We ended on a real downer last time, leaving a Germany decimated by decades of war. Let us drown our sorrows in . . .
BEER
Beer was big in Germany, now and always. “Germany was in
fact celebrated throughout Europe at this period [the seventeenth century] for
nothing so much as eating and drinking. ‘Oxen,’ said the French, ‘stop drinking
when they are no longer thirsty. Germans only begin then.’ Travelers from Spain
and Italy were alike amazed at the immense appetites and lack of conversational
talent in a country where the rich of all classes sat eating and drinking for
hours to the deafening accompaniment of a brass band. The Germans did not deny
the accusation. ‘We Germans,’ ran a national proverb, ‘pour money away through
our stomachs.’ ‘Valete et inebriamim,’ a jovial prince was in the habit of
closing his letters to his friends. The Landgrave of Hesse founded a Temperance
society but its first president died of drink; Lewis of Wurttemberg, surnamed
the Pious, drank two challengers into a stupor, and being himself still sober
enough to give orders, had them sent home in a cart in company with a pig. The
vice ran through all classes of society . . . at the weddings of peasants in
Hesse more would be spent on food and drink than could be saved in a year, and the
bridal party arrived at the Church more often drunk than sober.” (Wedgwood)
Of course, Oktoberfest originated here, being first celebrated in 1810 for Ludwig’s wedding (in Bavaria). And Germans love purity as well as parties: a ‘beer purity law’ (Reinheitsgebot) was created in the 1500s. It specified that beer could be made with only 3 ingredients: water, barley, and hops [yeast was not mentioned, but probably assumed as necessary in brewing process]. Why? At the time, it was to prevent people from brewing with wheat or rye (which they wanted to keep for bread production). This law would drop out of sight for centuries until being ‘rediscovered’ during the 1800s and become a part of the rising nationalistic tide of the era.
The concept of ‘beer purity’ continues to affect Germans
today. After German reunification in 1990, a brewery in East Germany producing
black beer with sugar was allowed to sell it, but could not label it ‘beer’
(they’d be allowed to after a long legal dispute). And in late 2015, Bavarian
brewers voted in favor of a revision to the beer laws to allow other natural
ingredients.
While we’re on grains . . .
BREAD
“Brot” is a significant part of German cuisine. The variety
of bread and rolls here is legendary! According to the bread register of the
German Institute for Bread, there are now more than 3,200 officially recognized
types of bread in the country, produced in 17,000 dedicated bakeries and
another 10,000 in-shop bakeries. It’s not surprising that the German word “Brotzeit”
means snack time.
German bread is heavy and has substance, often packed with grains and seeds. People needed something nourishing against the often cold and rainy days. Germany doesn’t have the same amount of sunshine as southern France or Italy, and many areas are not conducive to wheat production, so grains such as rye and spelt tend to thrive better here and produce the breads still favored today.
It is perhaps not surprising that bread stars on TV. “Bernd das Brot” is a puppet star of a German kids TV program. From Wikipedia: “Bernd is a depressed, grumpy, curmudgeonly, constantly bad-tempered, surly, fatalistic, melancholic loaf of Pullman bread speaking in a deep, gloomy baritone.” Fun!
What goes well with bread?
WURSTS
And now we come to the wurst part of this presentation (nyuk nyuk): the German sausages. As with bread, Germans love their wursts. There are 1200-1500 different types of sausages in Germany!
Sausage making is a complicated feat of craftsmanship- each region has their specialties. Some examples:
- The Frankfurter was originally used for coronation of HRE in Frankfurt cathedral (the finely-minced meat was expensive). Remember that the next time you’re at a ballgame; this is the food of kings.
- The Nuremberger had cinnamon and other spices, due to its access to Venice for trade. But they were small because such spices were expensive. I should say “are” small- they remain so to this day. But they’re quite tasty and well worth it.
- Currywurst became huge in Berlin after WWII as they loved the foreign element. It’s also nice.
Okay, enough about food. Let’s move on to the French.
NAPOLEON
As the horrors of the world wars are still relatively fresh, we tend to forget that before the Germans were trying to take over Europe, the French were. In the early 1800s, Napoleon rampaged through Germanic areas, soundly defeating Austria, Prussia, and the smaller German States. They were humiliated. In 1808 almost all German-speaking territory was under French control. Some cities (like Cologne) were annexed to France, and others allied with them as Napoleon continued on to Russia.
Napoleon's success wasn’t to last, of course. Prussia and allies would help beat him back 10 years later, defeating him at Waterloo. But the damage was done. The French invasion, occupation, and humiliation of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) left it unstable and divided. And over- the HRE was no more. At the Congress of Vienna, the map of Europe was re-drawn with the intent of averting future wars (spoiler: it didn’t work). The patchwork of the HRE was consolidated into fewer states (from 300+ down to 37) and became the German Confederation.
Further Germanic consolidation was on the horizon. Napoleon would (unwittingly) help create a united Germany . . . but more on that next time.
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