German fish farmers are preparing for the holidays (photo) | Germany Information and Travel Tips | Dw

Shtorkov • These photographs by dpa news agency were taken on one of the lakes in a unique nature reserve – the Groß Stauener See chain in Brandenburg. The Köllnitz fish farm is located here. On an area of ​​about 1000 hectares, its employees are engaged in breeding eel, pike perch, pike and carp. They start catching and selling carp already in September, but on the eve of the Christmas and New Year holidays, fish farmers begin to have a really hot season – this time of year there is a special demand for carp.

Many German families traditionally serve not only potato salad or raclette, but also carp for the festive table. This fish is fried, stewed or smoked. According to legends, carp scales bring good luck to the house. More than five thousand tons of carp are grown in Germany annually, and they began to breed it here in the Middle Ages. In Brandenburg, carp are the dominant species in fish production.

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  German carps

  The Germans prefer to cook carp according to traditional and old family recipes during the Christmas and New Year holidays, but they begin to catch and sell them in September-October, that is, the season is already in full swing. In Saxony, one of the traditional breeding regions of this fish in Germany, they even crown their own carp queen.

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  German carps

  More than four dozen companies breed carp in neighboring Brandenburg. One of the largest is located near the town of Peitz. From here, two-year-old carps usually go on sale. In some other places – carp from four to six years old. Catfish, pike perch, perch and pike also live in the ponds near Paitz.

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  German carps

  In addition to the widespread common carp in Germany, they tried to grow bighead carps, which the Germans call marble carps, but the buyers did not like them. Some silver carps, like this 30-year-old handsome man from Mecklenburg, play the role of rare show specimens. Such “long-livers” never get on the table.

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  German carps

  This and the previous photograph were taken in the Lewitz Landscape Reserve in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The local carp farm is the largest in northern Germany. From thirty of its ponds, about 300 tons of fish are obtained every year.

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  German carps

  In Levice and other farms, immediately after catching carp, they are sorted by hand according to size and weight, and then released into pools with water. They are delivered to shops and restaurants alive. A kilogram costs about 7.5 euros.

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  German carps

  For carp breeding, natural and artificial reservoirs with a depth of at least 70 centimeters are suitable, and for wintering – in some places they should be about a meter. Deeper ponds and lakes take longer to warm up in spring, which slows down growth. In the XIII-XV centuries, as historians suggest, the number of carp ponds, for example, in the same Bavaria exceeded the current one by three to four times.

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  German carps

  Before the start of fishing, the water is drained, and they begin to work at dawn. This picture was taken in Brandenburg. Together with Bavaria and Saxony, Brandenburg is one of the three federal states with the most carp breeding in Germany. They account for about 80 percent of all farmed carp.

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  German carps

  According to the Federal Statistical Office, more than 5 thousand tons of carp are grown in Germany every year. They are second only to rainbow trout (8 thousand tons). Poland is in the first place in Europe for carp production (20 thousand tons).

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  German carps

  Several areas where carp are grown have received a European certificate of conformity for traditional regional products. Among them are the Holsteiner Karpfen from Schleswig-Holstein. The volume of production in this federal state is small – only two hundred tons. We have already talked about such regional delicacies in more detail in a separate report.

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  German carps

  Bavaria is firmly in the first place. These children in traditional costumes took part in the opening of the 2015 Bavarian carp season in Central Franconia.

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  German carps

  Karpov was bred by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and this tradition came from China. They became widespread in Germany in the Middle Ages thanks to the monks who raised them for fasting days. The first written mention of carp ponds in what is now Germany dates back to the reign of Emperor Charlemagne (742-814).

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  German carps

  Carp adapt well and do well not only in fish farms, but also in old palace and park ponds, for example, in Munich’s Nymphenburg. True, in the fall they are caught here in order to relocate them for the winter.

  Author: Maxim Nelyubin

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