The City, the Country and the Beer

The fact that even during the nineteenth century the Oktoberfest was dominated by festival publicans and by pubs serving beer, mirrors urban life. Munich had always been a beer city and, in the nineteenth century, the amber nectar influenced the urban landscape and the urban culture across all strata of society more than ever. Travellers such as Mark Twain (1835-1910) or the bitterly mocking Victor Tissot (1845-1917) describe in surprise, but also somewhat admiringly, the huge Bierpaläste (beer halls) and Bierkeller (beer cellars), in which the entire city gathered daily, as one might expect.

The large beer tents that have been dominating the festival since the end of the nineteenth century and the Theresienwiese (Theresia Meadow) to this day, turn the Oktoberfest more than ever into a beer festival. The Oktoberfest starts with the beer, with the announcement "o'zapft is" (the barrel is tapped) by the Munich Oberbürgermeister (mayor) and in a certain way it ends with the beer, since only if the amount of beer served is larger than in the previous year, one can be sure that the Wies'n (Meadow) was again a huge success.

Münchner Brauereien (Munich Breweries)

In 1929, the journalist and writer Josef Benno Sailer (1871-1933) published a richly illustrated history of brewing in Munich and of the great, still existing Munich breweries of his times. It offers a very good introduction to this topic.

On the Munich Hofbräuhaus

The Königliche Hofbräuhaus (Royal Court Brewery) on the Platzl, originally founded by Duke Wilhelm V (1548-1626, r. 1579-1597) in the year 1589 for the provision of beer to the Bavarian court, started in 1828. It served beer to normal guests as well in an especially set-up room and in the courtyard. Subsequently, it became one of the most popular beer pubs in Munich. In 1896, after the brewery proper had been transferred to Haidhausen, the old buildings on the Platzl were demolished and replaced by a generous new construction erected in accordance with the plans of the architect Max Littmann (1862-1931) and completely focused on the food and service provided to the guests.

The digitised documents presented here stand for a whole series of small brochures, leaflets and booklets supposed, in particular after 1871, to satisfy the interests of the increasingly non-resident visitors and travellers. The book by Ferdinand Kronegg still discusses intensively and with a certain nostalgia the old building that had been demolished in 1896. The enthusiastic description of the new buildings on the Platzl and in Haidhausen as well as an extensive appendix with images of Munich sights in general indicate that the publication was meant to address tourists rather than the long-established inhabitants of Munich.

The small memorial booklet of 1882 offered a selection of drawings and short texts on the Hofbräuhaus, which had originally been published in the Münchner humoristische Blätter (Munich Humourist Sheets). The foldout flyer of the Hofbräuhaus-March in the shape of a HB-Maßkrug (tankard) and the memorial leaflet for the 1928 serving of Maibock (strong German lager served in May) were probably part of the souvenirs handed out to clients directly at the Hofbräuhaus.

Memories of Beer Consumption

During the nineteenth century, in particular during the so-called "Gründerzeit" (period of rapid industrial expansion in Germany) after 1871, countless small booklets, notebooks and leaflets appeared that were meant to increase beer consumption. Often these were more or less costly designed song sheets or song booklets. Many of them solely included lyrics. They were supposed to serve as aide-memoires during tipsy sing-alongs, while it was taken for granted that the melodies would be known. Only in the case of "new" songs, the music was included as well.

In 1897, the Münchener Vertreter-Convent, the then local umbrella organisation of the fencing fraternities based in Munich, published in the form of its Biercomment a synopsis of the drinking mores and rules as practiced by the fraternities at the times. The work was intentionally ironical and imitated legal texts, while listing customs such as the “Bierjunge” (a drinking game), the “Biermops” (a duell with blunt weapons) or the “Bierverschiß” (exclusion from ritual drinking games to punish inappropriate behaviour).

