In the 18th and 19th In the century, the keeping of songbirds was very popular in Germany. The nightingale in particular enjoyed great popularity because of its melodic singing. Therefore, various German states and territories introduced a nightingale tax. This should reduce the catching and marketing of songbirds. In the course of time he had taken over. The protection of the nightingale to be achieved in this way, however, had been less an expression of an early animal welfare idea. Rather, the birds were important as natural predators of pests in agriculture. The taxation was correspondingly high, so that one can speak of a strangulation tax. Therefore, until the end of the 19th century, In the 19th century other bird species took the place of the nightingale as an ornamental bird. Parrots and canaries were soon much more popular as exotics in German rooms.

1st Nightingale Tax – Introduction

The Nightingale is widely known as a singing bird for its particularly sonorous singing. It's quite common in nature. As a migratory bird, it breeds in the summer half-year in Central and Southern Europe as far as Central Asia, preferring dense bushes there. In the winter half-year, the nightingale is drawn to Africa in regions near the equator. The exterior of the nightingale is inconspicuous: it is about the size of a blackbird and wears a brown feather dress, with no gender differences.

So far the nightingale can hardly be characterized as special, but with its singing it more than compensates for this inconspicuity. On the one hand, she is one of the few birds who at night advertise her singing for breeding partners (only the male nightingale sings); During the day she also sings to mark her territory. On the other hand, the vocal repertoire of the nightingale is incredibly large – both in terms of the height of the different, also very variable notes, as well as the sequence, which sometimes sounds in verses, sometimes highly creative and spontaneous. A nightingale can have about 200 such singing components, and it even teaches them to their offspring.

Through its extraordinary singing, the Nightingale has fascinated people of many cultural circles at all times. But in the late Middle Ages in Germany this led to them being caught and kept as an ornamental bird at home in cages to enjoy their song (albeit only during mating season).

2 Why was the nightingale tax introduced?

Since the nightingale was also highly valued as a pest control in agriculture and the stocks decreased due to the increasing catch over time, various rulers in the German Lands first introduced penalties and later an early kind of luxury tax, namely the nightingale tax. After all, it was also the will of the respective rulers that the Nightingales and Strassers, a bird species closely related to the Nightingale, which we will discuss later, be protected so that they could develop their effect in pest control. Fewer pests meant a better food supply, which reduced the risk of famine and thus also that of unrest to overthrow.

It was especially the citizens in the cities who brought a status object into the house with such songbirds. But also nobles kept nightingales for prestige purposes. As a symbol of beauty, they also embodied the aesthetic demands of their owners. That this was to the detriment of nature and agriculture had seemed either unknown or too insignificant to the upper classes. What would it matter to hold one or two nightingales? There was certainly enough in the world. The few birds would make no difference; It's a view that's still familiar to us today.

Well, the rulers at that time were convinced of the opposite. They reacted with an almost modern farsightedness at that time and introduced a tax for nature conservation. We now want to briefly report on this nightingale tax.

3. In which states was there a nightingale tax?

Nowadays the nightingale tax may seem like a curiosity of tax law. But in the 19th century it was quite widespread in Germany. Of course, there were regional differences, because each state designed the nightingale tax according to its own ideas, so that there was no other significant overlap than the circumstance of the attitude of a nightingale.

Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach was the first state to introduce a nightingale tax in 1777. However, the amount of the levy was far too low to contain the keeping of nightingales. In the absence of a deterrent effect of the tax, it took several decades before another state, namely the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel, introduced the nightingale tax with greater effect. From 1802 it was a ducat annually (about 3.125 thalers). Today's equivalent is likely to be in the order of about EUR 150. At that time, this was worth significantly more, because you had to work much longer to receive a comparable remuneration.

In 1807 the Grand Duchy of Berg followed with a nightingale tax of two thalers. This was followed by the duchies of Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld (1809), Sachsen-Gotha (1820) and Sachsen-Meiningen (1826). Also in 1826, the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach introduced the nightingale tax. Three years later, the Hanseatic city of Bremen followed. The Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg and the Kingdom of Prussia were also impressed by the idea. Anhalt-Bernburg, Hesse, Nassau, Braunschweig, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and the Kingdom of Saxony formed the latecomers who in the second half of the 19th century. In the 19th century, the attitude of nightingales was taxed, or at least intended.

