Slaughter

Zeidlerei - Historical representation of forest beekeeping from Adam Gottlob Schirach's forest beekeeping from 1774

The Zeidlerei (also Zedlerei ) is the commercial air collecting honey wild or semi-wild bee colonies that from Zeidler , a forest beekeeper is exercised. It was already practiced in Germany in the Middle Ages . There are efforts to revive this form of honey harvest in Germany as well.

activity

Waldzeidlerei on trees

A doll disguised as a Zeidler

The collection of honey from wild bees by humans has been documented for 9,000 years. The term of the Zeidler or Zeitler describes a special profession of the honey collector, as he has developed in Europe since the early Middle Ages . Unlike the beekeeper in today's sense, the Zeidler did not keep the bees in timbered beehives or beehives . Artificial caves (hives) were cut into old trees at a height of about six meters and the entrance was provided with a board with an entrance hole. Whether a prey was flown by bees or not depended entirely on the natural environment and changed every year. The trees were also de-tipped to prevent the wind break .

The Zeidlers needed a hatchet and a climbing rope for their work .

distribution

Coniferous areas were extremely cheap, if not a prerequisite for farming . Important locations of the Zeidlerei were in the Middle Ages in the Fichtel Mountains and in the Nuremberg Reichswald . In Bavaria, for example, forest beekeeping has been documented as early as 959 in the Grabenstätt area . But there was also extensive trade in the Berlin area, especially in Grunewald, which was much larger at the time .

In the Nuremberg area in particular , there are still numerous references to the Zeidler life that used to flourish there (such as the Zeidler Castle in Feucht ). The honey was important for the Nuremberg gingerbread production; the Nuremberg Reichswald ("The Holy Roman Empire's Bee Garden") provided enough of it. The Zeidelgericht was located in Feucht from 1296 to 1808 .

The German place name Zeidler of today's Brtníky in the Czech Republic goes back to the historical forest beekeeping there. Zeidler is also the name of a former community in the Fördergersdorf district of the Saxon town of Tharandt am Tharandt Forest .

history

The oldest evidence of a Zeidler in Bavaria dates back to 748 and documents this profession on the banks of the Danube and in Schwarzach. During this time, Charlemagne promoted domestic beekeeping. The bees belonged to the emperor, but he left the rights to use their products to the Zeidlers.

In the 10th century honey was obtained from forest beekeeping and was the only source of sweetener. Before the introduction of cane sugar, bees played a very central role. Bees supplied the sweetener (honey), as well as wax as an improved base for lighting and basic substances for medicine ( propolis , putty resin from bees, honey and royal jelly ).

The "Zeidler" developed beekeeping through a planned further development of forest beekeeping. New nesting sites were created for the bees, the bee colonies thereby increased and the yield increased.

The beehive was usually housed in hollow trees in the forest, up to several meters high, several on top of each other. If a Zeidler found a wild bee colony in the forest, he was allowed to strike his mark in the corresponding tree - then he could use the colony.

Zeidler hollowed out the trees below the top of the tree, which they often removed. They closed the beehive, the hives, obtained in this way with a board, while a small opening served as an entrance hole. These tree bee dwellings were occupied by swarming bees or the Zeidler brought in a swarm himself. In addition to caring for forest bees, bee trapping was also carried out. The Zeidler were allowed to catch wild bees and let them swarm in the forest. At harvest time, the hives were opened and honey and wax were removed. When the hives were created, the tree died, which led to great losses of the tree population.

There was also home beekeeping, in which bees lived in hives specially built for them on farms. But this form of beekeeping could not establish itself due to the great importance of forest beekeeping in the large forests around Nuremberg.

Already in the 11th and 12th centuries the Zeidler had a certain right of seizure and reprimand, so they had been elevated to the rank of minor forest officials. Apart from the forest master and the patrician families Waldstromer and Koler, only the Zeidler honey industry was allowed to operate. The Zeidler were formally equal to the hereditary foresters. They were free and independent feudal people. They were obliged to serve the emperor in the war.

