Europe's journeymen keep the past alive

New York

THEY hitchhike across Europe, instantly recognisable in the wide-bottomed, corduroy trousers, white shirts and coloured jackets that identify them as bricklayers, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons and roofers.

They are wandergesellen, or journeymen - a vestige of the Middle Ages in modern Europe - young men, and these days women, too, who have finished their required training in any number of trades and are travelling to gather experience. Most are from German-speaking countries.

In the past, journeymen travelled under the auspices of a t…