On Liebig Cards

In 1847, Justus Liebig, who laid the foundations of agricultural chemistry (also known for inventing fertilizers), created the distant ancestor of today’s bouillon cubes, the meat extract bearing his name. However, Liebig is interesting to us not for his food industry innovation but for the so-called Liebig cards. These cards were, in fact, small prints that served as the first tangible evidence of how consumer education works and demonstrated the incredible power of advertising.

According to the origin story of the meat extract, Liebig, as a prominent chemist, might never have engaged with soups if it hadn't been for his friend's anemic daughter appearing to grow increasingly ill before his eyes. For the sake of the child, whom no medicine seemed to help, he started experimenting with restoring broth extracts using proteins. The experiment reportedly concluded successfully, managing to bring some color back to the little patient's face. While broths are still considered medicinal today, the extract invented by Liebig, albeit a catchy marketing tool, cannot claim the same.

From Beef to Sphinx

How does beef factor into this? It's worthwhile to read the entry in the Révai Encyclopedia to understand the great Liebig secret: "The Liebig meat extract is produced in South America and Australia by finely chopping meat, which is cleaned of its fat and bones, and squeezing it into a pulp with water. This juice is boiled and purified from the precipitated protein, then evaporated to a paste-like consistency in vacuum pans. Recently, it has been mixed with gelatin and shaped into slices, which are used for making broth when dissolved in hot water." (Source: Révai Nagy lexikona, 1915:730)

This meat concentrate was a shelf-stable semi-finished product that was easy to transport, allowing the factory founded by Liebig in Uruguay to sell its products in Europe. An important factor is that during this time there was a surplus of beef in South America, as the animals were primarily raised for their hides, horns, and bones, making it logical to establish the factory here.

Based on the information on the back of the cards, "Since the founding of the Liebig Company (1865), the number of cattle slaughtered has reached 5,500,000, representing a value of 425 million francs. This means that approximately 120,000 cattle were slaughtered annually on average during the first 45 years of production."

To produce one kilogram of meat concentrate, about 35-43 kg of raw meat and bones were used. The small jars containing the meat concentrate were a quarter kilogram each. However, the back of the cards contained more than just information about the company, and that was crucial! On one of these cards, you could read a brief encyclopedic description of the Sphinx.

The Famous Card Series

Liebig's company provided accompanying cards with its products. These cards contained around 11,500 images and were continuously published from 1871 to 1975. The series is often likened to a small encyclopedia; by the 19th century, the barriers to reproducing printed images had fallen, allowing society to gather information from these images as well. The dual function of the gift card is easy to grasp. Its primary goal was to promote the meat product, but it also sought to convey culture and disseminate general knowledge and European traditions. The range of topics covered was incredibly diverse, encompassing historical events, notable figures in literature and art, and numerous series on natural sciences and cultural communication. Naturally, one can observe an evolution in the cards; the first packs even provided advice on how to use the product, and recipes remained relevant even later, alongside series that promoted opera performances.

The Liebig cards originated in Germany but spread to French, Italian, and Spanish languages as well, circulating in a total of 14 countries, with a smaller number of Hungarian-language cards also produced. Today, the complete Liebig collection is available in several online archives. The Cartolino collection provides a trilingual (English, French, Dutch) digital database for those interested in the entire Liebig card series.

The company founded by Liebig paid special attention to the quality of the graphics and printing of each card. Although none of the works is signed, later, the masters who created the drawings competed to have their work used by the company. Since later image catalogs do not reveal the names, art historians can only try to deduce from stylistic features who might have worked in the advertising department of the Liebig company. Among the most notable artists, the names of Czech Alfons Mucha, Austrian Koloman Moser, and Raphael Kirchner have been confirmed in this regard.

Overall, most of the cards reflect the stylistic features of the romanticism that emerged at the end of the 18th century and flourished in the first half of the 19th century. There is an evident cult of heroes, along with an interest in distant, exotic cultures and folklore. On other cards, images that represent everyday bourgeois life, embodying a more realistic or Biedermeier style that specifically represents the bourgeoisie, dominate.

Liebig gained significant fame during his lifetime; his name was mentioned in Les Misérables, and he appeared in Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons. He was even awarded a baronial title by the Bavarian king. Nevertheless, his name today is not as widely recognized as that of Julius Maggi, who was not even a chemist, just an ordinary miller.