Shoemaker's workshop from Cologne circa 1880

Industrialization meant the start of hard times for skilled tradesmen. Many small and medium-sized businesses struggled to survive against industrial competition. Mechanical mass-production challenged the very basis of their livelihood. Numerous skilled trades, like coopers, coach-builders and wheelwrights, died out in the course of time. Others adapted their trades to the changing situation and specialized in products which industry was unable to manufacture. For shoemakers in particular machines constituted a serious threat. From the middle of the century the number of independent tradesmen fell steadily. However, in the Rhineland self-employed shoemakers largely managed to withstand the pressure of big companies.

According to a stastistic of 1901:
"As already mentioned, this great increase in the number of people employed within the shoemakers' trade is especially remarkable, as the number of people employed outside such workplaces was also growing significantly… This cottage industry in particular has spread again in the Rhineland, Saxony, Silesia and Brandenburg."
(Hissen, Dr. Otto: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Handwerks in Preussen, Tübingen 1901, S. 86.)

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