purity command

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Postage stamp from 1983

As Reinheitsgebot the idea is referred to since the 20th century that beer only from hops , malt , yeast and water to be produced. Reference is made to various rules and regulations, some of which are centuries old. To this day, this is partially perceived as a German cultural asset and marketed accordingly.

history

The first mention of the term “Reinheitsgebot” is documented in the minutes of the Bavarian state parliament on March 4, 1918. The delegate and at the same time the head of the bookkeeping at the Academy for Agriculture and Brewery Weihenstephan Hans Rauch highlighted a regulation from 1516 as a tradition. According to the head of the Bavarian Main State Archives, Erich Stahleder , the regulation with the new name “Reinheitsgebot” was deliberately given a new task, “that of the promoter in an increasingly advertising-dependent industry”. However, the name only gradually caught on, outside Bavaria only during the dispute over the so-called “ sweet beer ” in the 1950s. Both Bavarian and non-Bavarian newspapers often reported very emotionally on a series of legal disputes due to increasing imports of sugary beers from other federal states to Bavaria. In Bavaria, the addition of sugar in the production of beer was not permitted. With reference to a "Bavarian Purity Law", the Bavarian Brewers' Association, in cooperation with the Bavarian state government , finally achieved that beer containing sugar could no longer be imported into Bavaria under the name of beer.

Initially, only a “Bavarian purity law” was used. This changed with efforts by the European Economic Community in the 1960s to harmonize the law on beer production. The German Brewers Association , together with representatives of the German government, opposed an import permit for beers from other member states of the European Economic Community, citing a “German purity law”. In the 1980s in particular, this was advertised through an extensive program of action by the brewing industry and media coverage, and foreign beers were branded as "chemical beers".

Since 1995, a so-called German Beer Day has been held annually on April 23 , with which the German brewing industry wants to remind of the Purity Law. This date was chosen because on April 23, 1516 a new state order was issued for the Duchy of Bavaria , which contains a text passage that is mostly referred to when a purity law is mentioned:

"We also want something special, which should be taken and consumed everywhere in our streets, markets and on the land, to no pier more, then all of the barley, hops and water."

In the meantime, however, other historical ordinances are often referred to in order to emphasize a long tradition of the Purity Law. In some cases, other word combinations are also used, such as “Münchner Reinheitsgebot” or “Weißenseer Reinheitsgebot”.

Brewing regulations

Crown cap imprint "500 years of the Munich Purity Law (since 1487)"
Reminder of the decree of Duke Albrecht IV on November 30, 1487; Viktualienmarkt in Munich

Brewing regulations were widespread in the Middle Ages and were issued by city ​​councils , guilds or sovereigns . Many are no longer preserved today. The following list only contains regulations that are interpreted from today's perspective in terms of the purity law. Most of the medieval and early modern brewing regulations, however, did not correspond to today's idea of ​​the purity law.

When Friedrich Barbarossa granted the city of Augsburg town charter on June 21, 1156 , the beer quality was also mentioned in the ordinance. So it says in a paragraph of the Justitia Civitatis Augustensi , the oldest German city law at all: "If a beer teller makes bad beer or gives unfair measure, he should be punished ..."

Due to a famine, the Nuremberg city council issued in 1303 that only barley and no other grain may be used for brewing beer. This barley requirement was reaffirmed several times in later council decrees and lasted until the end of the imperial glory of Nuremberg and the associated introduction of freedom of trade in 1806.

On November 25, 1319, Philipp von Rathsamhausen , the then Prince-Bishop of the Eichstätt Monastery , enacted a law that only allowed barley , hops and water for brewing beer.

An ordinance of the city of Weimar from 1348 states, among other things, that no brewer should do anything other than malt and hops with his beer. In contrast, at that time, in some cities, especially in the Rhineland, hops were still banned as an additive to beer. For example, B. 1381 the Archbishop of Cologne, who had the monopoly on Grut , brewing and importing hop beer.

