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Bionade Biedermeier

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Bionade-Biedermeier

Bionade-Biedermeier is a German neologism combining Bionade (a trendy lemonade brand) and Biedermeier (an era of Central European culture between 1815 and 1848). The coinage was introduced in 2007 by Henning Sußebach, a German journalist, in an article that appeared in Zeitmagazin concerning Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg lifestyle. The hyphenated term gained traction and has been quoted and referred to since.

Contents

Invention and Definition

Biedermeier refers to parallels between the historical Biedermeier and the German present. The underlying allusion is being used as well in related wordings like Bionade-Bourgeoisie, Biohème (alluding to Bohemian style and Bohemianism) and Generation Biedermeier.

Prenzlauer Berg itself, a former part of Eastern Berlin has seen significant gentrification and went through important demographic changes between 1995 und 2000. There is a significant higher amount of young professionals and their families. Foreigners in the quartier often come from the G8 and have an academic expatriate background. Prenzlauer Berg hosts e.g. more Japanese than Egyptians.

2007 Henning Sußebach coined the term in a Die Zeit newspaper feature about the Prenzlauer Berg (Prenzelberg) in Berlin. The term itself is being used as title. He describes various aspects in Prenzlauer Berg. The term is used in a climatical statement in the last sections of the article: Hier herrscht der Bionade-Biedermeier (Bionade-Biedermeier rules).

Prenzlauer Berg makes the impression, as if a debate about a new lower class never took place, no demographical issues, no migration. Bionade-Biedermeier rules. The 100.000 new citizens built a new town, but who has taken gain of this endeauvor except themselves? Their Prenzlauer Berg is a Ghetto, which doesn't need fences, its getting hermetic even without them. Immigration is being steered by price per square metes and the effort to keep up with the pressing urge for adaption. Whoever doesn't eat, drink, wears the right thing, gets quickly the feeling to be the wrong person for this place. One believes in openess, but went into closet. The development of a milieu is a standard process, worldwide people sort themselves according lifestyle, education, wealth. The special thing about Prenzlauer Berg is denial of the differences between its actual state and its self-image.

The term was integrated in the so-called Szenewiki, a temporary Duden online project. The entry defined Bionade-Biedermeier as the commercialization of former quartiers of the alternative scene, as Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg or -Kreuzberg, where allegedly leftist alternative accessoires went into the mainstream. Veronika Immler (2012) defines it as covering educated and well-to-do New parents, that made former alternative movement treats socially and commercially acceptable.

Further usage with connection to Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin

German ARD TV broadcaster used the title Boheme and Biedermeier in a 2009 documentation about Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. According to a review, the film does not do away with the clichées, it enhances them. ARD still included an interview with Hartmut Häußermann, an urban sociologist, which states antibourgeois aspects of Prenzlauer Berg. But the main focus was on protagonists, that contributed to the image of a paradise for the (organic and kid raising) well-to-do, depicting cafés where Bionade-Biedermeier sips from Fair-Trade. Social Consciousness in the Bionade-Biedermeier is a chapter title in a British book about contemporary German Culture, heading an interview with film makers in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. The term has been used in seminaries, political cabaret and gentrification debates.

General Background

The 2010 Shell Jugendstudie used the term Generation Biedermeier for the mainstream of the generation in 2010. Security and private happiness was more important than political engagement then. Kathrin Hartmann described the trademark Bionade as being closely connected with LOHA lifestyle. The group in question uses food as means of distinction and separation.

The term plays a role in the discussion about a Neue Bürgerlichkeit (New Bourgeoisie) which managed to integrate elements of alternative lifestyles, especially food consumption in the mainstream. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted a strategy paper for internal use of a CDU-MP, Matthias Zimmer. Along the article, German Christian Democrats were asked to describe the Greens as Bionade-Bourgeoisie, a mere Lifestyle- and Luxury political movement and to appeal to less well-to-do voters by that. With an indirect reference to David Brooks Bobos in Paradise of 2000, Dusini and Edlinger stated 2012 in a Suhrkamp book, that the German Bobo, the bourgeois bohemian is the one that does not want to be identified as such- even in alleged Bionade-Biedermeier paradises like Prenzlauer Berg.

Expanded Usage

Sußebach gained some notoriety and, according to a 2016 piece in Deutschlandradio Kultur, "wrote German social history" with the coining of the term. In the meantime, the Bionade company has been less successful than Red Bull and has been integrated in the Radeberger sales network. Jörg Albrecht University of Leipzig (2016 still unfinished) doctorate project Vom Kohlrabi-Apostel zum Bionade-Biedermeier (from Turnip-Preachermen till BB) elaborates on the catch phrases actual background. He sees a strong connection between historical religious nonkonformism, sects and religious movements like Adventism and Anthroposophy and the Lebensreform movement in the early stages of the 20th century. Albrecht referred to some parallels in the present success of organic food, veganism and vegetarianism and connected ideas about purity and health. Albrecht contributed a lecture on his work during a 2015 exhibition, transmitted by rbb radio. For the present, Jörg Albrecht cites further studies claiming a Neue Bürgerlichkeit (New Bourgeoisie) which managed to integrate elements of alternative lifestyles, especially food consumption in the mainstream. Albrecht contributed to a conference volume of German sociologists in 2012 with the topic.

Green party officials like Jürgen Trittin see problematic tendencies in the social phenomenon for their own party and clientele. The architectural use states a possible Segregation durch Klimaschutz (segregation through climate protection), as climate protection and Energiewende related insulation measurements raise cost of living and lodging fees. Trittin fears about losing the subcultural background of the Greens, that made them strong once. Tilman Reitz assumes, that not only the ruling class may use (false) ideologies - as well the opposition (on the left) might adhere to white lies and thus end in either state socialism or Bionade-Biedermeier. In a listicle of modern British stereotypes about current Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Guardian exchanged cartoons from Ulli Lust (published in the Guardian). The German version refers explicitly to Bionade-Biedermeier, the English one to organic bourgeoisie (and lemonades).

As stated in a 2015 book review about Tilman Allers sociology of small things, the catchphrase has been used in abundance in German urban media and local newspaper reports. It compares BB with terms like Latte-Macciato-mums and Tannenzäpfle-dudes. 2015, the dawning of Rhabarberschorlen (rhubarb spritzer)-Rokoko“ has been mockingly suggested as the future trend. 2016 Sußebach published a book containing the article.

References

Bionade-Biedermeier Wikipedia