As early as the first half of the 14th century, the rights and duties of the Zeidler were summarized in the great privilege of Emperor Charles IV . Her quality as a beekeeper was described and her function as a beekeeper was expressly differentiated from other professional groups. In addition to the foresters, they were the only ones authorized to keep bees in the Nuremberg forests. All the wood required for this, as well as the timber for their residential and farm buildings, had to be given to them free of charge. They were duty free in all cities of the empire.

Since 1427 they had to pay a certain amount of honey for their goods, later a payment in money, the so-called honey money. In 1606, for example, Zeidlers in the Lorenzer Wald had to produce 411 measures (1 measure = 1.069 liters) of honey, which corresponded to a value of 40 guilders, six pounds and 20 pfennigs. The Zeidler formed guilds with specific legal customs , which were reflected in the Zeidel ordinances in the form of the "Zeidelweide" (in the Margraviate Bayreuth until about the 16th century )

Privilege

The Feuchter coat of arms

Zeidler depiction with a crossbow at the headquarters of the German Beekeeping Association in Villip

The Zeidler's most important privilege was their own (lower) jurisdiction . It had become necessary in the Nuremberg Reichswald because the intensive use of the forest was at its expense: the residents drove their pigs in for feeding , and Nuremberg obtained its firewood from it. This use went so far that Emperor Karl IV felt compelled to regulate the use after his sentence “My forest goes to my feet”. He legalized the attempts at afforestation of the Nuremberg family Stromer (later called "Waldstromer"; these were the harbingers of today's monoculture on Föhren in the "Reichswald" around Nuremberg) and he gave this family "forest police" regulatory tasks. In the course of this reorganization, Charles IV gave the Zeidler the comprehensive privilege of 1350.

As early as 1296, the Zeidler in Feucht had their own jurisdiction and their own Zeidelmeister. In the 13th century the Zeidel was already fully developed. The Zeidler had their own place of jurisdiction and their court had its seat in Feucht. It was written down in his "Zeidel Fryheit Brieff" from 1350 in the direct imperial privilege granted by King Charles IV . In it the Zeidler were given their own jurisdiction. As an outward sign of this privilege, their chiefs ( starosts ) wore a white staff, the Zeidler received the permit (which was absolutely necessary in the forests of that time) to carry a weapon (the crossbow ) and wore a specific green costume with the typical long pointed cap (see here the Zeidler coat of arms at the Zeidelschloss in Feucht ). For this, the Zeidler had to guide the emperor safely through the Nuremberg Reichswald and deliver a few hundredweight of wax per year to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna and a few more things.

The Zeidler court was originally chaired by the Zeidelmeister elected by the Zeidlers, and later by the forest clerk. The court consisted of chief judges, instructors, lay judges and council judges, the foursome, the forest gentlemen and the forest clerk. In the High Middle Ages there was a local court in every there, in which the respective landlord spoke the law as judge. In Feucht it was the Feuchter family of ministers. However, it can be assumed that the Feucht local court no longer existed as early as 1470, but that the Zeidelgericht had also become a general local court. Spatial jurisdiction extended to the Lorenzer Wald with the exception of Brunn.

The Zeidelgericht usually met three times a year. In the 17th and 18th centuries it met only rarely. The last meeting took place in 1779. The main reason for this decline lay in the decline of the Zeidlerei as well as the extensive overlap of legal and factual competences of the Zeidelgericht with those of the Lorenzi Forest Court and the Land and Farmers Court in Nuremberg. In addition, there were the high costs associated with the very costly constituent opening session in the 16th century. The Prussian authorities finally overturned the Zeidelgericht in 1796. Interestingly, this privilege (the Zeidelrecht ) was never specifically revoked. A legal echo of this privilege can be found in the civil code with its bee paragraphs .

Decline

In ancient times, honey was an important commodity. The Romans used wax candles for their religious festivals; later the church at numerous ceremonies. When the need for beeswax for lighting in castles, churches, monasteries and cities rose sharply, beekeeping got a boost. Wax was increasingly produced, while honey was more of a by-product. In the course of the Reformation, however, the churches needed less candle wax.

