Sugar Museum (Berlin)
The Sugar Museum in Berlin is the oldest museum of its kind and was opened on May 8, 1904, together with the then Department of sugar industry. Since 1995 it is part of the German Museum of Technology and was between 1995 and 2013 Institute of Food Technology in Amrumer Straße 32 in the district of Wedding. Since November 2013, is located in the Trebbiner street in the district of Kreuzberg.
Historical Background
Berlin comes for sugar production so far is of particular importance, as Franz Carl Achard, a Berlin physicist who in 1780 experimented with various sugary native plants. Of the cultivated at his estate near Berlin Kaulsdorf plants, the beet was found to be most productive. Achard could be optimized by further breeding and also increase the yield significantly through targeted fertilization. In 1799 he was King Friedrich Wilhelm III. first present sugar from beet. With royal support, he eventually built in 1801 on an estate in Kunern (Silesia, see also Wińsko ) the first beet sugar factory in the world.
Topics of the permanent exhibition
After a year of renovation, the Sugar Museum was re- opened in late 1989. Shown is a cultural-historical collection on the history of the sugar. The Divided into seven subject areas permanent exhibition includes scientific and nutritional principles of the sugar. Furthermore, the technical, cultural and political significance of sugar is illuminated.
The sugar cane
The first part of the exhibition deals with the history of the sugar cane plant. It describes how people learned to win from the sugar cane sugar. In more and more sophisticated methods of sugar was purified until then white sugar could be produced for the first time. The exhibition shows machines for the production and purification of sugar, sugar cane plants and possible pests that can infest the sugarcane.
Colonial sugar
Since the climate in the Caribbean was favorable for the cultivation of sugar cane, the center of sugar production was there in the 16th century. The sugar was in the 16th to 18th centuries as an important commodity colonial goods. The exhibition describes the rise of important business and refining centers such as Antwerp, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Hamburg or London, showing the vessels commonly used as a transport model.
Slave economy
The great demand for sugar in Europe meant that more and more workers were needed in the growing areas of the colonies. In the plantations, African slaves were increasingly used. The exhibition gives an insight into the lives of workers and shows the inhumane transport conditions that prevailed during the crossing from Africa to America.
Beet sugar in Prussia
The discovery of beet sugar was a commodity from the erstwhile luxury. The exhibition shows in a model a beet sugar factory in Silesia from 1801, which gives an impression of what work for industrial production of sugar were required. However, this model also shows the working and living conditions of workers in a factory such. A large painting also shows a fictitious meeting between Franz Carl Achard, the inventor ' of beet sugar and the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, King presents the first beet sugar. , On the Achard.
Sugar Production
The increasing industrialization meant that sugar has become a national food. The exhibition shows in which areas of Germany were primarily sugar is grown. It shows the breeding and technical innovations of the last 100 years, but also the economic and ecological importance of the resulting by-products such as molasses and bagasse.
A world without sugar
The penultimate part of the permanent exhibition shows how many products contain sugar is today. It describes the role of sugar as an energy supplier and questioned whether there is a correlation between the consumption of sugar and tooth decay. Further, this part of the conversion of glucose into sucrose within plants dar.
No sugar, no alcohol
The department " No sugar, no alcohol " is located in the conservatory of the museum. It shows how people thousands of years ago already discovered the intoxicating effects of alcohol. The exhibition goes on to describe the process in order to win with the help of sugar alcohol.