**From 1850 onwards, people had less time to eat. This was evident in the rapidly changing food industry.** Swiss National Museum

The food on the working man’s table

The process of industrialisation witnessed its first peak in Switzerland between 1850 and 1900. This upheaval also transformed the way food was produced and what people ate.

Dominik Landwehr

Dominik Landwehr is a cultural and media scientist and lives in Winterthur.

In Jeremias Gotthelf’s 1850 novel Die Käserei in der Vehfreude, known in English as The Cheese Factory in the Hamlet, the farmers of a fictional Emmental community decide to build a cheese-making dairy with money that was actually earmarked for the construction of a schoolhouse – to enable the local inhabitants to catch up with the villages in the surrounding area. From then on all the milk the local cows produce is no longer available for drinking, it’s made into cheese instead. And because that’s not enough for the farmers, they dilute the milk with water. The deception is of course exposed, leading to further complications and entanglements. This classic of Swiss literature enjoyed renewed success in 1958, when director Franz Schnyder produced a film adaptation of the novel.

Film trailer from 1958 (in German). YouTube

The story mirrors a number of important developments relating to food production in the 19th century: the replacement of small-scale alpine cheese-making operations with larger dairies in the valleys, the growing importance of cheese exports for Switzerland’s economy, and problems with quality. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Emmental cheese became one of Switzerland’s main export products. However, the quality problems in the food industry weren’t tackled at federal level until 1906, when legislation on foodstuffs was brought in. Industrialisation gained momentum in Switzerland from 1850 onwards – industrial workers flocked in droves to the towns and regional hubs. This also transformed the country’s day-to-day life, and a key aspect of this was food. In a rural culture a lot of time is spent preparing food, but as the industrial age progressed this time melted away. Not only men and women worked in the factories, but their children as well – no one had time to cook anymore.

**With industrialisation, society’s eating habits also changed. View of a cloth factory in Neu-Pfungen.** Swiss National Museum

This industrial growth was accompanied by a number of revolutionary developments in agriculture. These included, for example, the transition from the three-field system to continuous crop rotation. The introduction of year-round indoor housing of animals made it possible to produce dung and manure as fertiliser. Mechanisation began at the end of the 19th century, bringing about another jump in productivity. Two other developments facilitated and encouraged industrial change: the introduction of the potato in the 18th century and the advent of international trade. Global trade brought products such as coffee and industrially produced sugar into the country.

**Potato harvest in Rheinau, c. 1910.** Swiss National Museum

From about 1870, an actual food and beverage industry began to develop. Swiss companies quickly garnered an international reputation. Condensed milk was one of the first products to be industrially produced. The two biggest producers were the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co and Nestlé; the two companies merged in 1905. In 1865 the company Wander in Bern came out with a malt extract, which later became Ovomaltine. In 1868, brothers Wallrad Ottmar and Philipp Emil Bernhard, who had immigrated from Germany, began producing canned food and soon established themselves as suppliers for the Swiss army. Roco later emerged from their company. The story of Julius Maggi is also an interesting one. Maggi was actually a miller by trade, but he lost his livelihood due to cheap grain imports, and out of sheer need for an income he started producing powdered soups and a seasoning that soon became established as Maggi seasoning.

**Workers at the Maggi company in Kemptthal preparing cauliflower for ready-made soups, c. 1910.** Nestlé Archives

Next to cheese, Switzerland’s most successful export product was chocolate. Cocoa arrived in Switzerland early on and was being processed and refined in Ticino, for example, as early as the 18th century. The oldest chocolate factories were established in western Switzerland at the beginning of the 19th century: Cailler in Vevey in 1819, Suchard in Serrièrers in 1826, and Favarger in Lausanne in the same year. The legendary Swiss chocolate is based on three inventions. In 1826 Philippe Suchard devised a machine for mixing sugar and cocoa powder, in 1875 Daniel Peter mixed milk and chocolate and thus invented milk chocolate and, finally, in 1879 Rudolf Lindt in Bern brought in a crucial refinement, the conching process. In the 19th century chocolate was an export product – success at home only came when the Swiss army purchased chocolate as part of its troops’ regular provisions during World War I, with other European countries later following suit.

**“Gala Peter” chocolate box with advertising for the inventor of milk chocolate.** Swiss National Museum

Pasta became increasingly popular among industrial workers: it was inexpensive and quick to prepare. Pasta factories started to spring up everywhere, even in places that were just a few kilometres distant from each other, as in the case of the Hotz pasta factory in Wila and the Weilenmann brothers’ factory in Rikon. The triumphant progress of the railways led to a concentration by the end of the 19th century, and from then on the Weilenmann brothers only produced in Winterthur, which was more favourably situated in terms of transport. The Bschüssig pasta label later emerged from their business.

Beer as a luxury product

In the second half of the 19th century beer also became popular as a luxury food. Up to then, wine or apple cider, often simply called “Most” or “Suure Most”, were the main alcoholic beverages. However, beer was mainly consumed in taverns; bottled beer was a luxury for a long time. While there were already 150 breweries in 1850, by 1885 the figure had ballooned to 530. This growth was driven by two developments: Louis Pasteur’s discovery made it possible to produce beers that would keep for a prolonged period, and the invention of refrigeration systems solved the cooling problem and the issue of the laborious transport of ice, which was often obtained in the mountains and had to be conveyed to the breweries by horse and cart. Refrigerators only came into widespread use in private households after World War II. Finally, the rapidly expanding railways helped with the distribution of the sought-after beverage.

**Beer from Winterthur is loaded up for transport to Zurich. Photo dating from 1887.** Wikimedia / Familienarchiv Schoellhorn Winterthur

**Ice from the Klöntalersee was transported to Winterthur in winter to cool the beer during the warm season. The photo was taken in 1876.** Wikimedia / Familienarchiv Schoellhorn Winterthur

To begin with, commercial undertakings were the main beneficiaries of the achievements of the fledgling food industry – canned food was an expensive affair up until the late 19th century. But food played the main role in the budgets of working-class families, accounting for 62 percent of household spending. Most of the money was spent on buying bread and coffee, or coffee substitutes such as chicory. Meat, milk and potatoes also played an important role. The development of cheap powdered soups was also a social reform project: liquor was a staple food. Even as late as the 1930s, Winterthur’s industrial workers were rushing to the tavern early in the morning for their pre-work hit of booze for 20 centimes. Although the food industry has gone through some major changes from its beginnings to the present day, it has been able – unlike the machinery and textile industries, for example – to sustain its position in many areas worldwide, especially in the chocolate sector. Cheese also continues to play a role in export today. Switzerland’s position as one of the world’s leading coffee exporters is another story, and is due in large part to the huge success of Nestlé’s Nespresso system.

More of: Modern Age Economy Food Article

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