My next appointment is with Inge Preuss, Curator at the Heimatsmuseum in Bad Dürkheim. The museum was founded in 1872.
Especially impressive are the artifacts and depictions of wine-making. Before machines, many people worked together to harvest the grapes.
Now, one machine accomplishes many days of work in a matter of hours.
In earlier times, many people worked together.
Today, a farmer works mostly alone.
In earlier times, the grapes were pressed with musclepower.
Today, by computer and hydraulics.
Once upon a time, grapes fermented in a succession of barrels, siphoned from one to the next as the juice became wine. Yeast was not added, it lived naturally on the skin of the grape and the process took a longer time. When the alcohol content reached the right level, the yeast died and fell to the bottom of the barrel. Then it was time to siphon the wine into the final barrel, leaving the yeast at the bottom of the previous one.
Once emptied, the barrels had to be cleaned by hand. See the little door at the bottom? It used to be someone’s job to squeeze through this little door to scrub out the inside of the wine barrel. It was said: “If the head fits through the door, so will the man.”