"People's beekeeping" and the fight for the standardized honey jar, artificial honey and "Maya the Bee", "folk" ideology and itinerant beekeepers in the GDR, but also the boom in urban beekeeping in recent years: Rainer Stripf recounts the history of beekeeping in Germany since the German Empire with a love of detail and an expert eye for the historical context.

The reader learns about the economic, social, political and scientific influences on beekeeping. It deals with the beekeepers' efforts to unite, their methodological disputes and the progress made in bee research. But the ideologization by National Socialism and the use of beekeeping for the war economy are also discussed. The outlook to the present day includes current topics from the Varroa mite to the use of genetic engineering and the currently controversial pesticides. A unique book on the trendy topic of beekeeping!