Our daily bread

1 - Until about 10,000 years ago, people lived as hunter-gatherers. They hunted animals and ate their meat. They made clothes and shoes from the hides and used tendons and bones to make tools and simple weapons. They gathered leaves and roots, berries, seeds, fruits and mushrooms. They travelled in groups and lived in caves and tents. They often went hungry when hunters could not find animals, when winters were harsh and long, or when plants withered in hot summers.

2 - At some point, people discovered that they could sow the seeds of certain plants. After waiting a little, they could harvest many times more than they had sown. They stored food and were much better able to get through cold winters and hot summers than before. They no longer needed to move from place to place, either. Hunters and gatherers became settled farmers who lived in permanent homes.

3 - Since then, certain types of grain have become especially important for feeding people: millet, oats, barley, rice, wheat, rye and corn. Originally, grain kernels were crushed or ground. They were mixed with water and eaten as porridge. When this porridge was placed on hot stones, it became flatbread, which could be kept for several days. The flatbreads were also easy to transport. This meant people could carry a food supply with them while working in the fields, travelling or hunting. People soon learned to make simple mills and ovens.

4 - At some point, people discovered sourdough: If you mixed some dough with water and left it for a while, it began to ferment. Yeasts caused small bubbles of gas to form in the dough. The fermented dough could still be baked. The baked bread was then much lighter and easier to chew. People in Egypt were probably baking bread this way as long as 5,000 years ago. In ancient times, the Egyptians were called “bread eaters.” The Bible, which was written in Israel, mentions bread in many places.

5 - When Israel and Egypt were later conquered by the Romans, the art of breadmaking spread throughout Europe. The people of the Roman Empire relied heavily on harvests from the “granaries” of North Africa and Spain. A large Roman bakery was already producing 36,000 kilograms of bread a day 2,000 years ago. The rulers of the Roman Empire tried to win the people’s support with “bread and circuses.”

6 - In the Middle Ages, white bread was so valuable that only wealthy people could afford it. Poorer people had to make do with dark bread. There were mills everywhere, powered by water or wind, and many of them still feature in fairy tales today. In times of hardship, grain flour was mixed with flour made from peas, beans, potatoes and acorns. Fraudsters sometimes added plaster or sawdust, too.

7 - Even today, bread is an important food in Europe and America, and its significance can also be seen in certain customs. When someone has a steady job, people say they have “a job and a roof over their head”. When someone moves into a new flat or house, friends or neighbours often give them bread and salt. Christian church services commemorate the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples by blessing bread and wine. And in the “Our Father”, the most important prayer in Christianity, it says: “Give us this day our daily bread.”