Garance in Pfaffenhoffen

Dates: spring to early fall
Location: in front of the entrance to the Musée de l’Image Populaire


Do you know madder?

This is dyer's madder, Rubia tinctorum L. It is a perennial plant of the Rubiaceae family which was widely cultivated for the red dye extracted from its rhizomes because they contain alizarin and purpurin (which have the property of giving fabrics a beautiful red color).

Why plant madder in front of the Popular Image Museum?

Thanks to madder, Pfaffenhoffen and its surroundings experienced exceptional economic activity, which began at the beginning of the 18th century and was intense from the third quarter of the same century(1).
This plant was cultivated throughout the region, from Hochfelden to Haguenau, to deliver it green or dried to Pfaffenhoffen, which became an important commercial platform for madder. There were a considerable number of dryers there. But who says delivery of dried madder also says madder trade.
In 1854, we still noted the existence of 8 madder dryers. Madder was used to dye sheets red. From the Second Empire, the French army purchased a large part of these sheets for the manufacture of military pants (2). The defeat of 1870 therefore dealt a terrible blow to this branch of industry and commerce in the locality(3). But it was less brutal than for the drying and trade of madder, because they also dyed hemp as well as woolen stockings, and also used lignite blue(4).
Today, only place names remain of this activity, such as Rotaegerle or Rotdaerre (madder fields, madder drying rooms) in Pfaffenhoffen and Niedermodern.

(1) Jean Vogt, “Madder in the Pfaffenhoffen region”, in SHAS, 1993, IV, page 45.
(2) François Lotz, “History of a small town in Alsace Pfaffenhoffen”, page 199.
(3) Cf Georges Klein, “Local industries and disappeared professions”, in SHAS, 1956, 3rd and 4th trim., p. 74.
(4) On the printing of fabrics in blue, see G. Klein, op. cit.