Johann Althaus

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Johann Althaus

Johann Althaus (born September 9, 1798 in Lauperswil , Emmental , Canton of Bern , Switzerland; † June 20, 1876 in Sonthofen im Allgäu ) was a Swiss master dairyman , founder of the hard and round cheese dairy ( Emmentaler ) in the Upper Allgäu and thus a pioneer of the Agrarian reform in the Allgäu.

Framework of his work

For a long time, cheese was rather a by-product of small-scale cow husbandry for the farmers' primary self-sufficiency with milk. Allgäu cheese was traded through rafting on the Iller as far as Ulm and Passau . Until around 1800, however, the Allgäu cheese dairy was on a relatively low level compared to that of Switzerland, Holland or Belgium, especially in terms of shelf life and consistent quality of the products.

Until the 16th century, the Swiss Emmentaler only weighed around four to twelve kilograms. In 1815 an exportable, high-quality hard cheese was produced for the first time in a valley cheese dairy (winter dairy) in Kiesen, Switzerland . At the beginning of the 19th century, in increasing numbers from Switzerland, especially the Bernese Mittelland, large loaves - weighing up to one hundredweight (40 to 50 kilograms) and therefore called hundredweight loaves - of this hard cheese, which can be kept largely independent of temperature and is therefore widely traded neighboring Allgäu introduced. These unpasteurized raw milk cheeses were in great demand due to their shelf life, quality and their fine taste and gradually began to compete with the cheese previously produced in the Allgäu. In addition, these cheeses fetched almost twice as high, so that the Allgäu farmers, milk buyers and cheese traders soon tried to make this cheese themselves. They therefore brought Swiss cheese makers to the Allgäu. Up until then, an Allgäu Alpe was mainly used as a so-called Galtalpe for the summer of young cattle that gave little or no milk.

The Oberstaufen trucker, cheese merchant and member of the state parliament, Josef Aurel Stadler , had been monitoring trade contacts in Switzerland and the cheese quality of the first two Swiss valley dairies for years. After he had found it to be good, he first brought two young Swiss to the Allgäu in 1821, who produced the first "Allgäu Emmentaler" in the cheese dairy of Weiler in Westallgäu. In 1823 an alpine farmer from the Allgäu was awarded for the quality of the cheese he made. So Althaus was not the first producer of Swiss cheese in the Allgäu.

In 1806 the Swiss Franz Schelbert (* 1749; † 1821) emigrated to Germany. He leased an estate in what is now Haldenwang-Wagegg near Kempten in the Allgäu and made Emmental cheese there. His son Franz Joseph then set up a round cheese dairy in Immenstadt in the Allgäu . They were the first to produce Emmental cheese in the Allgäu.

life and work

Johann Althaus from Lauperswil near Langnau in the Emmental deserves the credit that in 1827 he produced the first traditional hundredweight Swiss-style Swiss-style cheese in the Allgäu in continuous, year-round production with full maturation to a significant extent. It was again Stadler who brought Althaus to the Allgäu.

From 1827 Althaus first produced the first “Emmentaler Style” loaf on the “Au-Alpe” near Vorsäß in the Gunzesrieder Valley in the Allgäu, and indeed in Germany at all, thus laying the foundation for the flourishing round and fat cheese dairy for the Allgäu is still known today. Later he produced on a Sennhof in Blaichach . Because milk shortage in the then still dominated by agriculture valley - of producing a hundredweight - cheese loaf Swiss style about 1000 liters of high fat milk are needed nowadays the daily milk production of about 70 cows - he moved the production then return to the Aualpe. In 1835 Althaus finally opened its own dairy in Sonthofen and delivered the long-life hard cheese wheels produced there to customers in the wider area.

The first Allgäu Emmentaler did not yet have the big holes like the Swiss Emmentaler. These were only achieved when fermentation cellars were introduced for maturation in the Allgäu from 1840 onwards, based on the Swiss model.

Honors

Tomb in Sonthofen

Johann Althaus lived in Sonthofen from 1827 until his death in 1876. His former farmhouse, located at Bahnhofstrasse 16 on the edge of today's Sonthofen pedestrian zone, was demolished in 1998 and replaced by a new building. In 1999 a new space in front of the house was created and named Johann-Althaus-Platz. The old larches standing on the square (so-called "Althaus larches") were still planted by Johann Althaus himself at his house and are now protected as a natural monument. A Sonthofener Straße and, since August 18, 2003, the "Johann-Althaus-Volksschule Sonthofen (elementary school)" also bear his name. His tomb has been preserved.

meaning

In the following years, due to the demand and the associated good wages, more and more Swiss immigrated (the term Swiss became a synonym for cheese dairy). The production of Swiss-style cheese was initially so unusual in the Allgäu that an enterprising farmer from Fischen even asked for six Kreuzer admission to view the cheese wheels ripening in his fermentation cellar. Because so large quantities of milk were required to produce it, not every farmer could make cheese himself. Therefore, numerous dairies were built in the villages, often operated as cooperatives.

The introduction of this profitable milk processing product contributed significantly to the fact that from then on, grassland farming prevailed over the production of grain and flax in the Allgäu . Althaus and the other Swiss cheese producers - along with Carl Hirnbein , who shortly thereafter brought two Dutchmen to the Allgäu to introduce the soft cheeses Romadur and Limburger in the Allgäu - contributed significantly to the economic upturn in the hitherto poor region.

literature

  • Marie Luise Althaus: The founder of the Allgäu Emmentaler cheese dairy: for the 200th birthday of Johann Althaus . In: Das Schöne Allgäu (magazine), Kempten / Allgäu, 61.1998, no. 9, pp. 65–70.
  • Walter Stelzle: Emmentaler came to the Allgäu with the Swiss Johann Althaus . In: Charivari (magazine), Munich, 18.1992, no. 7/8, pp. 21-24.
  • C. Wachter: The Allgäu dairy industry in the 19th century until the dairy association was founded . In: Karl Lindner (edit.), Milchwirtschaftlicher Verein im Allgäu (ed.): History of the Allgäu dairy industry: 100 years of Allgäu milk in the service of nutrition . Allgäu printing and publishing house, Kempten / Allgäu 1955.
  • Peter Nowotny: Alpine farming. The emergence of our cultural landscape in the Alpine region . Home Care Association, Kempten 1991.
  • Max Flad: The agricultural development of the Allgäu in Württemberg since 1840 . Dissertation, Hohenheim 1953.
  • Schelbert, Otto: The first Emmental cheese in the Allgäu , in: The beautiful Allgäu, 10/2005.
  • Minder, Hans: The Althaus family from Lauperswil , Hans Minder, Lauperswil, 2006.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Strangely enough, this fact has not been taken into account in the history of the Allgäu dairy industry.
  2. ↑ from Schelbert, Otto: The first Emmental cheese in the Allgäu , in: Das Schöne Allgäu, 10/2005
personal data
SURNAME Althaus, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss dairy farmers
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauperswil in the Emmental / Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1876
Place of death Sonthofen