M: Can you tell what this is? Maybe you remember seeing a couple of preserving jars sitting in the store cupboard? This particular specimen contains bottled cherries.
F: In Germany, Johann Carl Weck is generally regarded as an early proponent of preserving jars. Over time, his surname, "Weck", was even adopted as the generic term for the jars. Much like the US with its Mason jars, Germany has its Weck jars. In the same way as a facial tissue is a Kleenex, people might drive a "Diesel" or a vacuum cleaner is a Hoover.
M: Johann Carl Weck neither developed the bottling process, nor did he invent the sturdy preserving jars. What he did do in 1895 was acquire a patent. The chemist Rudolf Rempel had developed a process by which fruit and other foodstuffs could be heated and preserved by excluding air.
F: There was a particular reason why Weck was interested in the patent. He saw the process as an important contribution to a healthy lifestyle. Weck was not only a committed vegetarian; he was also a teetotaller. With Rempel's process, fruit could be preserved entirely without using alcohol, and what's more, the fruit retained its flavour.
M: By taking up this cause, Johann Carl Weck was in tune with the times. Since the mid-19th century, the ideas of the Lebensreform social movement were attracting more and more support. The movement took a critical view of industrialisation and growing urbanisation.
Foto: © Förderverein Museum im Steinhaus e.V.
