Distinguishing by making the same: The confusing function of wine in early modern ›Weingrüßen‹

Abstract

The Nuremberg ›wine greetings‹ stage wine as a borderline medium in very different ways. Through the enjoyment of wine and the relationship to wine, differentiations are made visible or cancelled out in all the wine greetings; significantly often, however, wine appears as a paradoxical borderline medium that both confirms and cancels out one and the same distinction. The conspicuous inscription of wine as a borderline medium can be interpreted socio-historically: The ›Sitz im Leben‹ of wine greetings can be plausibilised in the context of the Nuremberg craftsmen's guilds, which were able to perform quasi-future convivia via wine greetings and blessings after the guild ban.