Unadventurous
The adjective bieder is a slowly descending word ( ahd. Pidarpi, biderbi , alts. Bitherbi , and mhd. Biderbe ), which until the 19th century meant “honest” and “downright” (cf. the idiom loyal and staid ). Today it means rather " simple " or "old-fashioned" (see. Also derogatory ingratiate yourself what is proved since 1800.)
Derived from this are “Biedermann”, (originally mocking) “ Biedermeier ” (roughly used in the meaning of bourgeois since the second half of the 19th century) and “Biedersinn”.
Fiction
The previously strongly positive connotation of the word can be taken from the beginning of Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart's poem The Patriot and the Cosmopolitan from 1774:
How do I love you, my fatherland,
Where I drew my first breath
And breathed fresh air;
How i love you how do i love you!
So spoke a German honest man,
And tears flowed from his face.
- (I often cry at midnight
- Such tears too; God you know!)