A speciality are the Salvator-Gedenkblätter (Memorial Leaflets), which the Zacherl Brewery on the Au regularly published from ca. 1840 for the serving of Salvator beer. In 1806, the Munich brewer Franz Xaver Zacherl (1772-1849) had leased the brewery of the Paulanerkloster in der Au (Neudeck Monastery), which he bought in 1813. He was very successful in continuing the monastery’s “Starkbiertradition” (tradition of strong beer). The brewery’s – it was by now called Paulaner Brauerei – 1896 advertising leaflet, contains next to the German text also a French version and is meant to address, therefore, also foreign visitors and beer lovers.

Maps

From c.1830, maps appeared in Munich, which purposefully listed the inns, cafés and pubs in the Bavarian capital. While the two maps by Gustav Wenng (1814-1880) of c.1830 and 1845 show them relatively soberly, the map of Carl Seitz (around 1872) engages with tourists and other travellers. Ferdinand Carl’s Bier-Productions-Karte (map of breweries) of 1876 allows for the obvious comparison between Bavaria and the rest of Germany, with Austria-Hungary and with Central Europe. Apart from the actual maps, numerous statistics are also reproduced.

Bayerisches Brauer-Journal (Bavarian Brewery Journal, 1891-1919)

The Bayerische Brauer-Journal (Bavarian Brewery Journal) appeared from 1891 to 1919. The editor was at first the experimental station for beer brewing in Nuremberg. From 1904, the professional journal was published by the Bayerische Gewerbemuseum (Bavarian Industrial Museum) in Nuremberg.

The Brauer-Journal emerged from the monthly reports published by the authors of the experimental station themselves. The editorial part was intended to inform the readers by means of the objectivity and integrity of the generally understandable original articles and reports. Therefore, the Journal excluded at first the publication of advertisements. In addition, official announcements were printed as well as reports about the work of the experimental station. In contrast to the monthly reports, the Brauer-Journal included reports about patents as well as about zymotechnology (alcoholic fermentation) and zymotechnical analysis. From the second year, the cultivation of hops and of brewing barley became a theme discussed in the Brauer-Journals, since the readers not only ran breweries but also agricultural enterprises. An additional important leg of the editorial was the financial news, for example stock prices and business reports of different Bavarian breweries.

To the BLO project page on the Bayerische Brauer-Journal (Bavarian Brewery Journal)

Münchener Bier-Chronik (Munich Beer Chronicle; 1904-1913)

Differently to the Bayerische Brauer-Jounal, the Münchner Bier-Chronik (Munich Beer Chronicle) was intended above all as an advertising medium of the great Munich breweries. The magazine included next to information about beer production and types and smaller business news in particular short stories, poems, jokes and other texts about Munich beer. The commitment was for a certain kind of cosy atmosphere endeavoured by dating the single issues in accordance with the calendar of saints. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) probably owns the only completely preserved set of this magazine.

Pamphlets for and against Beer

During the nineteenth century, bitter conflicts about beer raged every so often among producers, scholars and consumers. These conflicts were usually sparked by the price of beer itself (the increase of which regularly led to riots in Munich) or by certain aspects of the art of brewing. Finally, single circles of society began, in particular towards the end of the nineteenth century, to criticise beer – or rather: alcohol consumption and its negative consequences. The following selection represents a wide range of pamphlets that appeared at the time on all these themes in large numbers.

The Brewery Plant

The nineteenth century paid much attention to the architectural installation of breweries. The purpose was to produce, store and serve beer under the best conditions possible.

Particularly interesting are the detailed plans of the Zächerl'schen Brauhauses (Zacherl Brewery) in the Munich Isar Au. Even though it was then (1846) already one of the great breweries in Munich, the floor plans show a relatively small plant, which next to the actual brewery plant, had set space aside for a seating area, guest rooms and bed rooms for the brewer and for the owner’s family.

The Art of Brewing Beer

Handbooks, guidelines and treatises on brewing technology continuously appeared from the end of the eighteenth century. Noticeable seems to have been the open-mindedness of the German and Bavarian brewers. Books, such as Friedrich Accum’s (1769-1838) discussed specifically English brewing technologies (1821) and the timely translation of Gerrit Mulder’s Bierchemie (Beer Chemistry, 1867) attests to a wide-ranging interest of local brewers.

The works presented here provide an insight into the brewing technology in the y ears between ca. 1783 and 1867.