In 1363, 12 city councilors were given responsibility for beer supervision in Munich , and in 1447 the city council decreed that the city's brewers were only allowed to use barley, hops and water to make beer, i.e. the same ingredients that were later mentioned in the Bavarian state code of 1516. On November 30, 1487, Duke Albrecht IV issued a standard with the same content, initially for Munich, which was later extended to Upper Bavaria. In addition to setting the price and determining the permitted ingredients, the law also contained the regulation that the beer had to be inspected. This Albrecht decree was later referred to by the Munich breweries as the “Munich Purity Law” from the 1980s onwards.

In the tavern law of the city of Weißensee (Thuringia) , the statuta thaberna (1434), there are "various laws" about "behavior in taverns" and the brewing of beer. The ingredients for brewing beer were restricted to water, malt and hops.

In 1469 the city council in Regensburg decreed that only barley malt, hops and water may be used for brewing beer.

In 1493, Duke George the Rich issued a regulation for the Duchy of Bavaria-Landshut that brewers were only allowed to use malt, hops and water - "while avoiding punishment to body and property".

The Bavarian State Order of 1516

Bavarian State Exhibition 2016

After the Landshut War of Succession and the reunification of the Bavarian partial duchies, the previously different Bavarian land rights had to be harmonized. The new regional order, written by Leonhard von Eck , was enacted on April 23, 1516 by the Bavarian dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X. in Ingolstadt . The fact that barley and not malt is mentioned in this new harmonized regulation indicates that the sons of Duke Albrecht IV referred to their father's “Munich Purity Law” and not to the later “Landshut Purity Law” and have extended this to all of Bavaria. The text passage contained in it and now known as the "Bavarian Purity Law" regulates the prices on the one hand, and the ingredients of the beer on the other:

" Item we arrange / set / and want with the advice of our lanship / that for everyone in the principality of Bayren / on the land / also in our Stetten and Märckthen / because there is no other order here / from Michaelis to Georij / ain Mass or Head piers over a pfenning Müncher Werung / and from Sant Jörgentag / up to Michaelis / who measure over two pfennings of the same valuation / and whose end is the head / over three Haller / at the next Pen / should not be given or given away. Wherever there is no Merzen / special another pier prawen / or otherwise / should he / should he / kains way higher / then the measure umbainen Pfennckhen / and sell. We also want special things / that for every where in our Stetten / Märckthen / and on the country / to kainem pier / merer Stuckh / then all barley / hops / and water / should be taken and used. But from which our order would knowingly overlook and not echo / which should be taken from his court zöbrigkait / same vas pier / too tightly indelible / so often it is history /. However, where ain Geüwirt von ainem Pierprewen in our Stettn / Märckten / or in the country / yezuezeyten ainen Emer Piers / two or three / buy / and against the common Pawzsuolck would look out / the same / but otherwise nyemandts / should the masses kopff piers / umb ainen haller is set higher then above / zigger / and außzeschennckhen allowed and unuerpotten. "

"We prescribe, set and want with the advice of our landscape that from now on everywhere in the Principality of Bavaria, both in the countryside as well as in our cities and markets, which have no special order, from Michaelmas (September 29) to Georgi (23. April) a Maß (Bavarian, corresponds to 1.069 liters) or a head (hemispherical crockery for liquids - not quite a Maß) of beer for no more than one pfennig Munich currency and from Georgi to Michaeli the Maß for no more than two pfennigs of the same currency, the head should be given and served for no more than three hellers (usually half a penny) under threat of the penalty listed below. But where someone would not brew or otherwise have Märzen but other beer, he should by no means serve and sell it higher than a penny the measure. We especially want that from now on in our cities, markets and in the country no more pieces of beer than barley, hops and water should be used and needed for any beer .
Anyone who knowingly violates this order of ours and does not comply with it, should be relentlessly taken away from the judiciary as a punishment for this barrel of beer as often as it occurs. However, where a Gäuwirt buys one, two or three buckets (contains about 64 liters) of beer from a beer brewery in our cities, markets or in the country and pours it out again to the common peasant people, he alone and no one else should be allowed and not forbidden One measure or the head of beer a pint more expensive than prescribed above is to be given and served. We as sovereigns should also reserve the right to impose restrictions for the general benefit in the event that the shortage and increase in the price of grain would cause severe difficulties, since the vintages, the region and the ripening times in our country are different, for the general benefit, such as the one above the purchase is expressed and set in detail. "

The brewing regulations were a response to numerous complaints about bad beer. The official beer price fixing itself was a major reason for beer counterfeiting. In order to secure their profit despite rising raw material prices and different regional conditions, many brewers reacted with a poor quality.

