Sugar from sugar beets, Altbier or Old Beer from the Rhineland and world's first newspaper are among the German inventions. Today, sugar beets abound, newspapers battle for subscribers and what can we say about beer? In medieval Germany, it inspires the first consumer protection law.
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1. Sugar Beets - Extraction & Production
Sugar beets can grow in regions too cold for sugar cane, and produce the same type of sugar. Originating in Silesia, sugar beets have a conical, white, fleshy root or taproot with a rosette of leaves. Sugar forms by photosynthesis in the leaves and is stored in the root.
Extraction of sugar happened when Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, subsidizes experiments to develop the process. In 1747, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, professor of physics in Berlin, isolates sugar from beetroots, finding it identical to that of sugar cane.
His student and successor Franz Karl Achard begins breeding sugar beets in Kaulsdorf near Berlin in 1786. He studies twenty-three varieties. Achard opens the world's first beet sugar factory in 1801, at Kunern, Silesia.
The French also love the idea and European sugar beet industry rapidly expands. By 1840, about 5% of the world's sugar is derived from sugar beets. By 1880, the number is ten times higher with over 50%.
The top sugar beet producers today are Germany, Turkey, France, Russia and the United States. Sugar beets are introduced to the Americas by German settlers by mid-19th century.
2. Altbier (Old Beer)
Altbier (English: old beer) is a type of beer brewed in the Rhineland, especially around Düsseldorf, Germany, which is also famous for its mustard. The name comes from the top-fermented style of brewing, an older method than the bottom fermentation of lagers.
Altbier has a rich copper color. The use of a top-fermenting type of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka brewer's yeast or baker's yeast, adds a fruitiness to the flavor.
It's then matured at cooler temperatures thus making it taste more like a lager (smooth, sweet, mild) than like other top-fermenting beers such as pale ale, wheat beers and stout.
The first producer to use the name Altbier was the Schumacher brewery of Düsseldorf, opened in 1838. Germany takes the brewing of its favorite alcoholic beverage very seriously. Beer production is subject to the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 established in Bavaria.
Other German regions also adopt the law. The Reinheitsgebot or Purity Law sets the standards for beer across Germany today. Due to its cross-country fame and quality intent, the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 becomes the first known consumer protection law in the world.
3. World's First Newspaper
Johann Carolus (1575 - 1634) publishes the first newspaper in the world in Strasbourg. It's then a free Imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.
He apprentices as a bookbinder and later become a book seller, scribe and print shop owner. Through his occupations he makes excellent connections with tradespeople. In 1605, this helps him launch his weekly paper.
He calls the publication Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien (Account of All Distinguished and Commemorable Stories). The World Association of Newspapers recognizes this as the world's first newspaper.
From 1609 other newspapers follow, published in the towns of Wolfenbüttel, Basel, Frankfurt, Berlin and Gdańsk/Danzig in German; and in Amsterdam in Dutch. The concept catches on world-wide.
Newspapers appear in Paris, Milan, Genoa, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Lisbon, Oxford, Copenhagen and more throughout the 1600s. Modern advertising starts to take shape with the popularity of newspapers and magazines in the 16th and 17th centuries.
In the Americas, the first news publication is the Boston News-Letter of 1704. The first surviving American newspaper is the Maryland Gazette, founded in 1727, now published as The Capital.
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