Saccharin smuggling

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Saccharin smuggling was widespread in Europe from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century up to the time of the First World War and represented an important economic factor for Switzerland .

background

The manufacture and sale of the sweetener saccharin were banned in almost all European countries at the turn of the century or subject to high taxes: in Italy since 1889, in Belgium since 1897, in Russia since 1900 and in France since 1902. The import to Austria-Hungary was completely banned since 1898. In the German Reich there had been laws since 1898 that restricted saccharin production and trade; In 1902, the Reichstag finally issued a comprehensive ban against the resistance of the SPD and the Liberals . In Germany, as in France, Belgium and Spain , saccharin was only available on prescription in pharmacies.

The background to the bans was the protection of the local beet sugar industry , although health-related arguments were also put forward and saccharin was denigrated as “tar sugar”. For the German Reich and Austria-Hungary, beet sugar was the most important export product at that time - Germany was the world's largest sugar exporter and the sugar industry made up a significant portion of the German state's tax revenue. In Germany there was also a strong lobby in the form of the Association for the Beet Sugar Industry of the German Reich, founded in 1850 . Most other European countries also protected the beet sugar industry through high taxation and import restrictions; Switzerland was an exception in Central Europe.

Initially, Fahlberg-List had a monopoly on the production of the sweetener. Due to competition from the Heyden Chemical Factory , which used a more cost-effective process, the price fell from 150 marks per kilo in 1888 to a tenth of that in 1902. The price per kilo was still higher than that of refined sugar, but saccharin is very high much more productive. This resulted in high profit margins for the smugglers, especially since the sugar price in Germany rose by 23% in the year after the ban. Smuggling to Bohemia , Poland and Russia promised even greater profits .

Situation in Switzerland

In Switzerland, with regard to the local chocolate production , sugar was only slightly taxed and accordingly cheap; the state hardly had to fear tax losses and no incentive to introduce protective tariffs on sweeteners.

Saccharin production became a cornerstone of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland, such as that of Sandoz and Ciba . The German BASF supplied the raw material toluene . Foreign companies such as von Heyden from Germany, the Société Chimique des Usines du Rhône from France and Chemicals & Saccharin Ltd. from Great Britain produced in Switzerland. The sweetener was produced there on a large scale and Swiss industry subsequently became the most important producer of the sweetener.

Saccharin was legally exported to the United States and Japan ; export to Germany, Austria and Russia was prohibited. Around half of the total production, however, was smuggled across the German and Austrian borders, with the tacit tolerance of the Swiss authorities - “on a small and large scale”.

Switzerland benefited greatly from saccharin production and the smuggling caused by international bans.

Forms of smuggling

Saccharin was transported, for example, in car tires, coffins or in dissolved form in champagne bottles . On a small scale, the sweetener was sent in letters and parcels to relatives and friends abroad. Another method was to pour saccharin dissolved in ether into altar candles that were consecrated in Einsiedeln monastery . After the saccharin was extracted with sodium hydroxide , the wax could be reused.

In the German-Austrian-Swiss border area, entire settlements owe their existence to the smuggling of saccharine. Smugglers brought the saccharine to Germany and on to Bohemia. In the Bavarian town of Bischofsreut , a hollowed-out statue of a saint, the "Saccharin Saint" or "Saccharin- Nepomuk ", was regularly brought in a procession to Böhmisch-Röhren across the Austrian border, which was less closely guarded than the one between Austria and Switzerland. The smuggling route was never revealed; the statue has been in its own small chapel since 1960.

Another smuggling route led via Ticino to Italy. Anarchists from Zurich, but also Germany and Austria, among them Johannes Nohl from the group of the Monte Verità cooperative near Ascona (known as the "Molino gang"), used the income from smuggling to finance the magazine Der Weckruf .

According to an estimate by the police, there were at times over a thousand professional "dealers" in Zurich , the center of smuggling.

Combat

"Hardly any type of smuggling should promise such high profit on the one hand and be so difficult to prevent on the other hand as saccharine smuggling."

- Deutsche Apothekerzeitung, December 1907

In Germany the smuggling of saccharine was rigorously pursued by the police and customs authorities; Russia also acted similarly tough. In 1911, a central office for tracking traffic with artificial sweeteners was set up in Freiburg im Breisgau . In addition, there were “official news agencies for illegal sweetener traffic”, which were subordinated to the Reich Treasury . The Austrian police also set up “special departments”. In 1911, a “smuggler directory” was created in the central registry at the kk financial district directorate in Vienna; 1600 people were registered there.

