Beer dispute (Upper Lusatia)
The beer dispute was a historical conflict between several cities in the Upper Lusatian Six-City Association , especially Löbau , Görlitz , Lauban and Zittau , about brewing justice and the serving of foreign beers .
causes
Brewing beer was forbidden in the villages. Only the cities had brewing rights, apart from exceptions, which affected a few of the rural aristocrats. Since most taxes could be collected by serving beer, only beer from the city to which the country belonged could be sold. Since the way to a non-resident city was often shorter and the beer was cheaper or the villagers were not far from the neighboring village, which belonged to the area of another city, these opportunities were used to sell or drink foreign beer. Thus there were conflicts with the law enforcement officers of the responsible city.
Görlitz - Zittau
In the years from 1491 to 1498, foreign beer transports were increasingly attacked.
Lauban - Zittau
In 1530 a beer transport from Lauban to Eibau was attacked. Law enforcement officers from the city of Zittau also destroyed barrels of foreign beer in the Eibauer Kretscham.
Löbau - Zittau
The councilors of the town of Löbau had a forester's house built on Kottmar , which belonged to the Löbau territory, in 1662 , so that unauthorized wood could no longer be easily fetched from the forest. Of course, Löbauer beer was served there, which the Zittau city councils disliked because their subjects from Eibau, Neugersdorf and Ebersbach drank beer in this forester's house. You didn't have far to get there and the Löbauer beer was cheaper than the Zittauer beer, which was served in Eibau. The serving of beer was forbidden by the responsible electoral officials because the Zittau city council had complained against it. The reason: that "no Löbauer subject lives far and wide" . Löbau therefore tried to build a village on Kottmar and had houses built. Elector Johann Georg III. finally approved in 1691 the village (Walddorf) and the serving of beer. Since the Eibauer, Neugersdorfern and Ebersbachern from Zittau side were still forbidden to drink beer in Walddorf , they moved on March 25, 1693 to the forester's house in Walddorf to protest against the ban.
As a result of the Seven Years' War and the associated fire in Zittau in 1757, the city of Zittau was no longer able to meet its beer needs. In 1810 the Bierhof in Eibau was converted into a country brewery . A beer dispute was therefore unnecessary.
The beer and traditional procession from Walddorf to Eibau , which has taken place every year since 1993, commemorates the protest march of 1693 .