Andrej Studen, “We can smell a nasty odour, a wild stench ...”. A history of drainage and air-purification processes in Ljubljana before the First World War
The key to understanding today’s culture of domestic living conditions and habits that are proper to our daily lives is distilled from the knowledge of the history of customs and lifestyles of the epochs or periods that preceded us. Certain living spaces, for instance the bathroom with its sanitary facilities and the lavatory, have become indispensable. And yet in Slovenian cities these hygienic standards did not appear until the end of the 19th and early 20th century. It took them a long time to acquire all the modern comforts that we enjoy in urban living today: it was through a lengthy civilising process that finally such standards were integrated into household culture.
Ursula Lüfter, Martha Verdorfer, Adelina Wallnöfer,
“German young lady required”. South Tyrolean young women
as housemaids in Italian cities during the 1920-1945 period
Financial poverty and unemployment in their home country, higher wages,
youthful curiosity and the desire to learn the Italian language were the reasons
for many young South Tyrolean women to accept jobs in big Italian cities
where, between the First and Second World War, female house servants were
in great demand. There, mainly German convents took care of these young
women in their leisure time and they also acted as employment agencies. Even
though this labour migration took place at a time of big political tensions - as
South Tyrol was confronted with the assimilation policies of Italy’s Fascist
government - most of these young women lived their spell in an Italian city
as personal enrichment. After one or two years of domestic service in these
distant cities most of them returned home; only a few stayed behind, for ever
or until they were old.
