Beyond Bratwurst

A History of Food in Germany

Ursula Heinzelmann

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781780232720
• eBook ISBN: 9781780233024
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Culinary Arts
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Ask about German food and most people think of beer and sausage, or pretzels and Limburger cheese. However, the 82 million inhabitants of modern-day Germany do not all live exclusively on Oktoberfest fare. In fact, as in most modern countries, Germans have a long tradition of taking outside influences into their cuisine, and there is a wide variety of food eaten within the various regions of the country.

Beyond Bratwurst traces the many traditions that have combined to form German food today. From their earliest beginnings, food and cooking in Germany have been marked by geographic and climatic differences between north and south, as well as continuous cultural influences from bordering countries. The book shows that the openness and receptiveness Germans have shown towards these influences have resulted in the frequent reinvention of their cuisine, and a food culture with a remarkable flexibility. The regional variations of today are based as much on political, cultural and socioeconomic history as on geography: the story of German food includes the back-to-the-land movement of the late nineteenth century and the development of modern mass-market products by Justus von Liebig and Dr Oetker, as well as rationing and shortages under the Nazis, post-war hunger and divisions between East and West.

Beyond Bratwurst describes who eats what, how, where and when in Germany, telling the stories of many German specialities such as beer, stollen, rye bread and lebkuchen, as well as more surprising German favourites.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction German Food: A Complex Dish
• ONE From Gruel to Sourdough Bread: The Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages
• TWO Fresh Meat and Lac Concretum: The Roman Age, 1st Century BC to 5th Century AD
• THREE Christianity, Social Stratification and Medicine: The Early Middle Ages, 5th to 11th Century
• FOUR Luxurious Feasts and Terrible Famine: The High Middle Ages, 11th to 14th Century
• FIVE Butterbrot and Saffron: The Late Middle Ages, 14th and 15th Centuries
• SIX German Food Writing: The Early Modern Period, 1500 to 1648
• SEVEN Coffee, Sugar and Potatoes, 1648 to 1815
• EIGHT Potatoes without Salt and Soup Kitchens: Pauperism, 1815 to 1871
• NINE Stock Cubes and Baking Powder: The Industrialization of Food, 1871 to 1914
• TEN Hope and Hunger, Vollkornbrot and Swedes, 1914 to 1949
• ELEVEN Kasslerrollen and Toast Hawaii: Post-war Indulgence, East and West, 1949 to 1990
• TWELVE Spaghetti and Rouladen: Regionality in a Globalized World, Reunified Germany since 1990
• References
• Select Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Acknowledgements
• Index