Pretzel’s History: the Bread that Saved Vienna from a Massacre

There is something that unites Austria , Germany and South Tyrol,  and it's not just their language: these three places are united by the bretzel, the crunchy bow-shaped bread typical of these areas. Available in countless varieties that change in size, recipe, ingredients, one thing stays the same: pretzels are a symbol of the Christmas markets, an inevitable accompaniment to beer during the Oktoberfest and one of the most popular street foods in the world. Their fortune is all thanks to their goodness and aesthetics: those characteristic flakes of salt on the surface make it immediately recognisable, unique in a certain sense. Let's discover pretzel's history and all the legends linked to this inimitable product.

The Thousand Faces of the Pretzel

Each area has its own recipe, each region its own name: we can say that "bretzel" is the official wording for this bread but you can also read pretzel, brezn, pretzl, brezel, laugenbrezel. In Alto Adige they cut the bull's head by calling it "Austrian salatone", so as not to have pronunciation problems. The simplicity of the recipe, so tasty and economical, contributed to bringing this bread across half of Europe and today, rightly so, it can be called a typical German, Swiss, South Tyrolean, Austrian, Alsatian and Romanian product, just to remain on our continent, where you can also find it in a sweet version (with sugar or chocolate icing) and even fried, similar to a Neapolitan Graffa. In Bavaria there is a singular way of serving the product, accompanied by sweet mustard, various side dishes and the traditional weißwurst, the Bavarian white frankfurter. There is also a kosher version of the pretzel typical of the entire American East Coast , which they call exclusively "pretzel".

There cannot therefore be a single recipe, but we can try to trace a path: all pretzels have the shape of a ring with their two ends knotted. Doing this trick takes years of practice. The basic ingredients are generally soft wheat flour, malt (in some variants honey), brewer's yeast, water and sodium bicarbonate. You can also find lard among the ingredients and then replace the soft wheat flour with wholemeal flour, spelled or other cereals. The bread-making method, called Laugengebäck , is very interesting: typical of Germany, it consists of immersing the dough in a solution of boiling water and caustic soda for a few seconds. Thanks to this technique the pretzels turn out really shiny. In reality the Laugengebäck method is now used only in the industrial sector, while bicarbonate is used while home-baking to eliminate all the risks deriving from soda.

The true story of pretzels

All states try to take credit for it but we'll tell you right away: pretzels are Italian. This type of bread was born around 610 in the monasteries of the North as a recovery food from the classic bread dough. The monks tried to give a shape to the leftover dough and created these strips which were crossed to represent hands in prayer. Coincidentally, although the monks deny this, with this union three holes are also formed, which should represent the Holy Trinity.

The first names given to the product are not German but Latin: the monks call them pretiola, or reward, or brachiola, from the Latin brachium or bracellus, because of the dough's crossed arms. This is because the first pretzels were the reward for children who memorized Bible verses, prayers or did all their homework at school. From the North they crossed the Alps, going first into France, then into Bavaria where they were perfected, essentially becoming the product we know today already in the Middle Ages. In Germany they conquered everyone, we can find them in very ancient prayer books and the Germans used them as auspicious food. Since the Imperial Reformation and the Eastern Schism, pretzels also became an "official" Easter food in Germany. This would still be the case today but the product is now consumed all year round, all over the world, thus losing this characteristic.

About a century after the German improvement, these breads were the innocent protagonists of a particularly dramatic story: in 1510 the Ottomans attempted to conquer Vienna but, failing to do so by land, they attempted an assault from within, digging a tunnel. A dangerous, risky move, which turns out to be a failure thanks to the pretzels. In the 16th century, in fact, they were still a monastery product and the monks themselves alerted the local authorities: working in the silence of the night, in the basements of churches and sacristies, they listened to all the enemy's progress. Not satisfied with the "espionage" they joined the army fighting on the front lines of the Turkish attack, and won. To thank the courageous prelates, Maximilian I of Habsburg gave them the imperial coat of arms and a very high status in the society at the time, which lasted until the Great War. The story of the "pretzel saviors of the homeland" travels around Europe and increases their status as a "lucky food ": in Switzerland the nobles gave them to each other at wedding ceremonies, as if they were wedding favors; in Germany children made necklaces to wear on New Year's Eve to wish each other good luck and prosperity for the coming year.

They also arrived in America for the same reason, at least according to a legend. The Mayflower, the merchant ship in which the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in the United States in 1620, was full of dry pretzels (similar to those we use as appetizers), as a good omen for their journey. In reality the story is a little different: it is true that the pilgrim fathers had these dried pretzels, but not for good luck; they intended to use them as barter with the Native Americans. From the 1600s onwards they expanded throughout the United States, especially from 1710 onwards, with the mass arrival of immigrants from Germany who brought with them all the gastronomic traditions of their land.