Beer ban mile

They stand slightly hidden, hidden at the roadside, and you have to look very closely to recognize them. The memorial steles, erected in 1978, commemorate the restricted area around the beer town of Einbeck. Einbecker Brauhaus AG erected the eight stones, each positioned at the site of the former watchtowers of the Einbecker Landwehr, in the town of Einbeck for the 600th anniversary of the first Beer receipt The eight ban mile stones were inspected by the city council and the public during a ban mile march on May 5, 1979, as recorded in the Einbeck Brewery archives.

What was the Bannmeile? What was the Landwehr?

In the 14th century, Einbeck was a typical farming town. Even those citizens who practiced a trade within the city walls usually also engaged in agriculture and livestock farming, albeit on a modest scale, primarily for subsistence. A strip of land had formed around the city walls, called the Einbeck Field or the Einbeck Mark. This area was divided into garden plots, and there was also communal property for timber supply, grazing, and pasture. Hop gardens had also been planted, a valuable area for a beer-producing city like Einbeck. In addition, wealthy Einbeck families owned land in the belt surrounding the city, not least the ecclesiastical institutions such as the monasteries and St. Alexandri Abbey. This area close to the city, vital to a city, was enclosed by a land defense system that, according to historians, measured six to seven kilometers north-south and about nine to ten kilometers west-east. Hedges and ditches ensured that the herded cattle could not stray and were also not easily stolen. Through traffic was directed by the Landwehr along paths that could be controlled from towers. There were eight such Landwehr towers in Einbeck: the Hube Tower, the Leine Tower, the Red Tower, the Reinser Tower, the Pinkler Tower, the Klapper Tower, the Bartshäuser Tower, and the Kuventhal Tower. With a Landwehr more than 20 kilometers long, the construction and maintenance of the fort took their toll, which the citizens had to pay for, for example, by providing guard duty – or compensate financially.

The ban ultimately secured beer sales within this town mark, which brought Einbeck prosperity for centuries – including protectionism against foreign beers. Within the Landwehr borders, only Einbeck beer was available. In the 16th century, a serious beer dispute arose between the Einbeck council and the territorial lord, Duke Philipp. The duke wanted to brew his beer for the court in the town, but the council opposed this, so the duke simply set up his own breweries to compete with the town, for example in Rotenkirchen. In his offices in Rotenkirchen and Salzderhelden, he also issued import and serving bans on Einbeck beer. The ban thus worked both ways. But not for long; the territorial lord and the town quickly reconciled.