Substitute food in the First World War

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Substitute foods ( surrogates ) played an important role in supplying the population in Germany during the First World War . A general ordinance against abuse was not issued in the German Reich until the beginning of 1918, but it could only remedy the most extreme excesses.

meaning

As a result of the British trade blockade in particular , the Central Powers and especially the German Empire were largely cut off from the supply of foreign food.

Surrogates of all kinds existed in considerable numbers before the war. These now gained a special meaning. The production of margarine, a well-known substitute for butter , declined due to the lack of the necessary raw materials. Important but were artificial honey , coffee substitute , bouillon cubes , pudding powder or soft drinks. The sweetener saccharin was also known. The production of these foods and fabrics increased sharply during the war. Research also tried to artificially create blockage-related failures. This also includes the development of artificial spices such as pepper . Paul Immerwahr tried together with Hermann Staudinger to find a substitute for piperine . This coal-based piperidide came on the market in 1916. But there were also numerous new products of dubious quality.

In April 1917, the War Food Office issued a list of 1,400 substitutes. The number of entries had risen to 10,200 by October of the same year. In the last months of the war there were 837 substitute products for sausage products alone . There were over 1000 different soup cubes or 511 substitutes for coffee . There were around 6,000 approved products for artificial lemonades, juices, punch, beer and wine imitations.

Lack of quality

It turned out to be problematic that, in addition to reputable companies, a large number of dubious providers appeared who flooded the market with sometimes questionable and overpriced products and brought the entire substitute industry into disrepute. Education campaigns did not succeed against the exuberant and often untruthful advertising by the producers. The manufacturers often advertised with alleged chemical or medical testing of the products. The existing official food control was overwhelmed by the mass of different surrogate foods.

Production costs were kept low by using inferior ingredients in order to achieve the highest possible profit. Alleged meat substitute products contained a lot of corn grits, bean and barley flour and salt. In the case of "sausage products", the water content was often 80%, while the content of fats was only 5%. If meat was used, horse, goat or rabbit meat was often used.

However, the authorities themselves also contributed to the problems. Since 1916, the production of canned meat and sausage products has been severely restricted. Since that time there has been almost only substitute food in this area. The authorities did not initially take systematic action against the poor quality, for example due to a high water content. On the contrary, the poor quality of the products was also tolerated because it made it possible to fake the appearance of a larger amount of food for the population.

The situation was similar with bread and jam. In some cases, the War Food Office or associated war societies had their own surrogate foods produced. Their quality was hardly better than that of private providers. This applies, for example, to the “war jam” produced since the spring of 1917 on behalf of the Reich Office for Fruit and Vegetables as a substitute for jam. The product consisted mostly of beets. The product was described in the investigation report of the municipal investigation office in Bielefeld: “External properties: fairly thin, strongly red-colored, beet-smelling purée; Water: 61.8%, sugar: 32.8%; Microscopic finding: beets with little fruit. ” During one process, the Reichsstelle had to admit that generally already rotten apples and other spoiled ingredients were used. Many municipalities refused to buy such products. They were not destroyed, but boiled again and put back into circulation.

Corresponding ordinances at the beginning of the war explicitly sanctioned the use of potatoes or beets for the production of the cheapest substitute jams. This and gaps in the regulations allowed the manufacture of extremely poor products with a water content of up to 95%. These substitute foods often caused disgust and disgust among consumers. Since the production of artificial honey was subject to stricter controls, its quality was usually significantly better. Because the use of beets as a basis for jam or coffee substitute met with widespread rejection even during the turnip winter of 1916/17, it could only be used clandestinely in the last months of the war.

literature

  • Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War . Stuttgart, 1991 v. a. Pp. 216-229.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See about the nutritional value: Hans-Ulrich Wehler: Deutsche Gesellschaftgeschichte. Vol. 4. Munich, 2003 p. 71, Ute Daniel speaks about "so-called food" Ute Daniel: Workers' women in war society. Göttingen, 1989 p. 210, on Austria: "Necessity makes inventive" on science.orf.at
  2. ↑ on the effectiveness of the regulation: Anna Roerkohl: Hungerblockade und Heimatfront. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 216.
  3. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 216.
  4. ↑ Elisabeth Vaupel : Spices from the retort. Vanillin, artificial pepper and artificial cinnamon. In: Culture and Technology 2/2010 p. 48 Digitalisat
  5. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 218.
  6. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 224.
  7. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 227.
  8. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 218f.
  9. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 pp. 219-221.
  10. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 223.
  11. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 223.
  12. ↑ Anna Roerkohl: Hunger Blockade and Home Front. The communal food supply in Westphalia during the First World War. Stuttgart, 1991 p. 223f.