The creeping decline of the Zeidlerei ran in Europe from west to east. The decline was initiated by the importation of cane sugar , which was still so expensive in the 17th century that only richer people could afford it. It wasn't until the cultivation of sugar beet in Europe in the 19th century that the situation fundamentally changed.

In Lusatia , the Baltic States and Russia , forest beekeeping was able to maintain itself as a serious economic factor into the 19th century. Today, at least in Germany, Zeidlerei is completely irrelevant as an economic factor. In the context of nature conservation, there have been isolated attempts in Central Europe to settle colonies of bees in the forest and to resume slaughtering.

outlook

While in other countries the farm was never given up, in Central Europe there are efforts to do it again, also to promote biodiversity .

See also

• History of beekeeping

literature

• Max Wagner: The Zeidelwesen and its order in the Middle Ages and in more recent times: a contribution to the history of the forest use and forest policy , Munich: Kellerer, 1895 ( digitized in the ZB MED ).
• Eva Crane : The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting. Duckworth, London 2000, ISBN 0-7156-2827-5 (English).
• Karl Hasel , Ekkehard Schwartz : Forest history. A floor plan for study and practice . 2nd updated edition. Kessel, Remagen 2002, ISBN 3-935638-26-4 .
• Richard B. Hilf: The forest. Forests and pastures in the past and present - Part One [Reprint]. Aula, Wiebelsheim 2003, ISBN 3-494-01331-4 .
• Klaus Baake: The Zeidel privilege from 1350 . Munich 1990.
• Adam Gottlob Schirach : Forest beekeeping . Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn, Breslau 1774 ( digitized in the BSB Munich ).
• Johannes E Bischoff: The Zeidelhuben and bee care in the Sebalder Reichswald between Erlangen and Nuremberg in terms of settlement and forest history . In: Yearbook for Franconian State Research, 1956.

Web links

other projects

Commons : Zeidlerei  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Zeidler  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Others

• Website of the Zeidel Museum Feucht

Videos

Rescue for our bees? on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Forgotten Professions: These jobs no longer exist. Retrieved May 9, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Bayerischer Rundfunk: History of beekeeping: From Zeidlern and hollow trees . September 28, 2017 ( br.de [accessed February 15, 2020]).
3. ↑ ^{a b c} The history of beekeeping - the bee business : on October 2, 2017 at 9:05 a.m. and on October 23, 2017 at 3:05 p.m., radioWissen, Bayern 2
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Zeidelwesen - Market Feucht. Retrieved February 15, 2020 . 
5. ^ Zeidler honey - bees in tree caves : on July 14, 2017 at 7 p.m., Unser Land, BR television
6. ↑ Lotter, JM: The old Zeidelwesen in the Nuernbergischen Reichswaldungen . Fachbuchverlag-Dresden, 2015, ISBN 978-3-95692-038-7 .
7. ^ Max Döllner : History of the development of the city of Neustadt an der Aisch until 1933. Ph. CW Schmidt, Neustadt ad Aisch 1950. (New edition 1978 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the publishing house Ph. CW Schmidt Neustadt an der Aisch 1828-1978. ) P. 455.
8. ^ W. Schwemmer: Alt-Feucht . Feucht 1977, p. 9.
9. ^ Max Wagner: as Zeidelwesen and its order in the Middle Ages and in modern times: a contribution to the history of forest use and forest policy . Kellerer, 1895, ISBN 978-3-95770-460-3 .
10. ↑ Zeidlerei. FREETHEBEES, accessed June 30, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Requirements for a bee-friendly cultural landscape. German Beekeeping Association, accessed on July 29, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Traditional hunter honey bees forest in Nepal. Retrieved July 29, 2019 . 
13. ↑ André Wermelinger: Pilot project to reintroduce the Zeidlerei in Switzerland. Retrieved July 29, 2019 .