Did World War II affect the quality of beer in Nazi Germany? Was it rationed or in short supply? What would be the beer difference had I ordered a litre on September 1 1939 versus September 1 1943 versus September 1 1945 in some random beer hall in Munich or Berlin?
How about post war?
Moved to Cafe Society from General Questions.
Colibri
Well, for one it would be considerably lighter in alcohol. I’ve seen figures that peg the starting gravity of German beer in 1945 at around 1.008. Given that your average Bud Light clone recipe starts at 1.03…
I assume there would be no rice, so it should taste better, but that’s not much of a beer, IMHO. Wouldn’t a modern day session IPA be stronger?
I’m German, all my grandparents and both my parents (as kids) lived through the war and after, and I frankly never heard about a rationing or decrease of quality for beer, and I doubt there was. A big objective of the nazis was to retain public morale (for instance, some of the most expensive and laborious German films were made just at the end of the war), and a lack of good beer would’ve been a blow to the morale. You must understand that beer in most parts of Germany is a basic food item, and it was even more at the time. And they didn’t need expensive imports, all the ingredients German beer was (and mostly is) brewed with, barley, hops and water, are produced in Germany.
Of course all this is only a WAG, but I do remember that my father told me that beer soup, a poverty meal, was usual for the whole family in that time, so beer seems to have always been available.
In the Czech Republic, it seems that each town has its own brewery. I’d assume the same is true of Germany?
Not everywhere, and not anymore, but in some parts of Germany like Franconia this was certainly true at the time (and in some parts still is).
I’m giving this a bump because I have new information. Today at our Christmas Eve party, I asked my father (born in 1935) about it. He told me that though of course he didn’t drink beer at the time, he remembers that beer wasn’t rationed, but was watered down and with a lower alcohol level during and in the years after the war.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
Well thanks very much, I also wish you and everyone at the board a merry and peaceful time.
I should ask my mother-in-law about this. She was born a couple years earlier than your dad, in Mannheim, and moved here to the US as a young adult after she married my (American) FIL, so she should have some memories of this.