The food on the workers’ table

In the novel The cheese factory in the Vehfreude by Jeremias Gotthelf from 1850, the farmers of a fictional Emmentaler community decide to build a large cheese factory with the money that was actually intended for the construction of a school building – in order to overtake the villages in the area. From now on, the milk is no longer drunk, but processed into cheese and because that is not enough for the farmers, they dilute the milk with water.

The fraud naturally comes to light and leads to further complications. The classic of Swiss literature became a great success again in 1958 when director Franz Schnyder turned it into a film.

The story represents a number of important developments in food production in the 19th century: the replacement of mountain dairies by valley dairies, the growing importance of cheese exports to the Swiss economy and quality problems. Emmentaler became one of Switzerland’s most important export products in the last quarter of the 19th century. However, quality problems in the food industry were not addressed at the federal level until 1906 with a food law.

From 1850 onwards, industrialization in Switzerland accelerated: industrial workers flocked to the cities and centers. This also changed their daily lives and an important part of this was their diet. While a rural culture spends a lot of time preparing food, this time melts away at the dawn of the industrial age. Not only men and women worked in the industrial halls, but also their children: no one had time to cook anymore.

This development of the industry was preceded by several upheavals in agriculture: these included the transition from three-field agriculture to a continuous crop rotation system. The introduction of year-round stables made it possible to produce manure and manure as fertilizer. Mechanization began in the late 19th century, which in turn caused a jump in productivity.

Two other developments enabled and encouraged industrial change: the introduction of the potato in the 18th century and the rise of international trade. For example, he brought coffee and industrially produced sugar into the country.

From about 1870 onwards a real food and beverage industry emerged. Swiss companies quickly made an international name for themselves here. Condensed milk was one of the first products to be produced industrially. The two main producers were the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co And Nestingthe two merged in 1905. The company was registered in 1865 Wander in Bern with a malt extract from which the Ovaltine became.

In 1868, brothers Wallrad Ottmar and Philipp Emil Bernhard, who emigrated from Germany, began producing canned food and were soon able to establish themselves as suppliers to the Swiss army. The company later went bankrupt Roco out. The story of Julius Maggi is also interesting: he was actually a miller, but lost his livelihood due to cheap grain imports and from this emergency started producing powdered soups and a seasoning that soon became popular. Maggi spices should determine.

Besides cheese, chocolate was Switzerland’s most successful export product: cocoa came to Switzerland early and was processed and refined in Ticino as early as the 18th century. The oldest chocolate factories were founded in western Switzerland at the beginning of the 19th century: Cailler 1819 in Vevey, Something like that 1826 in Serrieres, Favarger 1826 in Lausanne. The myth of Swiss chocolate is based on three inventions: in 1826 Philippe Suchard invented a machine for mixing sugar and cocoa powder, in 1875 Daniel Peter mixed milk and chocolate and thus invented milk chocolate, and in 1879 Rudolf Lindt finally succeeded crucial refinement using the conchier process in Bern.

Chocolate was an export product in the 19th century – success at home only came when the Swiss army acquired chocolate as supplies during the First World War; other European countries later followed suit.

Pasta became increasingly popular among industrial workers: it was cheap and quick to prepare. Accordingly, pasta factories sprang up everywhere, even in towns just a few miles apart, as was the case with the pasta factory. Is called in Wila and the Weilenmann brothers’ factory in Rikon. The triumph of the railway led to a concentration at the end of the 19th century and from then on the Weilenmann brothers only produced in Winterthur, which was more conveniently located in terms of transport. The name later came from their company To blush pasta.

Beer also became a luxury product in the second half of the 19th century. Until then, wine and cider, often simply called “Most” or “Suure Most”, were the main alcoholic drinks. However, beer was mainly consumed in inns; Bottled beer was a luxury for a long time. While there were already 150 breweries in 1850, there were already 530 in 1885.

The reason for the growth were two developments: the discovery of Louis Pasteur made it possible to produce long-life beers and the invention of refrigeration machines solved the cooling problem and the cumbersome transportation of ice, which often had to be extracted in the mountains and brought to the brought to the country. the breweries with horse carts. Only after World War II did refrigerators become widespread in private households. The rapidly developing railroad eventually helped distribute the sought-after drink.

Commercial companies initially benefited from the achievements of the fledgling food industry; canned food was an expensive affair until the late 19th century. However, food played the leading role in the budget of working families and was responsible for 62 percent of expenditure: most of the money was spent on the purchase of bread and coffee, or coffee substitutes such as chicory. Meat, milk and potatoes also played an important role.

The development of cheap soup powders was also a social reform project: schnapps was a staple food. Even in the 1930s, factory workers in Winterthur went to the inn early in the morning to drink a schnapps for 20 cents.

Although the food industry has undergone major changes from its inception to the present day – unlike, for example, the machinery and textile industries – it has survived in many areas around the world, especially in the field of chocolate. Cheese still plays a role in exports today. The fact that Switzerland is one of the largest coffee exporters in the world is another story and is partly due to the triumph of Nesting Nespresso system established.