As they used to say in Wrocław: “Revenge as sweet as the Lessing gingerbread”. Where did this saying come from? Who was guilty and what did they do wrong to bring on themselves such a vendetta full of exquisite tastes and aromas?
Let us go back to the year 1761 when the third Silesian war was on (1756-1763) – called also the Seven Years’ War – and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) found himself in the city. A leading character of the German Enlightenment, playwright, literature critic and theorist, passionate bibliophile and reformer of the German theatre, with the support of King Frederick II undertaking service in the role of a secretary to the military cabinet of general Friedrich Bogislav von Tauentzien (1710-1791), at that time commanding the garrison in Wrocław.
Privately, Lessing lived in the house of a master baker whose name, however, has not been preserved to this day.
The most famous of Wrocław gingerbreads!
Lessing gingerbread
Lessing taught French to two daughters of the baker, often telling endless stories to the entire family about literature, theatre, his travels, people in the world of culture and art almost from all over Europe, but usually during evening hours going out to the city because the nightlife was – as we can say – his element. And furthermore gambling, eating up the substantial resources of his wallet…
Coming back early in the morning to the rooms he rented from his host, he quite often caused considerable disruptions prematurely getting his entire family on their feet – either singing when in a good mood, or accidentally knocking over household appliances, or swearing after failure at the card table, or calling the baker’s wife to prepare breakfast for him when dogs were already barking in the streets.
Enough is enough, and the master of the spiced bakery decided to “repay in kind” Lessing for disturbing the domestic peace.
As he decided, so he did… Before the Christmas market of the same 1761, he baked a gingerbread with a caricature of the famous Gentleman – but hunchbacked, in shapeless frock coat, flimsy footwear and poor hat cover.
The people in Wrocław liked the gingerbread both for the taste and as an excellent joke. It was available in the market booths for over a century and “Revenge as sweet as the Lessing gingerbread” was permanently incorporated in the collection of Wroclaw sayings. History both beautiful and tasty!
Producer:
Pierniki Wrocławskie (Wrocław Gingerbreads)
Rodzinna Manufaktura Piernika (Family Gingerbread Manufacture)
Anna Kuśmierek-Rudy i Jacek Rudy (Anna Kuśmierek-Rudy & Jacek Rudy)
Text: Grzegorz Sobel
Pierniki Wrocławskie
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