What does a Holzmacher do, or what is their job? Is it a common last name? It seems to be literally, wood maker or wood doer. Is the name used to describe a carpenter, craftsmen or lumberjack?
2 Answers
"Holz machen" is a common idiom for collecting firewood or other wood by cutting down trees. So your word translates to "lumberjack".
The term "Holzmacher", however, is not commonly used in contemporary German. Translating lumberjack into German would be "Holzfäller", official terminology uses "Forstwirt".
An yes, as a last name it is (at least somewhat) common in Germany, especially in the southern parts.
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4"common idiom"? Never heard that term (and German is my primary language).– NobodyAug 15, 2016 at 15:03
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1@Nobody I propose you type the two words into Google then to update you. Obviously it's an idiom only in places where there is a decent amount of trees to cut down.– tofroAug 15, 2016 at 15:58
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I suspect it's from a dialect somewhere. Just because someone is using it on the internet doesn't mean it's common. There are plenty of trees in all of the places where I've lived.– NobodyAug 15, 2016 at 19:36
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1@Nobody It actually is very common, but it does not only apply to the act of cutting trees, but also to preparing already cut wood for the actual usage (chopping it, etc.). For example you could get "1 Meter Holz", which you need to split, chop and stack yourself. That could also be covered by "Holz machen". Aug 16, 2016 at 9:22
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I've helped doing what you describe as another meaning of "Holz machen" quite often (but we bought "Ster" of wood not "Meter" - means the same I guess) and never heard it called like that, but maybe my brain is malfunctioning or I'm the one from the one area where it's not called like that.– NobodyAug 16, 2016 at 21:29
As @tofro already explained, "holz machen" is a common idiom for collecting firewood (or other wood) or to prepare wood.
It can be used instead of "Holzfäller", which is the german term for lumberjack (or, more modern, "Forstwirt").
The term "Holzmacher" however, can also refer to craftsmen creating things out of wood, e.g. sculptures, mosten in the context of funfairs. In this case, it does not mean the men going into the forest getting wood, but the craftsmen using (mainly) wood in their work ans selling it at the funfair.
If you look at this ngram, you can clealy see that the term "Holzmacher" in on a decline and was used much more often in the 1800s: