Honey - Germany

Honey - Germany


In Germany, honey production has always been an outstanding and favorite occupation. Few nations have studied the economy and management of bees more thoroughly than the Germans. Possibly this has contributed to their far-famed thrift.

Forest apiculture preceded everywhere the cultivation of bees by cottagers and farmers. German apiculture must have been far advanced before the invasion of the Romans, the emissaries of continental culture. Pytheas and Massilia (after whom Marseilles was named), contemporaries of Alexander the Great, described that on a journey of exploration they found meth (honey-wine, often mentioned in the Niebelungen Saga) excessively used in old Alemannia, and that the inhabitants covered their bread with honey. The record in itself proves that honey must have been in great abundance. And this was four hundred years before the Christian era. Pliny's reference to the enormous honeycombs of Germania would indicate that they were removed from hollow tree-trunks. There are many traces among the ancient laws of Germany that litigations concerning honey production and especially swarming were quite frequent. Special tribunals adjudged these disputes.

Charlemagne in his famous "Capitulares Karlomanni" gave strict orders pertaining to honey industry. Chapter V described honey, mead and wax in minutest details. Chapter XX directed the population to take an inventory every year of their honey and mead supply. Upon the introduction of Christianity, honey production increased greatly in Germany on account of the demand for wax for church candles. Monasteries were invariably cultivators of bees. Mead must also have been plentiful, judging from an ancient record that a fire in Meissen, on the Upper-Elba, in 1015, was extinguished with mead because the inhabitants were short of water.

Land-rule (dominium) was universal in Germany and the phrase in signum vel recognitionem dominii (in mark and acknowledgment of land-rule) was a traditional expression. The lands were mainly owned by princes and the Church. Those who lived in such lands were obliged to pay taxes in honey and wax. Honey and wax were considered royal or princely gifts and religious people freely contributed them to the Church.

The German honey industry was closely associated with the Lüneburger Heide. These plains of stormy historical background have been a real paradise of bees and the favorite topic of German poets. The province of Hanover in which these plains are located is famous for its honey. The level land, covered with primitive vegetation, mainly heather, is unusually rich in nectar. This section of the country has been preserved in a wild state by the bees and its primitive beauty is under their protection. Few men and beasts ever approach the localities, fearing the proverbial anger of these insects. Usually a narrow path leads to the beestands; a beaten track made by the bee-fathers for the collection of honey.

The honey market of Breslau, on Maundy Thursday, was famous for centuries, and the day is celebrated even now with festivities. There were many mead breweries in Munich, Ulm on the Danube, Danzig, Riga, etc. According to old documents, "the judge sat in court with a jug of mead before him, so filled to the brim that a fly could drink from its border."

Honey production suffered a noticeable decline at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries due to the Thirty Years' War. It was neglected for many years before and after this long conflict. Germany also suffered a similar setback during the World War. It is noteworthy that in the course of the same period, bee keeping made a great advance in the United States and Great Britain.