In this episode, Katja and Chris are joined by historian Dr Claudia Kreklau to uncover the surprising German origins of the way the world eats today. They explore how chefs fleeing the French Revolution found new homes in Prussian courts, how volcanic eruptions and failed harvests triggered starvation and revolution in the 1840s, and how the German middle class turned household preservation tricks into an industrial food empire. From Liebig's meat extract and the rise of tinned goods to the 1879 food law that cracked down on adulterated products, they trace the messy, fascinating path from farmhouse kitchens to global brands like Knorr, Maggi, and Heinz. And rediscover the women whose culinary innovations were quietly erased from the historical record.
Website: https://claudiakreklau.wordpress.com/
Handles and Profiles:
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1621-5300
Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=57204513593
GoogleScholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fJ5HIJgAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Profile: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/people/ck230/
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/claudiakreklau.bsky.social
Twitter: @Claudia Kreklau
The Making of Modern Eating: How the German Middle Class Forged the Way We Eat, 1780-1910 - Studies in German History (Hardback)
Berghahn PDF: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/KreklauMaking/9781836953609_OA.pdf
Amazon EPUB: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Modern-Eating-1780-1910-Studies-ebook/dp/B0GF76PPNX/ref=sr_1_1
And here the articles mentioned:
“Masters of Food: Climate Crisis and Optimized Exploitation in an Atlantic Hinterland before the Revolutions of 1848,” German Studies Review (Johns Hopkins UP), 49:1 (February 2026) 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/gsr.2026.a983097
“Vaterland, c.1780-1870,” German History (Oxford UP), 43:3 (October 2025) 373–394. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghaf036
The Vaterland piece is open access.
Takes you beyond the familiar clichés to uncover the richness and diversity of the German past.
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Host: Katja Hoyer & Dr Christopher Dillon
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Credits:
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