Episode 40: Tastes of Germany and Tales of Timeless Floating Messages
Nov 13, 2023Episode 40
Marty Smarticus
Are you ready to embark on a tasty adventure? Phoenix and I kick things off by warming your palate with a hearty chat about Germany's culinary staple - the bratwurst. We navigate the varied terrain of this flavorful sausage, from the diverse ingredients used in different regions to the mouthwatering ways it's served. As we recount our own delicious encounters with bratwurst, we also serve up a side of cultural immersion, bringing you the vibrant energy of iconic German festivals. All the while, weaving in our everyday anecdotes about chores and life, making this a true feast for the senses.
Soon, we set sail on the intriguing sea of history, unearthing the romantic tradition of messages in bottles. Phoenix and I unfurl the stories of these bottled tokens, their journey through time, and their unsuspecting finders. From the oldest known messages to the impact they've had on the environment and culture, this captivating exploration is bound to leave you with a sense of wonder. So, join us as we dish out flavor-packed insights and historical gems in an episode that's sure to satiate your curiosity!
Are you ready to embark on a tasty adventure? Phoenix and I kick things off by warming your palate with a hearty chat about Germany's culinary staple - the bratwurst. We navigate the varied terrain of this flavorful sausage, from the diverse ingredients used in different regions to the mouthwatering ways it's served. As we recount our own delicious encounters with bratwurst, we also serve up a side of cultural immersion, bringing you the vibrant energy of iconic German festivals. All the while, weaving in our everyday anecdotes about chores and life, making this a true feast for the senses.
Soon, we set sail on the intriguing sea of history, unearthing the romantic tradition of messages in bottles. Phoenix and I unfurl the stories of these bottled tokens, their journey through time, and their unsuspecting finders. From the oldest known messages to the impact they've had on the environment and culture, this captivating exploration is bound to leave you with a sense of wonder. So, join us as we dish out flavor-packed insights and historical gems in an episode that's sure to satiate your curiosity!
History. Alright, enough with the Echo and Fanfare. You're here for history, right, and not that boring crap you learned in high school. This stuff's actually interesting, like things you've never heard about the Civil War, cleopatra, automobiles, monopoly, the Black Plague and more Fascinating stories, interesting topics and some downright weird facts from the past. It's a new twist on some stories you may know and an interesting look at some things you may have never heard. So grab a beer, kick back and enjoy. Here's your host, smarticast.
Speaker 3:
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Smarticast Tales History. Are you guys ready to uncork a bottle of history lesser known to most? Of course you are Prepare to be transported back in time, as Phoenix and I travel through different instances in just under three decades, all consisting of three bottles with messages.
Speaker 2:
But before we get into the three unrelated incidents of trash dumping, we should talk about our food. For this episode, this was a hard decision because it spans two continents and three countries. Eventually, we had to settle on German food because, in one form or another, each of these bottles was touched by German hands.
Speaker 3:
And if there's one thing they are known for, it's sausages, In particular bratwurst, which is what we're having right now with mashed potatoes. The first documented evidence of the bratwurst in Germany dates to 1313 and can be found in the Franconian city of Nuremberg, which is still internationally renowned for the production of grilling sausages.
Speaker 2:
There are a lot of different kinds of bratwurst because recipes vary from region to region. Some lists say there are over 40 different kinds. How the sausages are served also vary by region. Most types are considered a snack and also considered a type of fast food in most German-speaking countries.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so my mashed potatoes, yet again, I hate to say it, but are instant. It took me a whole I don't know three, four minutes to make.
Speaker 1:
For shame.
Speaker 3:
Well, all you got to do is boil all this one. You didn't even add milk or anything. All you had to do was add water and throw the package in there. Wow, four cups of water, boiling water, and that was it what kind of sausage what kind of sausage. I got the Johnsonville cheddar bratwurst. I almost. Oh, did you really? That's hilarious, totally unplanned we just went and got our own different kind. That's hilarious.
Speaker 2:
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:
And then so my mashed potatoes. They are urban garlic and then I added a bunch of butter to it, so they're very buttery also, and I forgot what brand it was, but yeah.
Speaker 2:
My mashed potatoes are real mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3:
I just made them, hey. So on the package it said it used real Idaho packages potatoes, potatoes.
Speaker 2:
Mmm.
Speaker 3:
So it's real in a fashion it used to be real.
Speaker 2:
No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 3:
Used to be real potatoes.
Speaker 2:
Mine's garlic and cheese mashed potatoes. Oh yeah, I knew I was going to be hungry. I've been waiting for this meal.