In response to German pressure, the Swiss authorities finally took stricter action against the smuggling of sweeteners. In 1912, according to Basler Nachrichten, 931 saccharin smugglers were arrested. At most, the repression led to the emergence of more organized “ mafia-like ” structures.

From 1907 onwards, attempts were made by Russia to regulate the international sweetener trade. Switzerland, involved under pressure from abroad, was isolated, for example at the Saccharin Conferences in 1909 and 1913. In April 1914, an international convention on the regulation of saccharin was finally adopted , which, however, was no longer ratified after the outbreak of the First World War. She would have wanted to force Switzerland to “adopt the restrictive sweetener laws”.

Smuggling to Germany only declined when the saccharin ban was lifted in the First World War . Sweetener should now serve as a substitute for the rationed sugar. At the same time, the price in the USA rose sharply (from $ 1.5 to $ 40 per pound); Smuggling to Germany and Austria thus lost its importance.

literature

  • Klaus Roth, Erich Lück: The Saccharin Saga. A molecular fate. In: Chemistry in Our Time. No. 45 (2011), Wiley, Weinheim 2011, pp. 406-423 ( doi: 10.1002 / ciuz.201100574 ).
  • Klaus Roth, Erich Lück: Sweetness from the laboratory and nature. Sweet, sweet, sweetener. In: Chemistry of Our Time. No. 46 (2012), Wiley, Weinheim 2012, pp. 168-192 ( doi: 10.1002 / ciuz.201200587 ).
  • Klaus Roth, Erich Lück: The Saccharin Saga. Translated by W. E. Russey. In: ChemistryViews . ( doi: 10.1002 / chemv.201500087 ).
  • Christoph Maria Merki: The Zurich Connection: Saccharine smuggling before the First World War. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore = Archives suisses des traditions populaires. Vol. 89 (1993), No. 2, pp. 185-200 ( doi: 10.5169 / seals-117862 ).
  • Christian Litz: Tour de sweetness. In: Dummy . No. 19 (summer 2008), Dummy Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 80-88 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See: The industrialization and the triumphant advance of the sugar beet on suedzucker.de
  2. ↑ There were only weak laws in the Netherlands . See: Christian Litz: Tour de Süsse. P. 80.
  3. ↑ According to other data, 28%. See: Christian Litz: Tour de Süsse. P. 84.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Christian Litz: Tour de Sousse. P. 80.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Before the war, smuggling saccharine was seen as a way to get a quick buck on nachrichten.at
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Thomas Hengartner, Christoph Maria Merki (ed.): Luxury foods. A handbook on cultural history. Campus, Frankfurt & New York 1999, ISBN 3-593-36337-2 , pp. 253 f.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Klaus Roth, Erich Lück: The Saccharin Saga.
  5. ^ A b c Christoph Maria Merki: The Zurich Connection.
  6. ↑ H. Rasenberger: From the sweet beginning to the bitter end. Dr. Ziethen Verlag, Oschersleben 2009, ISBN 978-3-938380-06-2 . Quoted from: Klaus Roth, Erich Lück: The Saccharin Saga.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Christian Litz: Tour de sweetness. P. 81.
  8. ↑ a b c d Christian Litz: Tour de Sousse. P. 88.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Christian Litz: Tour de sweetness. P. 87.
  10. ↑ a b c d Christoph Maria Merki: Sugar. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  11. ↑ a b c Price of decency on nzz.ch
  12. ^ Stefan Bollmann: Monte Verità. 1900. The dream of an alternative life begins. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-641-15719-7 , chapter Die Anarchistenmühle .
  13. ↑ Peter Michalzik: 1900. Vegetarians, artists and visionaries are looking for the new paradise. Dumont, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-8321-8992-1 , chapter crisis. 1909 and 1910.
  14. ↑ Peter Dudek: A life in the shadow. Johannes and Herman Nohl - two German cats in contrast. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2004, ISBN 3-7815-1374-2 , p. 72 f.
  15. ↑ Quoted from Christian Litz: Tour de Süsse. P. 81.
  16. ↑ a b Christian Litz: Tour de Süsse. P. 84.
  17. ^ Roland Girtler: Adventure border. About smugglers, rituals and “sacred” spaces (= Pocket , Vol. 7). LIT Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9575-0 , p. 304.