A rambling historical introduction
Germany was occupied by Allied forces at the end of the Second World War. In 1949 Germany was divided. The Federal Republic of Germany was a democracy known as West Germany. The German Democratic Republic was known as East Germany and was largely controlled by the Soviet Union. It wasn’t quite the same sort of democracy as its neighbour. By 1955 West Germany had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and had re-armed with the blessing of its allies. NATO forces remained in West Germany, but their role switched from occupation of a defeated nation to deterring aggression from the East. There were 55,000 British military personnel stationed in West Germany from 1955 until German reunification was formalized on 03 October 1990 .
I first saw the Inner German Border in the late 1960s. I was one of the 55,000 for a total of about 8 years across the 1970s and 1980s.
A cold day
Sometime in the 1980s I was preparing for a small-scale military exercise in the region of Germany called the Eifel. The Eifel is a range of hills between Belgium and Germany. On the Belgian side it is called the Ardennes. It was the site of the Battle of the Bulge, the last major Nazi offensive of WWII from 16 Dec 1944 – 25 Jan 1945. Our base for our training exercise was a military camp called Vogelsang (Bird Song) that was built as a training camp for Hitler Youth.
On a very chilly day, 3 of us walked the terrain we planned to use for a map-reading exercise. (Paper maps. No GPS. No satellite images. And no mobile phones.) Sometime in the afternoon we took refuge in a Gasthof (pub) to wait for our ride back to camp. Our host took pity on us. While we waited for our glasses of beer, he poured us each a shot of clear spirit from an ice-encrusted bottle he kept in a freezer. I won’t ever forget that experience.
Revisiting spirit from the Eifel
I didn’t identify the liquor from that pub in the Eifel for another ten years. It turned out to be Eifelgeist (literally, Eifel spirit). According to the distillery, it is made with 42 hand-picked herbs, spices and flowers. The distillery doesn’t divulge its secret ingredients, but I’m sure the dominant herb is Wintergreen.
For the last 25 years I’ve kept successive bottles of Eifelgeist and a couple of shot glasses in the household freezer. The bottle is retrieved just 2 or 3 times a year to work its warming magic.
Wintergreen essential oil
Wintergreen essential oil is extracted by steam distillation from a genus of plants called Gaultheria, the most common of which is likely the American wintergreen Gaultheria procumbens. The aromatic component of Wintergreens is methyl salicylate. As well as being extracted from plants, methyl salicylate is synthesised.
I looked up the entry for Wintergreen essential oil in Julia Lawless’ Encyclopaedia of Essential Oils. Among other things, this is what it says:
ARMOATHERAPY/HOME USE None. ‘Avoid both internally and externally.’
The WebMD entry for wintergreen oil includes:
Wintergreen oil is POSSIBLY UNSAFE to take by mouth. Taking wintergreen oil can cause ringing in the ears, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea (US spelling!), headache, stomach pain, and confusion. As little as 6 ml (a little over a teaspoon) of the oil taken by mouth can be fatal.
When is a poison not a poison?
“What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison.”
– Paracelsus (1493-1541).
Wintergreen, or more accurately synthetic methyl salicylate, is ingested in large quantities overall, but mostly very, very small amounts at a time. It’s a favourite flavouring for toothpaste, chewing gum, sweets and soft drinks, particularly in the USA. It’s one of the flavouring ingredients in Coca-Cola.
Medicinal Uses
Wintergreen oil is present at 3.7% in Olbas Oil, an “Inhalant decongestant” and topical muscle rub.
Methyl salicylate is chemically similar to aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). 1 ml (20 drops) of oil of wintergreen is equivalent to about 1860 mg of aspirin, or almost six regular-strength adult aspirin tablets. Wintergreen is normally used in muscle rubs and liniments. It is one of the ingredients in the version of Surgical Spirits sold in the US. In most over-the-counter muscle rub creams the content of methyl salicylate is around 30%. In some it can be as high as 70%.
While topical muscle rubs containing Wintergreen are generally safe, the dosage is critical. The Naturopathic Doctor News & Review notes “In 2007, a 17-year-old cross-country runner died from excessive and long-term applications of topical muscle creams for pain relief. The medical examiner determined that an abnormally elevated level of methyl salicylate in her body was the cause of death.”
Perfume use
During the afternoon of 29 May 1969 a naked woman carried a cross across the floor of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. The action was designed to illustrate the story of Christ driving the merchants out of the temple. It was staged by Bjørn Nørgaard and performed by Lene Adler Petersen. The photograph is a modern icon (which I can’t include here because of copyright issues, but you can see on Bjørn Nørgaard’s website). The action became known as The Female Christ.
While interesting in its own right, The Female Christ became relevant to a discussion of Wintergreen when a perfume company called 19-69 launched a new fragrance earlier this year (2020). They called it Female Christ. It is one of very few perfumes I could identify that includes Wintergreen. Fragrantica only lists two. I picked the one described as “unisex”. This is what Fragrantica says about Female Christ:
“Female Christ by 19-69 is a Woody fragrance for women and men. This is a new fragrance. Female Christ was launched in 2020. Top notes are Patchouli, Eucalyptus and Pimento; middle notes are Rhubarb, Red Thyme, Geranium and Wintergreen; base notes are Benzoin, Amber, Cashmere Wood, Vanilla and Cinnamon.”
It’s an intriguing fragrance, but my non-professional nose is challenged to detect the Wintergreen. I do plan to attempt using Wintergreen in a fragrance at some point. I won’t be attempting to emulate The Female Christ.