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Water of Life, Water of Death: The Controversy over Brandy and Gin in Early Modern Augsburg
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
Extract
“It is good for those who are sad or down-hearted […] It brings one back to bodily strength, and makes one lusty and merry,” wrote Hieronymus Brunschwig of brandy in his Book of Distilling in 1532. Distilled liquors were was “wonder drugs” of the early modern period, prescribed medicinally both as prevention and cure for virtually every known malady, of the spirit as well as the body. According to Brunschwig, the capacity of brandy actually to lengthen one's life was the basis for its medieval appellation aqua vitae (water of life). The potential for the abuse of these “medicines,” however, was evident to medical and legal bodies alike; the “water of life” could become a “water of death,” as physician Sigismund Klose noted in 1697.
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References
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71. “Parnntwein vß Waizen Bierheffen vnnd annderer besern materi […] so zu trinckhen an iren gesundt schedlich auch der Waitzen dardurch vnnutzlich verschwendt wirdt”; StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1570. Distilling “brandy” from beer yeast was forbidden in other cities at least as early as 1530; Rau, “Ärztliche Gutachten,” 8.Google Scholar
72. Ungeld was an excise tax collected on the production and sale of certain consumable goods, including wine, beer, brandy, wood, and honey, established in Augsburg in the thirteenth century. The Ungald Lords, appointed by the council, were responsible for levying the tax and controlling the sales of these commodities. see also Baer, Wolfarm et al., eds., Augsburger Stadtlexikon (Augsburg, 1985), 384–85.Google Scholar
73. “…der Pranntwein so auß obngedeuter falscher materi geprannt…” StadtAA, HWA BWB 1537–1698, 1570.Google Scholar
74. Ibid., correspondence from 1570–1674.
75. “…der gemeiner Mann […] sehr betrogen, dadurch gleich am morgen frue erhitziget, und nachmittags sich in dem Bier abzukhüelen, verursacht wirdt, dass Zechen auch so wohl bey tag, alls bey nacht,…” StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1631.Google Scholar
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77. StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1589; Stadtarchiv Nuremberg, B15/IV Branntwein Ordnung, 1567.Google Scholar
78. Based on income estimates for the sixteenth century in Augsburg, from Dirlmeire, Ulf, Untersuchungen zu Enikommensverhältnissen und Lebenshaltunskosten in oberdeutschen Städten des Spätmittelalters (Heidelberg, 1978), 206–12.Google Scholar
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80. StadtAA, Urgichten 1602c, 15 July 1602.Google Scholar
81. StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1604, 1613.Google Scholar
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84. StadtAA, HWA, BWB, Conradt Ebling et al., 7 September 1613.Google Scholar
85. “Hab weder gerecht noch ungerecht brentwein nie getragen, [sondern] nur krametbeerwasser…” StadtAA, Strafamt Urgichten 1594d, Matheis Egkh, 17 December 1594; Strafamt, Strafbuch 1588–1596, fol. 224.Google Scholar
86. StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1623.Google Scholar
87. StadtAA, Collegium Medicum, Destillatores et Chymici, Deputierte über die Apoteckhen, December 1623.Google Scholar
88. StadtAA, HWA BWB, Branntwein Ordung 1623.Google Scholar
89. “…selbiger auch so weit erwachsen, dass schier an allen Orthen vnd gassen der Statt dergleichen Getranckh gebrennt,” ibid., 1631.
90. “…vnsere Wasser den menschen, wann er die, wie aale andere guete sadchen, mit mässigkeit gebraucht, nicht schädlich, sondern nutzlich sein […] vnsere gebrante wasser vil gesunder vnd heilsamer den menschen seiend, dann vnserer widerparth[en] gemeine vnd schlechten brantenwein…” StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1631.Google Scholar
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95. See for example StadtAA, Strafamt, Urgichten 1602c, Sara Ballier, 15 July 1602, who testified that she didn't know that producing grain spirits was illegal if she was dependent upon it to get by; on a subsequent arrest she noted that she didn't think the punishment would be serious since so many others were also selling the product (Urgichten 1603d, 20 October 1603).Google Scholar
96. “habe nit vermeint, dass so erschröeklich und heffig verbotten seye”. StadtAA, HWA BWB, Anna Thomain, 1643.Google Scholar
97. Ibid; StadtAA, Strafamt, Strafbuch 1633–1653, 271.
98. StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1674.Google Scholar
99. StadtAA, Einnehmerbücher, 1510–1680; see also Tlusty, “The Devil's Altar,” 172–83.Google Scholar
100. “…hierdurch gemainer Statt am Ungelt schaden […] verursacht” StadtAA, Strafamt, Strafbuch 1633–1653, 271.Google Scholar
101. StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1574.Google Scholar
102. StadtAA, HWA BWB, Hans Martin Eberlin, 1676.Google Scholar
103. StadtAA, Alphabetisches Register über die Namen in dem Musterungsregister von 1615; Alphabetisches Register über die Beschreibung der Stadt Augsburg von 1645; Strafamt, Strafbuch 1654–1699 fol. 662.Google Scholar
104. StadtAA, Ratserlasse, Policey- Zierd- Kleider- Hochzeit- Kind Tauf- und Leich- Ordnung, Augsburg, 1683, 30.Google Scholar
105. StadtAA, HWA BWB, Johann Jacob Weissens, 1688. The 1688 decision allowing brewers to distill their own “brandy” for sale in beer taverns (noted above) was almost certainly referring to spirits from beer yeast, although the language is not explicit: StadtAA, HWA BWB, 1688; StadtAA, Ratsbücher no. 83, 1686–1689, 312.Google Scholar
106. StSBA, 4° Cod.Aug.1020, Ordnungen I Abt. 99, Brandewein Brenner Ordnung 1746.Google Scholar
107. Forbes, A Short History, 132, 159. William Hogarth's socially critical etchings of the mid-eighteenth century, Beer Street and Gin Lane, illustrate not only the disorderly effects of the abuse of the inexpensive spirits, but also the threat Hogarth believed gin posed to the economy as it surpassed beer in popularity. Similar concerns were voiced in Germany during the eighteenth century: Medick., “Plebejische Kultur,” 203–4; StadtAA, Ordnungen und Statuten, Karton 3 no. 114, Brandewein-Brenner Ordnung 1746.Google Scholar
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109. For another model of the negative affects of competitive infighting on the alcohol trade, see Gutzke, David W., Protecting the Pub: Brewers and Publicans against Temperance (Wolfeboro, N.H., 1989).Google Scholar
110. Van Dülmen, , Entstehung, 208–9; Michael Stolleis, “‘von dem grewlichen Laster der Trunckenheit,” 177–91.Google Scholar
111. Warner also notes the lack of literature addressing the social history of alcohol during the early modern period; “In Another City,” 485–86.Google Scholar
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