Schierker Feuerstein is a German

herbal liqueur A herbal is a book containing the names and descriptions of plants, usually with information on their medicinal, tonic, culinary, toxic, hallucinatory, aromatic, or magical powers, and the legends associated with them.Arber, p. 14. A herbal m ...

, a half-

bitters Bitters (plural also ''bitters'') is traditionally an alcoholic preparation flavored with botanical matter for a bitter or bittersweet flavor. Originally, numerous longstanding brands of bitters were developed as patent medicines, but now ar ...

at a strength of 35% alcohol by volume ( 61 degrees proof, or US 70 proof), originally produced in the village of

Schierke Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode. Situated within the Harz mountain range in the valley of the river Bode, at the rim ...

, located in the

Upper Harz The Upper Harz (german: Oberharz, ) refers to the northwestern and higher part of the Harz mountain range in Germany. The exact boundaries of this geographical region may be defined differently depending on the context. In its traditional sense, th ...

region of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Due to its red-brown coloration, the liqueur is named after the so-called

Feuersteinklippe The Feuersteinklippe is a rock formation in the Harz National Park in central Germany and the landmark of the nearby village of Schierke. The Feuersteinklippe is a butte made of granite, not flint (Feuerstein = "firestone" or flint) as the name ...

, a rock formation near the village made of reddish

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

History

The recipe was developed by the pharmacist Willy Drube (1880–1952), since 1908 proprietor of the chemist's ''Zum Roten Fingerhut'' in Schierke, and which was patented in 1924. Initially administered to Harz tourists, the liqueur soon became a big seller until production was discontinued during World War II. By the end of the war, Schierke belonged to the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...

. After the death of Willy Drube in 1952 and the migration of his descendants to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, production was continued at Bad Lauterberg in the Lower Saxon part of the Harz mountain range. From 1972 onwards, Schierker Feuerstein was also produced again at the original place in Schierke,

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

by a ''Volkseigener Betrieb'' ("Publicly Owned Operation", VEB), part of a larger beverages Combine (enterprise), combine (''Getränkekombinat'') based in Magdeburg. Upon German reunification in 1990, the Schierke and Bad Lauterberg locations merged within the common ''Schierker Feuerstein Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH & Co. KG'', which continued to produce the liqueur in both facilities.

Composition

Made according to the tightly guarded original recipe, Schierker Feuerstein is related to the following bitter drinks which are all based on the bitter herb, ''Artemisia (genus), Artemisia'': Underberg and Jägermeister (Germany), Piołunówka (Poland), Fernet-Branca (Italy) and Gammel Dansk (Denmark). ''Artemisia'' is called Artemisia absinthium#Uses, wormwood in England. It kills most bacteria and worms in the gut. The company recommends that Schierker Feuerstein be kept on ice and served cold. It can also be an ingredient of different cocktails and long drinks.

External links

Company website
{{in lang, de German liqueurs Harz