The Brits really didn't like German sausages in the 19th century

I stumbled upon this JSTOR essay named ‘”We Don’t Want Any German Sausages Here!” Food, Fear, and the German Nation in Victorian and Edwardian Britain‘ which explored the anti-German sentiment of Victorian and Edwardian Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the opening weeks of the First World War, German immigrants in Britain faced a series of isolated attacks, mostly focused on German retailers. At the end of August 1914, a more serious disturbance broke out in Keighley, Yorkshire, which resulted in attacks on four German butcher shops. Throughout 1914 and 1915, German butchers in London, Crewe, and elsewhere became targets of anti-German violence. Attacks reached a peak in 1915, as the Germanophobic hysteria that broke out following the sinking of the Lusitania led to riots across Britain. In many cases, violence and property damage focused initially on German butchers because both German food manufacturers and German food offered a visible symbol of Germany and German influences on Britain. In the following year, the Daily Mail explained how certain restaurants had renamed various national dishes so that the “Vienna steak” became the “Belgian steak” and the “German sausage” the “English sausage,” and by 1917, German barrage balloons were being widely referred to as German sausage balloons. War with Germany provided a potent context for Germanophobia, but attacks on German butchers need to be placed within a longer chronology of popular anti German sentiments, representations of the German nation, and growing fears about the dangers contained within German meat products.

Wow. That’s all I have to say.

Sausage related: The Wobble Dog 9003i

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