Another reason for the decree was to ensure the food supply: the more valuable wheat or rye was reserved for bakers. The food chemist Udo Pollmer sees another reason to use the soothing and at the same time conserving hops for brewing and to ban other intoxicating ingredients such as swamp porst or black henbane . The ethnopharmacologist Christian Rätsch also sees an early drug law in the Bavarian purity law: there is a suspicion that the use of pagan ritual plants in particular should be suppressed. So are z. B. henbane, marsh tea, belladonna , opium poppy , nutmeg or wormwood as psychoactive Beer additives in medieval occupied Germany.

According to the sociologist Eva Barlösius , the Bavarian ordinance did not respond to health concerns, as is often argued today, but was intended to give the local breweries a competitive advantage, because in the Rhineland and northern Germany at that time mainly gagels and other Grut herbs were added to beer, which did not grow in Bavaria.

There is no information on yeast . The reason for this is often assumed that the existence of such microorganisms was simply still unknown. This is only true insofar as the exact mode of action of the yeast in alcoholic fermentation was unknown. Yeast itself was known Brauer gave the yeast fermentation process of the last of the newly fermenting wort to. A Hefner , in the medieval brewing an independent profession, used and increased the yeast over brewing breaks away. As early as 1481, the Munich baker and brewer dispute was about whether the bakers would have to buy the excess yeast that was formed during fermentation from the brewers according to the old custom.

The widespread claim that the "Bavarian Purity Law" is the oldest food law in the world is a pure marketing statement by the brewery industry without any historical foundation. So contains z. B. the Codex Hammurapi from the 18th century BC. Extensive provisions on food law, with beer playing an important role.

Contrary to today's widespread view of the continuity of the Reinheitsgebot, the brewing regulation issued in the Bavarian State Order of 1516 was only brief. A ducal decree from 1551 allowed coriander and laurel as additional ingredients in Bavarian beers and, on the other hand, expressly forbade the use of henbane and daphne . The Bavarian state ordinance of 1616 also permitted salt, juniper and caraway for beer production.

In 1548 Baron von Degenberg was granted the privilege of brewing wheat beer north of the Danube , although wheat was not permitted for brewing beer according to the Bavarian state regulations of 1516. When the dynasty of the Counts of Degenberg died out in 1602, the privilege to brew wheat beer fell back to Duke Maximilian I , who then built several wheat beer breweries (→ Weizenbier # Bayerisches Weizenbier ).

Current legal situation

Only in the course of the 19th century was the ban on using ingredients other than barley malt and hops for beer production again anchored in law, for example in the state legislature of November 10, 1861, in the repeal of the beer tariff of May 19, 1865 and in Malt surcharge law from 1868.

After the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, other states adopted similar regulations. From 1906 these applied in a modified form throughout the entire Reich. The German Beer Tax Act (BierStG) of July 9, 1923 regulated the ingredients for beer. Barley malt, hops, yeast and water were allowed as ingredients for bottom-fermented beer. For top-fermented beer, other types of malt, cane , beet , invert , starch sugar and dyes made from them , as well as sweeteners for top-fermented simple beers, were also allowed. Home and hobby brewing, where beer is only produced in small quantities, was exempt from these regulations . In addition, exceptions could be made for the preparation of special beers and for beers intended for export. However, these exemptions did not apply to southern German breweries in Bavaria , Baden and Württemberg . Southern German breweries were also not allowed to use sugar and coloring agents made from sugar to make top-fermented beer.

