694 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The following is Mr. Gravenhorst's 

 essay, which was then read by the Sec- 

 retary : 



Apiculture in Germany. 



It is with pleasure that I accede to the 

 request to prepare an article for the 

 convention in St. Joseph, Mo., and I 

 willingly select, of course, the subject 

 which has been suggested as one about 

 which information is desired. Although 

 this subject is such a prolific one that I 

 might write volumes on it, I will never- 

 theless make my article as brief as pos- 

 sible. 



The keeping of bees in Germany is 

 very old. Records which show this 

 reach back 400 years before the Chris- 

 tian era. The Dold mariner Pytheas of 

 Massilia (Marseilles), a cotemporary of 

 Alexander the Great, records in history 

 that on the north coast of Germania on 

 the banks of the River Ems, he had 

 found honey used in the. preparation of 

 mead. Junius states that before the 

 battle of Arbalo against the Cherusker 

 (11 B. C), a large swarm of bees settled 

 on the cord and shaft of a lance in front 

 of the tent of the camp-perfect, Hostilius 

 Eutilus, in the camp of Drusus. More- 

 over, Peinius records the finding in north 

 Germany of a honey-comb eight feet long 

 taken from a log hive, that is, a hive 

 hewn out of a tree trunk. He tells how 

 the old Germans followed the keeping of 

 bees in the forests and in gardens, in 

 living trees in which a lodgment for the 

 bees was hewn out, or in hives which 

 they had cut from the trees and placed 

 near their dwellings. Especially the 

 Slavic laws prove that already in the 

 fifth century of the Christian era, cov- 

 ered as well as uncovered bee-houses ex- 

 isted. 



The greatest development which api- 

 culture has ever had in Germany occur- 

 red in the so-called middle ages. This 

 began, however, with the introduction 

 of Christianity, from which time on the 

 consumption of wax in the shape of can- 

 dles and tapers constantly increased. 

 The information which has become 

 available to us through the writings left 

 by monasteries and churches proves 

 through the records of taxes for honey 

 and wax which had to be met annually 

 by the peasants, that bee-keeping yielded 

 enormous returns. Thus it came about 

 in the middle ages that the trade in 

 honey, wax and mead reached its highest 

 prosperity. Great quantities of the pro- 

 ducts of bee-keeping were exported by 

 way of Hamburg and other seaports to 

 Spain, Constantinople, Syria and Pales- 

 tine. This flourishing of apiculture was 



greatly aided by the great attention paid 

 to it by princes and owners of large es- 

 tates. The so-called zeidler societies 

 were founded. These were composed of 

 those who were engaged in the care of 

 bees, and also such as were engaged in 

 collecting and straining honey and clari- 

 fying wax, and were called ZeMler. 



These zeidler societies formed closely 

 allied branch associations, which were 

 given special rights and privileges. The 

 strictest laws protected them. Only skil- 

 ful bee-keepers were accepted as mem- 

 bers. They elected judges (Starosten) 

 and elders from their own number. The 

 forests were divided off into districts, 

 and each district was under a zeidler, 

 while several districts formed a society, 

 which in most instances managed large 

 numbers of colonies. The Upper Lusa- 

 tian Zeidler society, for example, had 

 7,000 colonies. The zeidler system was 

 especially flourishing in the Mark of 

 Brandenburg. It was developed on a 

 similarly extensive scale in the so-called 

 royal apiaries in the Bavarian forests in 

 the vicinity of Nuremberg. In the year 

 15B8 the value of two colonies was the 

 same as that of a cow. 



But, unfortunately, from this time on, 

 apiculture in Germany went down hill 

 at a great rate. On account of the Ref- 

 ormations the price of wax decreased 

 greatly, for the glittering lights in most 

 of the churches were extinguished. But 

 what contributed most to the downfall 

 of apiculture in Germany was the fearful 

 thirty years' war which raged on account 

 of religion, after the close of which, in 

 1648, three-fourths of the inhabitants 

 of Germany and 80 per cent, of the cat- 

 tle had been destroyed, and one-third of 

 the cultivated lands laid waste. Only 

 gradually, very slowly, people thought 

 of apiculture again. During this time 

 conditions had also greatly changed. 

 People had learned to replace wax with 

 substitutes, and honey with cane and 

 beet sugar, syrup, etc.; the mead brew- 

 eries which had cost so much had disap- 

 peared, the forests had been decimated, 

 and, through intensive culture, many of 

 the honey-producing weeds extermi- 

 nated. The belief that bee-keeping was 

 no longer profitable gained ground con- 

 stantly. To awaken even a degree of 

 interest in it again required great and 

 persistent efforts. In this men like 

 Nikol Jacob in Silesia, Schirach in Sax- 

 ony, who first practiced the artificial in- 

 crease of colonies, Riem, Spitzner and 

 Christ were notable. Christ invented 

 the magazine hive which constisted of 

 several boxes placed one upon another. 



After the thirty years' war apiculture 



