![Der Turmbau zu Babel in der Weltchronik von Rudolf von Ems (1200–1254), um 1340/50 (Ausschnitt).](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/lob-der-arbeit-titel-300x225.jpg)
In praise of work
On Labour Day, we celebrate the glories of work. We raise a glass to the workers, but also to the chroniclers, artists and photographers. The pictorial sources they created show people at work throughout the centuries.
1. Working in the fields
![Sachsenspiegel, ca. 1230](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/01a-ausschnitt-sachsenspiegel-heidelberg-0035-4-3-300x225.jpg)
![Sachsenspiegel, ca. 1230](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/01b-ausschnitt-sachsenspiegel-heidelberg-0031-4-3-300x225.jpg)
The wheeled plough, a breakthrough in agricultural technology: at the front the wooden wheel frame, and behind it the iron plough blade, which slices into the soil vertically and, together with the iron mouldboard, pushes up whole clods of earth and turns them over – beneficial for nutrients and sowing of seeds. The crop is harvested with the sickle and ground in the mill, which is driven by the waterwheel. Sachsenspiegel, ca. 1230. Heidelberg University Library
2. Clerical work
![Saint Gregory with three scribes, ivory panel, 20.5 by 12.5 cm, late 10th century.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/02-gregor-mit-schreibern-kk-8399-9339-189x300.jpg)
3. Construction
![Tower of Babel, 1340-50](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/burgenbau-rudolf-von-ems-215x300.jpg)
![Rudolf von Ems, Weltchronik (Chronicle of the World), details.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/burgenbau-rudolf-von-ems-detail-300x162.jpg)
4. “Martine, my dear sir, fill our cups to the brim!”
![The innkeeper. Konrad von Ammenhausen’s Schachzabelbuch (ca. 1320): a book on the game of chess, with illustrations. Edition from Lucerne (?), 1420s.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/der-wirt-schachzabelbuch-von-konrad-von-ammenhausen-300x279.jpg)
5. Teamwork
![Bread courier](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/brotkurier-300x298.jpg)
6. “No tears in their sombre eyes. They sit at the loom and bare their teeth.”
![Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945): Weberzug (The March of the Weavers), folio 4 from the “Ein Weberaufstand” (A Weavers’ Revolt) cycle, 1893-1897.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/06-weberaufstand-kollwitz-kn-36-ii-a-1-300x230.jpg)
7. Discipline on the factory floor
![Sorting room in a paper factory, ca. 1900.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/papierfabrik-perlen-um-1900-300x241.jpg)
8. Two sides of the same coin
![Workers of the Hochdorf brickworks, ca. 1905.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ziegelei-hochdorf-300x216.jpg)
9. “This is our handiwork!”
![Topping-out ceremony; the first stage is completed. Gerliswil parish church, Emmen LU, 1913.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/aufrichtefeier-1913-in-gerliswil-300x239.jpg)
10. What is work? What is life?
![Still from the personnel film “Die Viscösler”, 1937](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/viscose-arbeiterin-fdc-47-149-300x209.jpg)