The directory «Plots»

Einbeck

The great German reformer Martin Luther praised the "Ainpöcksche Bier" (old German for Einbecker Beer) with these words in front of the Worms Reichstag in 1521.

About 150 years before Luther's speech in Worms, beer trade had already become the most important economic factor for the city of Einbeck. The oldest existing receipt for the sale of Einbecker beer dates back to April 28, 1378 and documents the sale of two tons of beer to the city of Celle.

Every full-fledged citizen of the city was his own brewer. Every year on May 1, lots were drawn in the marketplace to determine the order in which the town brewmaster went to the houses of the more than 700 brewers, the "Citizens and Brewers".

On the 200 official brewing days, the brewmaster made his tour through Einbeck with the public brew pan which contained the brew. However, the brewers were only permitted to produce beer for their own consumption, and everything beyond this amount was purchased by the town council. The council also managed the sale and marketing of the beer produced.

Because Einbeck was a Hanseatic city and had a close relationship with the Hanse as early as 1368, beer trade initially followed the pathways of the Hanseatic trade. The trade extended to the main domestic trading centers in the vicinity - Hildesheim, Hameln, Braunschweig - from Luneburg, Wismar and Stade to the port cities. Einbecker beer was shipped by sea from these cities.

The customs reports from the city of Lübeck between the years 1492 - 1496 document the amount of barrels that were shipped from Lübeck to Danzig, Konigsberg, Riga, Pernau, Tallinn, Stockholm, Nyköping and Skanes (Denmark).

The beer was shipped from Hamburg to Amsterdam. At the end of the 15th century, the Einbecker beer trade expanded to central Germany and parts of southern Germany, and Erfurt became an important trading center for the Einbecker Bier as a result.

Einbecker Beer could be found in Magdeburg, Leipzig, Würzburg, Frankfurt am Main, and in the 16th century in Wittenberg, Kassel, Worms, Mainz and Osnabrück, in Nuremberg, Regensburg, Landshut.

In many cities, the councils would serve the Einbecker beer in their so-called rathskellers. Many of these taverns got their names from our beer. That's how the Einbecksches Haus in Hamburg came to be, and the Einbeckschen Keller's in Wismar, Lüneburg, Hildesheim, Celle and Stade.

At the beginning of the 16^th century there was an event with great impact for Einbecks future. Bavarian dukes lured away a brewmaster from Einbeck for their Hofbräuhaus in order to produce the famous "Einpökisch Beer" there. The name of the beer was transformed to the Bavarian accent and was called "Oanpock" and later "bock beer" in this region.

This stout, still brewed in the quaint little Lower Saxony town with its half-timbered buildings, has been the unchallenged Number One on the market for decades. Each year in May, the seasonal specialty Einbecker Mai Ur-Bock is welcomed by beer lovers.

German Federal Republic, 1958.08.26, Einbeck. 600th Anniv of Einbeck Beer

German Federal Republic, 1975.12.21, Einbeck. 700th anniv of beer city

German Federal Republic, 1993.08.19, Einbeck. Historical beer city