The picture is a staged and is a caricature not a depiction or reenactment of anything real. Yes, there was child labour in many industries and it was dangerous to them in both the long and the short term. No, 3 year olds were not used to sweep chimneys (but slightly older children were, 5, 6, 7). Yes, this was outlawed long before the picture was taken. In the UK an act was passed in 1788 restricting the minimum age to 8, although like many such laws it was not well enforced.
Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
31–40 of 74 posts
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you read the article? It was a real world practice, but long gone already at that time (in the mentioned parts of Europe at least).
Why would the filmmakers make the re-enactment though? For social media? For clicks over the interwebs? For context, by the late '20 programs were running for the elimination of Gypsies and disabled children inside concentration camps. Pieces of burned clothing were found on rooftops. Even Britain had a eugenics program against inferior races. Not likely therefore made to cause outrage over children's rights, rather…
To these days, there are kids dressed at chimney sweep in a lot of weddings in many german speaking countries. I know one of my daughter did dress that way in a friend's wedding when I was living in Switzerland.
People think about the tradition of them bringing good omen and how cute they look, not gruesome children labor.
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Guildhall in London is one of the old political centres of the city. If you go down into the basement there's the remains of a Roman ampitheatre! Tucked away in an alcove on Cannon Street is an old block of stone. This is the famous London Stone. So old that nobody knows what it is originally famous for... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildhall,_London https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone That sort of…
> That ampitheatre shows that street level in ancient times Why do street levels change like this? There seem to be a lot of "buried streets" in old cities.
old cities are typically built on the flood planes of large rivers since you get easy access to clean(ish) water and flat ground. Large rivers tend to engage in sedimentation so everything around them either needs to slowly and constantly build upwards to avoid being underwater or will be razed and the ground raised by the next flood with its associated payload of mud.
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#34Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#35So it was a common practice a century before the photo was taken. How is it surprising that people get upset? The photo is a record of a depiction of a practice that existed. It’s the practice that people don’t like, not the depiction.
Well but it's posted as a real thing, not a re-enactment. It's dishonest at its core. Especially since it says it's as recent as 1930 which is just straight up not true.
It's like if we reenacted it in 2025 and said "look at this toddler chimney sweep in 2025!".
Obviously part of the outrage would be at the practice, part of it would be at the fact that it's in 2025.
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Guildhall in London is one of the old political centres of the city. If you go down into the basement there's the remains of a Roman ampitheatre! Tucked away in an alcove on Cannon Street is an old block of stone. This is the famous London Stone. So old that nobody knows what it is originally famous for... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildhall,_London https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone That sort of…
> That ampitheatre shows that street level in ancient times Why do street levels change like this? There seem to be a lot of "buried streets" in old cities.
Lack of JCBs.
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#37I more examples from when that kiddie chimney sweep photo/film session went viral in the late 1920's. Interestingly the fakeness of it was never acknowledged.
Here is Horst Bohnke in Spanish literary/art magazine Blanco y Negro in 1928. It includes one more photo not already in the original Fake History Hunter article. [1]
And here he is in American newspaper photo collages, in a syndicated 1927 Central Press spread "The Day's News in Pictures" : "Starting Early - Horst Bohnke, two and one-half years old, of Berlin, Germany, has just entered the chimney sweeping profession, proving that chimney sweeps are born and not made. He is working as an apprentice to his father" [2].
And in Knickerbocker Press Artgravure Picture Section, March 6, 1927 : "Infant member of an ancient trade. Horst Bohnke, two and a half years old, is apprentice to his father, a Berlin, Germany, chimneysweep" [3]
[1] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Blanco_y_negro/NujrMJPr...
[2] https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altU...
[3] https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altU...
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you read the article? It was a real world practice, but long gone already at that time (in the mentioned parts of Europe at least).
Why would the filmmakers make the re-enactment though? For social media? For clicks over the interwebs? For context, by the late '20 programs were running for the elimination of Gypsies and disabled children inside concentration camps. Pieces of burned clothing were found on rooftops. Even Britain had a eugenics program against inferior races. Not likely therefore made to cause outrage over children's rights, rather…
From the article:
>Another important thing to mention is that the chimney sweep was a good luck symbol at that time, especially in Germany. People dressed up as them and send each other postcards showing children as chimney sweeps.
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> no one remembers it. That doesn't resonate with my experience. People know about the murder, but aren't sure what to do. The murderer, who clearly had mental health issues (eg, having "you're fucked" on the dust cover of his personal AR-15, which he used to commit the act), was acquitted (in a trial of strange circumstances). It's baffling that none of his colleagues - who saw the message on his weapon - ever pulle…
I am not remotely aware of this case. How does those words, or any words, on a gun case/cover relate to mental health issues? This isn't a manifesto; it is more like "guard dog? Beware of owner!" decal, or a Calvin pissing on a coexist sticker. Or truck nuts. These might be distasteful to some but is unrelated to mental health. I'd be more worried about my former neighbor who had an unhealthy love of maglite flashlig…
People like flashlights. It's a thing. Just like we like computers.
Re: Not a three-year-old chimney sweep (2022)
#40It really doesn't take much to get people outraged. The last 20 years or so of social media, and cultural politics has taught us that. And enraged people are easily manipulated. Americans were enraged after 9/11, and that engagement was quickly weaponized into the Patriot Act and the "War on Terror". The flip side of all this enragement is a callous apathy. Things that really should concern me (like the eradication o…
How are we supposed to find balance between the two?
As soon as I thought of this question, I realized that I would need to practice it just like real life balancing.