The concatenation of technology, fertile hinterlands, and labor contributed to the rise and expansion of the canning industry in Germany and brought about new possibilities for food preservation. This study traced the historical trajectories of Brunswick's canned food industry, a pioneer in industrial canning, and examined the evolution of its geography from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Through archival research and historical geocoding, the location of different canneries was mapped and developments in the industry were juxtaposed with broader economic and political shifts across three time periods. The geography of the canning industry exhibits varying spatial distributions with some clustering tendencies and co-location patterns as well as a number of scattered firms. Military provisions and rationalization drives enabled canneries to thrive and offered an empirical case to the interplay of food, technology, labor, politics, and militarization. The rise and demise of Brunswick's canning industry was a direct consequence of political and socioeconomic events rather than technological superiority or production efficiency. Overall, our account captured an alternative form of production and highlighted an underexplored commodity that was once an emblem of the region's agro-industrialization. • The paper explores the development of Brunswick's canning industry from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. • The industrial geography of canning, a symbol of the region's agro-industrial prosperity, is examined across three phases. • Major political events and socio-economic imperatives shaped Brunswick and canneries' industrial organization and location.
Jaoude et al. (Thu,) studied this question.