Beer and the Germans.pdf

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extracted text: Meer and the Germans Marl is Post The popular notion that beer is the “national bever age” of the German nation ap pears to be justified in a way by figures, for statisticians have found out that last year every citizen in the Federal Republic of Germany con sumed 95 litres of beer on an average. Beer brewers can be satisfied with their annual sale of 53.7 million hectolitres. And yet: it would be wrong to call the Germans a nation of beer drinkers. They con sume and love many other types of beverages, and there are regions with a very small beer consumption. Beer, how ever, nourishes and has also been called “liquid bread” by many people. Beer definitely is popular, and always has been: an old German law of 1564 says that this beverage must be made only from four basic compo nents—barley, hops, yeast and water. This law in essence is still valid today, and strictly adhered to. German beer grows ever more popular ab road, as the. export figures show. In 1960 no less than 915,000 hectolitres of beer were exported, which is nine per cent more than in the prev ious year. Germany, however, is not the country were beer origin ated. The old people of Baby lon and of Egypt, five thou sand years ago, did already number this beverage amongst the basic elements of their diet. Greek and Roman historians later on reported that the original inhabitants of Germany, the Germanic tribes, were beer brewers. But the Germanic nations in those days loved another beverage much more dearly: mead, a beverage made of water and fermented honey. The oldest German brewe ries were established in the 12th century in Southern Ger many, where, by the way, more beer is consumed than elsewhere. Soon the art of beer brewing was known all over the country. World-fame came to German beer, how ever, only in the middle of the nineteenth, century, when due to a far-reaching modern ization of brewery operations, Germany became Number One amongst the beer brew ers in the world. (Continued on page 92) 2 Panorama BEER AND THE... (Continued from page 2) Nine out of ten adult Ger mans occasionally drink beer. Many drink it regularly, oth ers use it only to quench their thirst. Every region enjoys its type of local brew. For exam ple, in North Germany a light coloured, strong beer, rich in alcohol is preferred. Usually pure and strong hard liquors are taken with the beer. This habit will even make the somewhat reserved and surly inhabitants of the Northern provinces pleasant, amusing and sociable fellow-citizens, the Soiitheners say. It is a fallacy to think that in the Rhineland, where the famous German wine is grown, less beer is drunk. For a few rural areas this may be true, but in the large cities, like Duesseldorf and Cologne, people like to crowd around the bar in pubs, and to talk over a glass of dark “old beer.” In South Germany, how ever, people order their beer in mugs, known also as steins, taking as much as one litre. F^eiou tourists apparently like Bavarian beer; for many of them are regularly seen en joying it, in old pubs. This beer is a little sweeter, and has a little less alcohol than the northern brews. Experts say that there are no less than 800 different brews of beer in Germany. The figures, how ever, show that although beer is popular here, the German nation does not drink more than other people. On the con trary, several other countries are known to consume more per capita, but proverbially the Germans are held to be a beer-drinking nation. * * * AN ELECTRIC BAROMETER A household barometer indicating by a green or red lamp whether air-pressure is 'increasing or decreasing is made by the Moco Barometer Company of Hamburg-Stellingen. The barome ter is plugged to the electric line like any other electric device, and needs only 0.2 watts. It is automatic, and requires no service. 92 Panorama
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