Noodles

Michael Schoser is in the noodle business. He is member of the management board of Alb-Gold, a family-owned noodles company in Trochtelfingen on the Swabian Alb.

Alb-Gold produces more than 150 different pasta types and shapes including traditional Swabian spaetzle.

Michael is in charge inter alia of environmental issues.

In this function, he was responsible for Alb-Gold's ISO certification as environmentally sound company in December 2009.

What's in a name?

What is the meaning of Schoser? There is little doubt that Schoser is a German name. Both its spelling and its genealogical traces point to this. German family names often derive from professions. Examples are the family names 'Schlosser'/ 'Schlösser' (locksmith) and 'Schösser'.

JSB - vilifying Schosers? 

At the end of the middle ages, 'Schösser' designated a 'tax collector'. It was derived from the term 'Schoss' meaning direct tax. While the terms ' Schoss' and 'Schösser' are no longer used, the latter happens to have survived in a piece of classical music. Johann Sebastian Bach's Peasant Cantata blamed the 'Schösser' for making the lives of poor farmers even more miserable.

One hypothesis is that 'Schoser' is a variant of 'Schösser'. The latter anyway seems to exist in different variants, notably as 'Schöser', 'Schoeser' and 'Schößer'. Since the underlying term 'Schoss' does not have an umlaut the noun would not seem to require one either. (Just as 'Schloss' is the basis for both Schlosser and Schlösser.) On this assumption, Schoser would be equal to Schösser - and they would have been just as unpopular!

But all this is of course pure speculation...