Speaker 3:
I totally forgot to get. I have sour cream. I have cheese. I was going to put it on there and I totally forgot.
Speaker 2:
Oh well, oh man, I love bratwurst, though they're so hearty.
Speaker 3:
You say everything's hearty. I do. A lot of the food that we have here is pretty hearty, so far, anyways, we need to do a dessert sometime, like a real dessert. We did it. We did a dessert. We did banana pudding. It's been so long. That was the very first one, I think, was a banana pudding. You're right, yeah. Yeah, we should do another dessert next time, maybe next time. Well, yeah, because they have their Germany has, don't they have like some kind of festival or not October fest? I mean like their sausages and stuff? I think they do Probably, and I can't you can't remember what it's called.
Speaker 2:
I know that anytime you go to October fest or beer fest, there's always sausage too and sour cream.
Speaker 3:
So I almost bought sauerkraut too. When I picked up the sausages they're bratwurst. I mean I was like man, like I should put these in a bun and do like sauerkraut and stuff and like mayonnaise and ketchup and mustard. But I didn't. I'm just eating it by itself. They're just that good.
Speaker 2:
They are, they really, really are. Yeah, I would love to go to Germany and actually try their like real German from Germany. Yeah, sausage and bratwurst and all that.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I'm sure, and I'd like to try it fresh too, like go out and sort of big and then make your own sausage and stuff. I think they're cool. Yeah, and I don't know what they use. I don't know if they still use intestine to cover the.
Speaker 2:
I think it depends Some people, some people use the synthetic and some people use the real stuff.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that's kind of what I thought. So, anyways, yeah, that's what we did this week Bratwurst. So it's pretty good. As most of you I'm sure know, you all probably had bratwurst before.
Speaker 2:
And if you haven't, you should.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and we didn't do anything special. I mean, I didn't do anything special, I just, I just I actually air fried mine. Ooh nice, I air fried them for at 450, for 20 minutes I think, and they're, they're perfect.
Speaker 2:
Pan seared mine. Yeah, I almost burned them because I forgot I was doing laundry. Oh man, yeah, the fain of my existence is laundry.
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah, I don't well, dishes is mine, but yeah, let's get in here. You guys don't want to hear us talk about just a simple food like bratwurst and or doing dishes and laundry.
Speaker 3:
Or doing dishes and laundry. Yeah, there have been many messages and bottles found in many movies and books where the story plot device has saved lives, started friendships and even romances. The three bottles that we're going to talk about today, however, do not have nearly so much drama. The Guinness World Record says that the oldest message in a bottle found is 131 years and 223 days old and was found on Wedge Island, australia. The second is 108 years, four months and 18 days old, found on Amram Island, one of Germany's North Frisian Islands. The third is 101 years old and was found in the Baltic Sea.
Speaker 2:
January 21st 2018, tonya Ilman from Perth, australia, found an old gin bottle on the beach while taking a walk with her family, thinking it would make a nice decoration for her house. Tonya brought it home Shortly after. She showed it to her son's girlfriend, who tipped the sand out, only to discover that there was something inside that looked like a cigarette. Upon further inspection, it looked more like a tightly rolled piece of paper. Human nature being what it is, they removed it from the bottle. Unfortunately, the paper was wet, too fragile to open without destroying.
Speaker 3:
So they got clever. They put it in the oven for a few minutes to dry it out. What was revealed was a date 12 June 1886. Tanya's husband, kim, told BBC. Then we unrolled it and saw a printed writing. They could see the handwritten ink at that point, but saw a printed message that asked the reader to contact the German consulate when they found the note. On the note there was the date coordinates 32.49 South, 105.25 East. She did captain details, departure and arrival port written in ink. It was written by the Dutch CIVARTE in Hamburg and asked the finder to send the note to them or the nearest German embassy, noting the time and place of the find.
Speaker 2:
Dr Ross Anderson, the assistant curator of maritime archaeology at the Western Australian Museum, was asked to look at the message and the bottle. After consulting with experts from Germany and the Netherlands, he found the message to be authentic. After further research into the ship and its captain, it was discovered that the bottle was jettisoned into the East Indian Ocean as part of a research project into the ocean and shipping routes by the German Naval Observatory. This experiment spanned 69 years, with only 662 messages being found so far, but without bottles. Interestingly enough, before this bottle was found, there was the 109 year old bottle holding the record.
Speaker 3:
So I'm curious Okay, 662 messages were found without bottles, right. How did they last? How did they not get?
