284, ISBN 978-3-540-31327-4, retrieved 2023-06-27
^François, Étienne (February 1988). "Walter Achilles, Die Lage der hannoverschen Landbevölkerung im späten 18. Jahrhundert, Hildesheim, Verlag August Lax (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen 34, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Niedersachsens in der Neuzeit, vol. 9), 1982, 156 p." Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 43 (1): 226–227. doi:10.1017/s0395264900070943. ISSN 0395-2649.
^Hoffmann, Paul (2001-12-01). "ULRIKE VON LESZCZYNSKI: Am Rand der großen Industrie: Die Bürgermeisterei Jüchen 1845 bis 1914. (Geschichte der Gemeinde Jüchen 5). Horb am Neckar: Geiger-Verlag 1999. 230 S. mit 30 Abb. u. zahlr. Tab". Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein. 204 (jg): 344–346. doi:10.7788/annalen-2001-jg58. ISSN 0341-289X.
^"Die Entscheidung des Abendlandes. By <italic>Rudolf Rocker</italic>. In two volumes. (Hamburg: Verlag Friedrich Oetinger. 1949. Pp. 341; 349–799.)". The American Historical Review. July 1951. doi:10.1086/ahr/56.4.839. ISSN 1937-5239.
The Mooskappe is an old, traditional miners head covering. It was intended to protect miners when working underground from the impact of small rockfalls...
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