Gaisburger Marsch (German for "march of Gaisburg") is a traditional

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n beef

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and m ...

, Peter Lesniczak: ''Alte Landschaftsküchen im Sog der Modernisierung. Studien zu einer Ernährungsgeographie Deutschlands zwischen 1860 und 1930, Teil 4''. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, , S. 173 (Studien zur Geschichte des Alltags; Bd. 21). named after Gaisburg, a district of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Swa ...

. The meat, cooked in a strong beef broth, is cut into cubes and served with cooked

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United S ...

es and

Spätzle Spätzle (or spaetzle; ) is a type of pasta or dumpling made with eggs, typically serving as a side for meat dishes with gravy. Commonly associated with Swabia, it is also found in the cuisines of southern Germany and Austria, Switzerland, Hun ...

. The broth is poured over the dish before topping with golden-brown onions fried in butter. One explanation for the name Gaisburger Marsch is that the dish was so popular in the 19th century among officer candidates that they marched all the way to Gaisburg where their favorite dish was served in the restaurant called ''Bäckerschmide''. Another version claims that locals from Gaisburg became

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

and their women were only allowed to bring them one meal every day, so they created this nourishing dish and marched with it to the camp. The district of Gaisburg (today part Stuttgart Ost) hosts annual celebrations with a festival lasting several days. Gaisburger Marsch is the favourite food of ex-Bundespräsident

Horst Köhler Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU (of which he is a member) and the CSU, as well as the ...

, Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Chef

Harald Wohlfahrt Harald Wohlfahrt (; born 7 November 1955) is a German chef. In 2005, he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz. He is frequently rated as the best German chef and among the finest chefs in Europe. Wohlfahrt's claim for fame is that his former re ...

References

{{reflist Beef dishes German stews Swabian cuisine

See also

References