The German physician and poet Justinus Kerner (1786–1862) described the dramatic outcome of a meal together on March 27, 1793, at the Kleinenzhof near Wildbad in southern Germany. Thirteen people ate a blunzen (i.e., sausage stomach) together, which hung in smoke for 3 weeks and was the size of a four-pound loaf of bread. All participants suffered from shortness of breath and paralysis afterward and slowly died from terrible suffering. By 1822, Kerner was able to describe a total of 155 patients with sausage poisoning, 84 of whom had been fatal. This food poisoning was later called “botulism,” and this name is derived from “botulus,” the Latin word for “sausage.” A century later, it became clear that botulism was caused by a bacterial toxin. In 1946, this was isolated in pure form from a culture of Clostridium botulinum, and its mechanism of action was painstakingly examined. In the 1980s, the botulinum toxin was established as a novel therapeutic agent, and its field of application is becoming increasingly broad. In 2002, the breakthrough for Botox came: it was approved for a cosmetic procedure, namely, for the reduction of glabellar wrinkles (the deep, rather short, vertical wrinkles between the eyebrows). A billion-dollar beauty industry subsequently emerged in the United States and spread worldwide.