The Ancient World: How It All Began
In the form of vegetarianism, the history of veganism already began in the ancient world. The Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (around 570 - 500 B.C.) is considered the first vegetarian of his time. He said the following: "Everything that man does to animals comes back to man". With this attitude, he was far ahead of his time. Not only did he reject religious animal sacrifices, but he completely renounced the consumption of meat. Pythagoras and his followers, such as the Roman poet Ovid, the writer Plutarch or the philosopher Seneca, believed that the consumption of meat would make man aggressive and murderous. In other words, as long as humans kill animals, they will also kill humans.
At about the same time, around the year 600 B.C., the Greek Orphans were also alive. The Orphans were a religious community of the ancient world. They believed in the rebirth of the soul in a human or animal body and declared that the soul can only be reborn if you keep your body pure and live ascetically. For them, this meant renouncing meat, eggs and wool.
The Development from the Middle Age to the Early New Age
With the end of the ancient world, also vegetarianism disappeared. In the Middle Ages, Christian monks refrained eating meat, but only for religious reasons. The renunciation of meat was considered a sign of being able to withstand privation or to have their drives under control. The Benedictines, for example, renounced eating poultry, fish and meat from quadrupeds. The Church Father believed that because fish and birds were created by God on the same day, chicken should be included among the sea creatures. Therefore, it was also allowed to be consumed. Beavers were also allowed to be eaten, as they lived predominantly in water. However, this type of diet cannot be classified as vegetarianism. It was not until the early new age that representatives of vegetarianism appeared in the form of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 - 1519). He cooked according to recipes from the first printed cookbook in the world, namely "De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine" ("On honest indulgence and good health"). Leonardo made the following statement "Truly man is the king of all animals, for his cruelty surpasses theirs. We live from the death of others. We are walking graves!" And: "I have already renounced eating meat in my younger years, and the time will come when men like me will look upon the animal murderers with the same eyes as they look upon the murderers of men now".
Vegetarianism in the 19th Century
During the 19th century, vegetarianism spread throughout Europe. Especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, a vegetarian diet was accepted by many people with great willingness. The advocates considered it as healthier and even saw a connection between meat consumption and aggressive behaviour. Up to this point, the vegetarian diet had been called "Pythagorean", based on the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. Only in 1847, when the "Vegetarian Society" was founded, the term "vegetarian" was officially introduced. Later on, in 1867, Germany followed with the "Vegetarische Vereinigung" in Nordhausen.
The 20th Century
In early history, veganism, as we know it in its present form, did not yet exist because there was no complete renunciation of animal products. In the 19th and 20th century, there were mainly so-called ovo-lacto-vegetarians, who renounced meat and fish, but not dairy products. It wasn't until 1944 for the official history of veganism to begin, when the "Vegan Society" in Great Britain, which developed from the "Vegetarian Society", was founded. The term "vegan" was invented by Donald Watson, the founder of the Vegan Society. He created the word "vegan" from the first and last letters of the word "veg-etari-an". Towards the end of the 20th century, a continuously growing animal welfare movement emerged. In this period, the number of vegans increased and there were frequent protests, like naked protests or hunting sabotages. The activists were still ridiculed in the early 1990s. Over time, serious media coverage took place which led to frequent discussions and increased interest towards the vegan diet.
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