Speaker 2:
I don't know. I couldn't find any information on that, which was really irritating. The only thing I can think is they had to have gotten washed up on shore, the bottles had to have broken and then gotten moved around or something by animals or by rushing and tied. And then somebody found the piece of paper, picked it up, thinking it was trash, and was like oh hey, this isn't trash, this is old.
Speaker 3:
That's got to be how it happened. Yeah, it's got to be how, because there's no way that if it broke on the water or in the water that that piece of paper it would have, it would have came apart from the just, it would have been torn to shreds just from the tides and from the waves. So, yeah, so the bottle had to have been washed ashore and then maybe it slammed into rocks or something, right? Or, like you said, maybe an animal found it or something. Yeah, that's the only way I can think. Yeah, I agree with that conclusion.
Speaker 3:
That brings us to the bottle found in 2016 on Amberm Island by Marianne Winkler, a retired postal worker, which is rather funny considering all things. Through the side of the bottle, she could see that there was a piece of paper inside that had instructions to break the glass. However, marianne and her husband hesitated to follow through because they recognized that it was old. When they finally decided to do it, they worked carefully to keep the bottle intact. What they found inside was a postcard already addressed to GP Bitter at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, england, with a promise of a one-shilling reward.
Speaker 2:
Amazingly enough, the Marine Biological Association still exists, according to a press release. After the arrival they were surprised and thrilled to get a postcard addressed to their former president, who died in 1954 at the age of 91. According to Corey Feta at the Christian Science Monitor, the staff searched around on eBay to find a shelling a unit of currency that went out of circulation in Great Britain in the early 1970s to send it to Winkler as promised.
Speaker 3:
Interestingly, this was not the only bottle that Bitter threw into the North Sea between 1904 and 2006. He threw thousands into the water as a research project to map currents. These bottles were special one's. Bitter called bottom trailers, which were weighted so that they would sink, with a piece of stiff wire attached on the outside that would keep them off the seafloor. The idea was that fishermen trolling the sea would find the bottles and send them in, something the NBA says might be one of the first citizen science projects ever recorded. According to Association, 55% of the bottles were returned.
Speaker 2:
Which is really impressive when you think about that.
Speaker 3:
It is, yeah, 55,. So over half the bottles that he threw out there did end up coming back.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
Last but certainly not least, is the one bottle that wasn't sent out into a body of water as a marine science experiment. In 2014, a bottle was found in the Baltic Sea by a fisherman, mr Conrad Fisher. He considered throwing it back in when and this is a quote he gave the Kyler Nachristian newspaper. I had it in my hand, but then a colleague told me there was something in it. When I saw the date, I got really excited. Fisher was clever, knowing that if it was old, a museum would want it.
Speaker 3:
In fact he was right. The International's Mary Tynes Museum in Hamburg was very interesting. Though the postcard was illegible for the most part thanks to water damage. The researchers at the museum found the signature of Richard Plaatz Written. Below was a faded though friendly request for whoever found the note to send a response to his home address. Richard was even thoughtful enough to add two stamps for the return postage. What a swell guy.
Speaker 2:
I know right, I love that about him. I don't even know this dude and I'm like, oh, I bet you are super sweet.
Speaker 3:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
After some research by a genealogist, richard's granddaughter, angela Erdman, was found living in Berlin, the same place her grandfather was from. Though Angela hadn't met her grandfather, who died in 1946 at the age of 54, just six years before she was born, with the visit a spark was lit in Angela to learn more about the man she had never met. She went on the record saying I knew very little about my grandfather, but I found out that he was a writer who was very open-minded, believed in freedom and that everyone should respect each other. He did a lot for the young and later traveled with his wife and two daughters. It was wonderful because I could see where my roots came from.
Speaker 3:
Even though Angela was touched by her grandfather's attempts to reach out in the amazement that it took 101 years to reach home, she hoped that people wouldn't try to repeat his actions. There's a romantic nature to messages and bottles, sure, but as she put it, the day to see is full of so many bottles and rubbish that more shouldn't be thrown in there. And really she's right. All of these messages and bottles make for a great story, as we said before, but really it's glorified littering.
Speaker 2:
She's absolutely right. Still, it is terribly interesting that at one time or another, each of these bottles has been in German hands. They make great food, great drinks, have fun music and they participate in three of the coolest discoveries of a similar nature. That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:
That is very cool, but unfortunately this brings this episode to a close. Thank you for listening to our podcast on three of the oldest messages and bottles. We've trusted that you found pleasure in delving deeper into these peculiar instances of a comparable kind. Join us next time as we explore another fascinating topic from around the world.