Heidelberg student kiss

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Heidelberg student kiss in the packaging with the accompanying story.

The Heidelberg Student's Kiss is a confectionery made from nougat that is wrapped in a dark chocolate couverture . The product has been manufactured by the oldest chocolate manufacturer in Heidelberg , the Chocolaterie Knösel, since 1863 .

Origin and composition

The figurehead of Café Knösel in Haspelgasse

In the 19th century, young women were often only able to move around in public when accompanied by governesses , older sisters or aunts. Contact with men of the same age was therefore only possible under the supervision of a chaperone . The Knösel café on the market square became a popular meeting place for young women from the Heidelberg girls' boarding schools , but also for students from the Ruprecht Karls University .

In the founding year of his café, 1863, the master confectioner and operator Fridolin Knösel invented a chocolate praline with a praline-nougat-chocolate filling on the bottom of a fine waffle with dark couverture . The student's kiss now weighs 20 g, up to a few years ago it was 30 g, and its diameter is about the size of a thaler (5.5 cm). The highlight of this candy, known as the student kiss, was the packaging: a small box in which the confectionery appeared as a gallant, harmless gift - perhaps with a handwritten message that could not be seen by the companion.

The neighboring city of Mannheim knows Mannemer Dreck, a sweet that is similarly anchored in the city's history. The unusual name is said to go back to a regulation issued in 1822 or 1838. The first recipe is only documented for 1862, almost at the same time as the student kiss, and goes back to the pastry chef Carl Herrdegen.

distribution

Window dressing

The Heidelberg Student Kiss is only offered in Heidelberg itself at some sales outlets and can otherwise be received by post. In addition to the confectionery and its packaging, the box also contains German lettering and can also be purchased in nine other languages, including Chinese , Japanese and Russian . The packaging is decorated with a paper cut and shows a student from a fraternity with a student cap and a young woman - shortly before the kiss. This picture is also the figurehead of the café.

reception

Packaging variants

Over the years, the Heidelberg Student Kiss has become a tourist attraction in the city. It is therefore also an element of Heidelberg as a German place of remembrance . Therefore, the student kiss is occasionally used as a present from Heidelberg officials and politicians abroad, for example by the mayor Eckart Würzner or the member of the Bundestag and Atlanticist Karl A. Lamers , who came to the national press with a letter of thanks from Michelle Obama . The Heidelberg Student Kiss was presented to Bill Clinton , Queen Silvia of Sweden , Angela Merkel , Horst Koehler and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on official occasions.

In addition, the Taiwanese singer and author Zheng Huajuan (郑华娟) wrote a book called Kuss von Heidelberg (年 «年 之 吻» ) in 1998 , a love story that centrally incorporates confectionery and the associated idea of ​​romantic Germany. It hit the bestseller lists in Taiwan with 70,000 copies sold. The Heidelberger Verkehrsverein honored her in 2003 with the Mark Twain Prize for travel journalism, which is typically awarded to journalists and authors who present Heidelberg positively in their work. The kiss is also immortalized in Nancy Jane Lehmann's Haunting Heidelberg , a volume of poetry in English that was published in 2008 by a Heidelberg publishing house. The kiss was immortalized by Thomas C. Breuer rather critically - as a sign of the sugar-sweet Heidelberg dementia .

Web links

Commons : Heidelberger Studentenkuss  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Katja Baigger: No kissing! . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 2, 2013, accessed on May 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ The biggest praline with a lot of love - Home . ( Morgenweb.de [accessed October 4, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Konditoreicafé Herrdegen, website ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cafe-herrdegen.de
  4. ↑ Susanne Fiek: Heidelberg on foot. Discover the most beautiful sights on foot. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-942921-51-0 , p. 136 f.
  5. ^ Fodor's 05 Germany Fodor's Fodor's Travel Publications, December 1, 2004
  6. ^ Rhein-Neckar Nachrichten April 2008, report according to the café website
  7. ^ The Rough guide to Germany Gordon McLachlan Rough Guides, 2004 - 1104 page
  8. ↑ Merian Heidelberg, Volume 37 Hoffmann and Campe., 1984
  9. ↑ Torsten Lüdtke: From Heidelberg Romanticism to Heidelberg Romanticism - A City Between Art, Kitsch and Corporations. In: Constanze Carcenac-Lecomte et al. (Ed.): Steinbruch. German places of remembrance. Approaching a German history of memory. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-631-36272-2 , pp. 187–199, here p. 198.
  10. ↑ Reproduction of the press coverage on the café's website
  11. ↑ a b c www.taiwan-panorama.com Life abroad 2009
  12. ^ The Heidelberg Student Kiss in Taiwan Yi-Ching Su, September 8, 2012 by Eva Wachter, Stadtmarketing HD
  13. ^ Nancy Jane Lehmann: Haunting Heidelberg. Regional culture publishing house, Heidelberg / Ubstadt-Weiher 2008, ISBN 978-3-89735-537-8 .
  14. ^ Thomas C. Breuer: Heidelberg dementia. TC World / Maro, 1997, ISBN 978-3-87512-410-1 .