After the Second World War , with the exception of Bavaria , other additives such as potato flakes, sugar beet pulp, millet or sugar were permitted in the bizone for a while.

In the GDR, TGL 7764 regulated which additives were permitted for brewing until reunification on October 3, 1990. In addition to water, hops and malt, raw barley, rice semolina, corn semolina, sugar, starch couleur, sodium sacharin, pepsin concentrate, lactic acid, salt, tannin, silica gel preparations and ascorbic acid were also permitted.

In the Federal Republic of Germany , the Beer Tax Act of 1923 was revised with the Beer Tax Act of March 14, 1952 ( BGBl. I p. 149 ). In Bavaria, however, the “absolute purity law” continued to apply, according to which the use of sugar and coloring agents made from sugar as well as sweeteners in the preparation of top-fermented beer was excluded.

On the basis of an action brought by the EEC Commission in 1984, the European Court of Justice ruled on March 12, 1987 that the ban on selling foreign beers that were not produced in accordance with German rules under the name "Bier" in Germany violated the free movement of goods EEC Treaty violates (ECJ, Case 178/84, Coll. 1987, 1227). The restriction of the designation “beer” to products that complied with the German purity law was not justified by mandatory requirements of consumer protection , because labeling regulations are sufficient for this. In addition, the absolute ban on the sale of beers with additives was unjustified because it was disproportionate and not justified under Article 36 of the EEC Treaty (ex. Article 30 of the EC Treaty , today: Article 36 TFEU, compelling reasons for the common good).

With the new version of the Beer Tax Act (BierStG) 1993, the provisions of the old BierStG the production of beer and "purity law" were the so-called Provisional Beer Act retained (VorlBierG) and taken over the relevant tax regulations. The use of hop extracts and the fining of the beer with the help of polyvinyl polypyrrolidone were also permitted . In § 3 of the Additive Admissions Ordinance of 1998, the addition of coloring agents was forbidden if the beer was labeled “brewed according to the German Purity Law”.

The law was repealed in 2005 by Art. 7 No. 1 of the Law on the Reorganization of Food and Feed Law ( BGBl. 2005 I No. 55 ). The regulations on the preparation of beer  continue to apply in accordance with Section 1 (1) No. 2 of the Act on the Transition to the New Food and Feed Law. The implementation ordinance for the Provisional Beer Act, which contains definitions of beer ingredients, is also valid.

The Beer Ordinance of 2005 regulates what can be described as beer . Accordingly, compliance with the production regulations standardized in the Provisional Beer Act is decisive. Particularly strict regulations now only apply to bottom-fermented beer production in Germany for the German market. Manufacturers of imported beer are not bound by these regulations because of the German law, which was adapted after the judgment of the European Court of Justice in 1987; German breweries can also deviate from this if they produce bottom-fermented beer for export or if they receive an exemption for “special beers”.

What is taxed as beer is regulated by § 1 BierStG in conjunction with European Regulation (EEC) No. 2658/87 .

literature

  • How the pier summer and winter is to be enjoyed . In: The book of the common. landpot. Land order. Sentence vnd Gebreüch, of princely behavior. in upper. and Nidern Bairn. Erected in fifteen hundred and sixteen toe jars . Hans Schobser, Munich 1516, p. 102–103 ( [1] [accessed on November 25, 2018] Digitized version of the Bavarian State Regulations from 1516 of the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, Inv. No. 2 L.impr.membr. 44/45/63).
  • Karin Hackel-Stehr: The brewing industry in Bavaria from the 14th to the 16th century, in particular the origin and development of the Purity Law (1516). Inaugural dissertation . Berlin 1987.
  • Christian Rätsch: Urbock, beer beyond hops and malt. AT Verlag, Aarau (CH) 1996, ISBN 3-85502-553-3 .
  • Erich Stahleder: 500 years Landshut Purity Law. In: Yearbook of the Society for the History and Bibliography of Brewing. 1993, pp. 55-66, ISSN  0072-422X
  • Carl Wendlern: The perfect beer brewer - Or short lessons in brewing all kinds of beers . Reprint-Verlag, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-8262-0201-5 (first edition: 1784).

