Dead salamander

Designation (also "to make a decision") for the ritual form of alcohol consumption, whereby the drinker wants to honour a deceased or living person or a group of people by dedicating the drink. Drinking a toast also means greeting each other. Often a short speech is made or at least a suitable toast is pronounced. Alongside the greeting with bread and wine described in the Old Testament of the Bible, toasting is one of the oldest drinking customs of humankind. As long as the others were drinking, a man was not allowed to withdraw, even to the point of unconsciousness. This was to prove a man's strength. Failure to drink was often taken as a grave insult. The consequences could be social, societal and economic exclusion and also physical attacks. A certain role was also played by the conviction that, according to the saying "In vino veritas", a person's true character is revealed under the influence of alcohol. Due to these circumstances, drinking excesses with fisticuffs and even manslaughter occurred very frequently.

The devil alcohol

From the late Middle Ages onwards, the church and the humanists increasingly preached against the "devil alcohol". Martin Luther (1483-1546) spoke of the "devilish habit of excessive drinking". In Austria (Vienna), the clergymen Abraham a Sancta Clara (1644-1709) and Johann Rasch...