Wilhelm Mast was a vinegar manufacturer and wine trader in the city of Wolfenbüttel, Germany. His son, Curt Mast (1897–1970), was passionate about the production of spirits and liqueurs, and always keen to help his father in the business even at an early age. In 1934, at age 37, after he took over his father's business, Curt devised the recipe for "Jägermeister".[citation needed][6]
Curt was an enthusiastic hunter.[7] The name JägermeisterinGerman literally means "Master Hunter", "Hunt Master", or "master of the hunt".[8][9] It is a title for a high-ranking official in charge of matters related to hunting and gamekeeping. The term "Jägermeister" had existed as a job title for many centuries. In 1934, the new Reichsjagdgesetz (Reich hunting law) redefined the term, applying it to senior foresters, game wardens, and gamekeepers in the German civil service. Hermann Göring was appointed Reichsjägermeister (Reich hunting master) when the new hunting law was introduced. Thus, when Jägermeister was introduced in 1935, its name was already familiar to Germans, who sometimes called the product "Göring-Schnaps".[10]
Jägermeister came to greater international attention particularly through the work of Sidney Frank (1919–2006), who ran an American liquor importing company. From the 1980s, he promoted the drink in the youth and student market, as a drink for parties – a quite different niche to its traditional conservative brand position in its native German market.[11]New York magazine quoted a market research firm describing him as "a promotional genius" for making "a liqueur with an unpronounceable name...drunk by older, blue-collar Germans as an after-dinner digestive aid... synonymous with 'party'."[12] The Mast-Jägermeister company ultimately purchased Sidney Frank Importing in 2015.[13]
Jägermeister's ingredients include 56 herbs, fruits, roots, and spices, including citrus peel, licorice, anise, poppy seeds, saffron, ginger, juniper berries, and ginseng.[14] These ingredients are ground, then steeped in water and alcohol for two to three days. This mixture is filtered and stored in oak barrels for about a year. Then the liqueur is filtered again, and mixed with sugar, caramel and alcohol.
The company recommends that Jägermeister be kept on ice and served cold, and suggests that it be kept in a freezer at −18 °C (0 °F) or on tap between −15 and −11 °C (5 and 12 °F).[15]
Contrary to a rumor that has circulated on the internet, Jägermeister does not contain deerorelk blood.[14]
The product name is written in textura and is one of the few surviving examples of the use of the long s in print.
The label contains the following verse from the poem Weidmannsheil, by the forester, hunter, and ornithologist Oskar von Riesenthal; von Riesenthal is not credited on the label.[20]
Das ist des Jägers Ehrenschild,
dass er beschützt und hegt sein Wild,
weidmännisch jagt, wie sich's gehört,
den Schöpfer im Geschöpfe ehrt.
In 2019 Jägermeister launched the first of its karakter series, Scharf, also known as JägermeisterHot Ginger.[29] Each extension in the karakter series was intended to highlight one of Jägermeister's 56 signature herbs and spices.[30] As of January 2021 no further extensions under the karakter series have been announced.
In 2023, Jägermeister Austria launched a special edition called ArtsyApes. The edition shows hand-painted apes on canvas. There are 3,777 different designs, making this the first personalized edition of its kind.[32]
Jägermeister's orange livery is one of the more commonly recognised in motorsport. The SpanishFly slot car brand has recently brought out model cars with the distinctive design. More recently, they[who?] introduced the Naylor RacingNHRAPro Stock car, minus its signature orange livery.[35] An article in the January 31, 2008, edition of Autosport listed the livery as one of the twenty most iconic commercial colour schemes.[36]
Jägermeister is associated with German football, especially the Bundesliga. In 1973, Eintracht Braunschweig became the first Bundesliga team to place a sponsor's logo on its jersey,[37] although the team rejected a related proposal to rename itself Eintracht Jägermeister.[38] The sponsorship, very controversial at the time, paid the team 100,000 DM (€51,130) and introduced a new way of doing business in football. Other teams quickly followed suit. Jägermeister now displays its advertisements at several football stadiums in Germany.[39]
Jägermeister also had an involvement in European table tennis when it sponsored German club TTC Jägermeister Calw and was a personal sponsor of Dragutin Šurbek.
As of 2018 Jägermeister has sponsored the National Hockey League (NHL) as the official shot of the NHL.
In 2020 Jägermeister USA launched a program titled "Meister Class," an initiative to provide emerging musicians with insight from and access to established stars Mustard, Smino, and EarthGang.[48]
On December 18, 2020, it was announced that Jägermeister USA donated one million dollars to NIVA Emergency Relief Fund in support of venues struggling due to COVID-19 restrictions.[49]
^Wahrig Deutsches Wörterbuch. Munich, Germany: Bertelsmann Lexikon Institut. 2006. p. 788. ISBN978-3-577-10241-4. "Jägermeister: höherer Jagdbeamter" (i.e., a high-ranking government official in charge of matters related to hunting)
^"Jägermeister". www.jagermeister.com. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
^ abArtforum International. Artforum International Magazine. 1999. Retrieved 28 November 2012. The Jägermeister logo, a stag with a cross between its horns, is the symbol of St. Hubert, the patron saint of dogs and hunters. According to the legend, while hunting in the forest Hubert encountered a stag with a glowing crucifix hovering between...
^ abDifford, Simon (September 2007). Cocktails: Over 2250 Cocktails. diffordsguide. p. 388. ISBN9780955627606. Retrieved 28 November 2012. The logo has a deer with a cross between its antlers, recalling a vision in the life of St Hubert, the patron saint of hunters.
^British Archaeological Association (1878). The Archaeological journal. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman. p. 281. Retrieved 28 November 2012. Hubert and Eustace are very similar, though the period of their conversions was nearly 600 years apart. Both saints were of noble birth and passionately devoted to the chase, and both were converted by an encounter with a milk white stag, bearing a crucifix between its horns.
^College Weekend. BJ Klein. October 2010. p. 66. ISBN9780557711697. Retrieved 28 November 2012. The Jägermeister logo, which shows the head of a stag with a glowing cross between its antlers, is a reference to the stories of Saint Hubertus and Saint Eustace.