Web links

Wiktionary: Reinheitsgebot  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : German Purity Law (Beer)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birgit Speckle: Controversy about beer in Bavaria: moral concepts about purity, community and tradition (= Munich university publications = Munich contributions to folklore. Volume 27). Waxmann Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-89325-919-8 , pp. 9-10, 82-84.
  2. ↑ Birgit Speckle: Dispute about beer in Bavaria. 2001, pp. 9-10, 222.
  3. ↑ The Buech of common Landpot, land order, statute vnnd Gebreuch of Fürstenthumbs Obern vnnd Nidern Bairn. Erect in the fifteen hundred and sixteen toe jar . Schobser, Munich 1545, fourth part, sheet 36, verso ( digitized ) of the Bavarian State Library.
  4. ^ Jochen Sprotte: The control system of the Nuremberg council over the medieval brewers and their beers . In: Yearbook of the Society for the History of Brewing e. V. 2018, ISSN  1860-8922 , p. 233-290, here 241-242 .
  5. ↑ Eichstätts Brewery Law from 1319 , on www.donaukurier.de , accessed on April 24, 2016.
  6. ^ Kölner Brauerei-Verband eV: 3rd beer in Cologne before 1800. Retrieved on October 15, 2016 .
  7. ^ Michael Kirchschlager, Thomas Stolle, Lothar Freund, Mario Pohle: Reinheitsgebot 1434 - Runneburg - Weißensee / Thuringia. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .
  8. ↑ In Article 12 of the “Statuta thaberna” it says: “One should not use more malt to brew the beer than a quarter of barley malt is needed for the three brews of thirteen malters [...] Nor should it be in the beer neither resin nor any other vermin. You shouldn't give anything other than hops, malt and water ('hophin malcz and water') "
  9. ↑ 500 years of the Purity Law: No uniform law. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Karin Hackel-Stehr: The brewing industry in Bavaria from the 14th to the 16th century, in particular the origin and development of the Purity Law (1516). Inaugural dissertation . Berlin 1987, p. 2449.
  11. ↑ beer. In: Christian Rätsch, Albert Hofmann: Encyclopedia of psychoactive plants: botany, ethnopharmacology and application. AT Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-85502-570-3 , p. 733 f.
  12. ^ Eva Barlösius: Sociology of eating: a social and cultural science introduction to nutritional research. Juventa Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-7799-1464-6 , p. 213.
  13. ↑ Franz Meußdoerffer , Martin Zarnkow: The beer: A story of hops and malt. CH Beck Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66668-1 , p. 84.
  14. ↑ Peter Eichhorn: From Ale to Zwickel: The ABC of beer. 2011, ISBN 978-3-941784-13-0 , pp. 12-13.
  15. ↑ Karin Hackel-Stehr: The brewing industry in Bavaria from the 14th to the 16th century, in particular the origin and development of the Purity Law (1516). Inaugural dissertation. Berlin 1987, pp. 2450, 2472.
  16. ^ Legal opinion for the Bavarian Brewers' Association of August 21, 1954.
  17. ↑ Holger Gerstenberg in: Walter Zipfel, Olaf Sosnitza, Kurt-Dietrich Rathke (ed.): Food law. Provisional Beer Law Preparatory Rn. 9, 136th EL 2009.
  18. ↑ The Bavarian Sweet Beer War. In: The time . December 28, 1962.
  19. ↑ Notice on beer tax. ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) on: gesetze-bayern.de
  20. ↑ ECJ, Case 178/84 of March 12, 1987 - Purity Law for Beer ( Memento of April 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ Provisional Beer Act . In: Bundesgesetzblatt 1993 Part I. S. 1400. online at archiv.jura.uni-saarland.de: Federal Law Gazette Model Project Part I and Part II, October 1990 to December 1997.
  22. ↑ Ordinance on the Implementation of the Provisional Beer Act
  23. ↑ BierV - Unofficial contents. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .