Rural Heidelberg in the 1840s
"In an outbuilding we saw a most ponderous wine-press of oak, where probably the wine of the village has been prepared for generations, from the picturesque vineyards on the hills…
From: 1840 C.E. To: 1842 C.E.
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Social Life and Habits,” from The Rural and Domestic Life of Germany by William Howitt, 1842.
In an outbuilding we saw a most ponderous wine-press of oak, where probably the wine of the village has been prepared for generations, from the picturesque vineyards on the hills above the village. These hills form part of the celebrated line of the Bergstrasse, so much admired by travellers from Frankfort to Heidelberg. Heidelberg lies in the opening of the valley, where the Neckar, after a course of thirty miles of beautiful scenery, amongst the hills of the Odenwald, pours out into the plain. These hills crowned with woods, and their sides clothed with richest vineyards overlook the town on all sides, except on that next the plain.
On the sides of these hills, and amid these terraced vineyards, and beech and chestnut woods, the inhabitants have very pleasant orchards and gardens, and garden-houses perched aloft, themselves in green and leafy nooks, yet giving extensive views over the town, the river, and the plain below, to the distant Haardt mountains. Eight and left of the city, on the highest points of the hills, the traveller sees two towers standing on high, as the watch-towers of the place. One is the ruin of St. Michael's chapel, the other a lofty look-out, called the Kaiser-Stuhl, or Emperor's-seat, to each of which, through the woods, ascend delightful walks.
The hills, where the Neckar, just below the town, issues to the plain, extend right and left in a pretty direct line, still clothed with vineyards. Along the plain, at the foot of these, turning our back on the village of Handschuhsheim, of which we have just spoken, towards the end of July, we walked to the village of Rohrbach, about two miles from the lower end of Heidelberg. The people were busy in the corn, and the scene was very animated and very curious.
It was a splendid morning; and the plain was full of sunshine, which brought out all the lights and shades of the vine-clad hills on our left, and all the different colours of the crops and the costumes of the peasantry. The yellow expanses of corn were scattered with groups of reapers, and with ploughmen ploughing up with their teams, mostly of a couple of cows, the land the moment the crops were removed from it, for turnips. Wagons, drawn by cows and bullocks, were standing in other places ready to be loaded, and others came slowly along with their loads towards the town.
The whole scene reminded us of the reaping of scriptural times, and must be much of the same character. As in Judea, there are no fences, but merely landmarks—stones set down at the termination of every man's property. The land divided into its little lots must be much as it was in Judea, where the family property was inalienable, and subject to constant divisions and subdivisions. You therefore see no jolly teams of horses, drawing ploughs of the last and most approved construction, as in England. The ploughmen leisurely "whistling o'er the lea," and other men finishing the cultivation of the wide field, with all the scientific apparatus, scarifiers, rollers, drills, etc., as with us; but peasants, chiefly with their cow-teams, and ploughs, harrows, and wagons, of the most primitive construction, clearing their crops from their little lots, and ploughing up the same in all directions.
All amongst these lie those green crops which I have mentioned, and which, as you approach any town or village, become so predominant over the corn as to produce the effect of a market garden. These are chiefly mangel-wurzel, a German name, oddly enough unknown in Germany, but here called dick-ruben; hemp, of which great quantities are grown and spun by the women in winter, for sheeting, shirting, and the blue stuff for the summer jackets and trousers of the men, and various garments for the children; great plots of poppies, chiefly for oil, which, when in bloom, as then, make a beautiful show, in great expanses of mingled purple, red, and lilac.
Besides these are plots of hops, cabbages, rows of kidney-beans, potatoes in plenty, and hundreds of acres of tobacco. It would have been wonderful, indeed, if in Germany, where there is almost as much smoke from tobacco as from the chimneys of their houses, this were not the case. It flourishes, indeed, most beautifully; and with its rich green colour and luxuriant leaves, makes to the eye one of the most pleasing portions of the crop. It is said to be as fine as any in the world, and that. much of it goes to Spain and Holland, to be manufactured into cigars, which not only go thence to England, as Spanish and Havanna cigars, but actually come back hither dubbed with those recommendatory titles. A great portion is bought by the Emperor of Austria.
Indian corn is also grown in great quantities, but chiefly for feeding of swine and geese, being seldom or over used for household purposes. It appears to flourish here as well as it possibly can in America. You see very little of the dwarf kind, cultivated in England under the name of Cobbett's corn; and that in gardens. The prevalent kind is large, is of the richest green, and five or six feet in height. It is planted out about three feet asunder each way.
Howitt, William. The Rural and Domestic Life of Germany. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1842.
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