In 1920, the young schoolteacher Anna Droste-Lehnert came to Schalkenmehren. It struck her that the Eifel farmers were very poor, and also that they could weave very pretty cloths, the so-called "Maartuch" ("maar cloth"). With friends from the Wandervogel movement, she convinced the villagers to found, together with her, a coöperative. In 1926, nineteen Schalkenmehren citizens joined together to form the "Heimweberei-Genossenschaft Schalkenmehren e.G." The farmers wove, the farmers’ wives did the cutting and sewing, and the coöperative marketed the products. Mrs. Droste-Lehnert also designed new patterns for the weavers. In the 1930s, the coöperative was very successful, and even in the difficult time just after the Second World War, it managed to keep itself going. In the 1970s, one episode of the German children’s television programme "Die Sendung mit der Maus" featured the coöperative.