4. How was the nightingale tax regulated?

4.1. Who raised the nightingale tax and who benefited from it?

Due to the many states where the nightingale tax has been levied over time, there has been no uniform taxation. Nevertheless, certain aspects are particularly interesting. In Prussia, for example, state legislation had been waived and the levy had instead been left to the municipalities. In most other states, however, this was a state tax.

Furthermore, the nightingale tax benefited different institutions in the various states. Thus, the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeld assigned the nightingale tax to the state and war treasury until 1809. The Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, on the other hand, determined that the non-profit women's associations active there should have these funds at their disposal. Poor funds also benefited from the income from the nightingale tax.

4.2. Tax avoidance strategies

The survey is also interesting. Initially, the taxation period was determined as the calendar year. But since the singing birds only started with their courtship from May, many bird owners had simply killed their birds before the year to avoid taxation. After all, they could wait until spring to buy a new nightingale. Of course, this tax avoidance also came to the ears of the authorities, so that later the taxation period on the 1st. May began.

In addition, there was sometimes a need for clarification regarding the control object. At first, the nightingale tax only concerned the attitude of nightingales. But since some citizens’ households, which adorn themselves with a prestige bird but wanted to spend less, instead put a road in a cage, the question soon arose whether this “tax design” would avoid the nightingale tax. But the authorities saw no point in losing one farmed bird to another in the area of pest control. So the nightingale tax later applied to both bird species. This made sense only because it is difficult to distinguish the two bird species purely from the external.

4.3. Tax evasion

Speaking of tax avoidance, where it is, tax evasion is already lurking. Although in various states you had to declare the keeping of a nightingale annually for tax purposes, but who would come to you on the sneak if you concealed this? Wrongly thought: the night guards patrolling the streets of the cities were required to report the singing of nightingales from the houses they guarded. In addition, in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, for example, there was the opportunity to “whistle” a tax evader. A denunciator was awarded a third of the penalty, with the penalty for tax evasion in relation to the nightingale tax with ten thalers was quite high. Especially unfavorable neighbors like to rubbed their hands.

5. How it ended with the nightingale tax

5.1 Emerging exotic competition

From the second half of the 19th In the 20th century, the importance of the nightingale as an ornamental bird gradually declined. This was probably less due to the effect of the nightingale tax than to the emergence of alternatives for the nightingale. So gradually more and more exotic birds came to Germany, parrots and canaries, for example. What is more, these alternatives were relatively easy and mass-breeded, creating great competition for the bird trappers who had previously supplied the market with supplies of nightingales. From this time also comes the well-known Harz scooter, which was bred particularly intensively in the name-giving region.

The nightingale tax was nevertheless of some effectiveness because it was an additional reason to purchase a cheaper canary instead of a nightingale. After all, the life expectancy of a nightingale was limited to eight years even under favorable circumstances. A canary, on the other hand, can live up to 20 years in captivity, depending on the species. In addition, individually kept male canaries sing year-round, so that their owners can always enjoy them.

5.2. The nightingale tax as an early example of a throttling tax

After all, nightingales had gone out of style. Although no nightingale tax was incurred, the tax remained in force preventively. This is cited as an example of a throttle control (no pun in reference to the throttle). In addition, at the end of the 19th century – in the meantime Germany had grown together as an empire – the native bird world was put under protection. Thus, the keeping of nightingales was ultimately prohibited.

5.3. importance of the nightingale tax in our time

Anecdotally, it should be added that the nightingale tax was used a few years ago as a symbol of an absurd tax. It is unclear whether the nightingale tax was actually without effect, because the emerging alternatives to the nightingale and the first bird protection regulations have obscured the true extent of its effectiveness.

More important is probably the teaching that the steering effect as a reason for the collection of taxes already in the 18th and 19th century. This is not a unique feature of modern fiscal policy.