beer ban mile

They stand slightly concealed, hidden by the roadside, and you really have to look closely to recognize them. The memorial steles, erected in 1978, commemorate the ban mile around the beer town of Einbeck. The Einbecker Brauhaus AG donated the eight stones, each positioned at the sites of the former watchtowers of the Einbecker Landwehr, to the city of Einbeck for its 600th anniversary in memory of the first beer record as a gift. During a ban-mile march, the eight ban-mile stones were visited by the city council and the public on May 5, 1979, as noted in the archives of the Einbecker Brewery.

What was the ban mile? What was the Landwehr?

Einbeck was a typical farming town in the 14th century. Even those citizens who practiced a craft within the city walls usually also engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, albeit on a modest scale primarily for self-sufficiency. Around the city wall, a strip had formed, called the Einbecker Field or the Einbecker Mark. This area was divided into garden plots; there was also communal property for wood supply and for pasture and grazing. And hop gardens were established, a valuable area for a beer town like Einbeck. In addition, wealthy Einbeck families owned land in the belt around the city, not least church institutions such as monasteries or the St. Alexandri chapter. This urban vicinity, vital for a city, was enclosed by a Landwehr, which according to historians measured six to seven kilometers north to south and about nine to ten kilometers west to east. Hedges and ditches ensured that the grazing cattle could neither run away nor be easily stolen. Traffic was directed by the Landwehr onto paths that could be monitored from towers. Einbeck had eight such Landwehr towers: Hube Tower, Leine Tower, Red Tower, Reinser Tower, Pinkler Tower, Klapper Tower, Bartshausen Tower, Kuventhaler Tower. Maintaining and operating a Landwehr over more than 20 kilometers demanded its toll, which citizens had to fulfill, for example, through guard duties—or pay financially instead.

Finally, the ban mile secured beer sales within this city territory, which brought Einbeck prosperity over centuries—including protectionism against foreign beers. Within the Landwehr boundaries, only Einbecker beer was allowed. In the 16th century, there was a fierce beer dispute between the Einbeck council and the territorial lord Duke Philipp. The duke wanted to brew his beer in the city for court use; the council disagreed, so the duke simply competed with his own breweries, for example in Rotenkirchen. In his offices of Rotenkirchen and Salzderhelden, he also issued import and serving bans against Einbecker beer. The ban thus worked both ways. However, this did not last long, and the territorial lord and city soon reconciled.