The job of anash burner (German:Aschenbrenner) orpotash burner (Pottaschbrenner) was to burnwood for industrial purposes. From theashes, thepotash needed indyeing, insoapmaking and inglassmaking could be made byleaching andboiling (hence the term "potash boiler" orPottaschsieder).
Historically potash was also used in the household as adetergent,bleach andbaking aid.[1]
As forests increasingly dwindled and when, in the 12th century the cutting and burning of wood was limited or banned, ash burners collecteddead wood from theforests as well asfireplace ash from homes.
Towards the end of the 19th century the occupation of ash burner declined with the increasing importance ofcoal and improved means of transport through therailways. Potash as an industrial raw material was replaced bypotassium minerals obtained bymining.
Contemporary witness, teacher and local historian, Lukas Grünenwald, recorded the recollections from his youth inDernbach in thePalatinate region:[2]
Thesepotash huts were small, rectangular stone houses with a parlour and kitchen and a wood store above them. In the corner of the kitchen a large, round iron cauldron used for potash boiling stood on the brick stove and a chimney rose from there up to thegabled roof. In the three walls opposite the entrance were small windows.
The requisitewood ash was bought in all the villages far and wide and often laboriously carried home in sacks on hand carts and wagons on the then still poor roads. In the hut the ashes were first stored cold in greywicker baskets, lined with linen, and stood on top of leaching vats. Water was poured over the ashes and they were thoroughly soaked until they were completely leached.
Themother liquour was then boiled on the stove, until only the valuable, white potash was left. This was sold for a high price to the glassworks.
— Lukas Grünenwald, 1875