Bavaria marks 200 years of beer gardens

By Sabine Dobel Jan 12, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Munich - Beer gardens have been officially part of Bavaria's culture for 200 years. On 4 January 1812 King Maximillian I of Bavaria gave farmers permission to sell beer to patrons outside their beer cellars.

'That's why I've declared 2012 to be the Year of the beer garden,' says the head of Munich's tourism authority, Gabriele Weishaeupl.

In the past, Bavaria's farmer-brewers would store their beer underground. Ice cut from rivers and lakes in winter kept the beer cold while above ground specially planted trees helped keep an even temperature in the hot summer months. Beer was removed from the cellar in mugs and sold to patrons.

On hot days, the shade provided by the trees above ground became a popular spot to drink. The more entrepreneurial farmers in Bavaria turned that into a business and came into conflict with innkeepers who saw their custom fall. On May 13, 1791 Munich's innkeepers made an official complaint to Bavaria's Prince Elector Charles Theodore. It was not unknown for the conflict to erupt into open fighting between innkeepers, the farmer-brewers and their customers.

Not until the declaration by King Maximillian in 1812 was the matter finally settled. From that day on, farmers could legally sell beer from June until September. They were also allowed to serve bread to their customers. 'The supply of other foods and drinks is, however, expressly forbidden,' decided the king. 'It seems the innkeepers of day resigned themselves to the outcome,' says Michael Stephan, head of Munich's municipal archive.

But beer garden patrons were not content to only eat bread and opted to bring their own food. This custom eventually turned into a tradition that is almost uniquely Bavarian. Germans visiting Bavaria from outside the state are often surprised to see locals decking their table with a cloth, cheese, smoked salamis, sauces, a salt cellar and cutlery - a few even bring a candle. 'You won't find anything like it anywhere else,' says Weishaeupl.

Bringing your own food to a Bavarian beer garden is accepted practice and legislation from 1999 expressly allows 'the right to consume self-brought food without charge.' Even during Bavaria's Oktoberfest, patrons are allowed to eat their own bread and cheese outside the tented areas. A few tent owners tried to force these people to order beer but that was banned in 2007 when the 'Freedom of the Beer Garden' was written into all contracts for the festival.

'The Oktoberfest is the biggest beer garden in Munich and it should adhere to the rules,' says Weishaeupl. All of the tents at the festival can accommodate almost 30,000 customers at any one time.

Bavarians have also been known to take action to protect their beer garden rights. In 1995, 20,000 people demonstrated during a 'Beer Garden Revolt' against restricting opening times. The demonstrators took their protest to Bavaria's state government where 'We stood below the office and called out 'Save the Beer Garden',' recalls Weishaeupl.

Some of Munich's residents had complained of excessive noise and took their case to court where they won. Beer gardens could no longer serve customers after 9.30 pm. 'It was a stupid idea to suggest that a beer garden could no longer sell beer after 9.30 in the evening. People came from all over Bavaria to protest,' says the president of the Association to Protect the Beer Garden Tradition, Ursula Seeboeck-Forster. The Bavarian state government reacted to the protest by allowing the sale of beer until 10.30 pm.

Bavaria's growing immigrant community have also posed some challenges in interpreting the rules governing food in beer gardens. Instead of bread and cheese some bring doners and pizzas to their beer table. 'It's not what is understood as a classic snack to go with beer but we're not going to tell people what they should eat,' says Weishaeupl.

Seeboeck-Forster says the new culinary imports 'are not what we would like to see in a beer garden,' but that Bavaria's motto is 'Live and let live.' Beer gardens are also not a place for 'flash mobs where 200 people gather together to eat huge buffets.'

Seeboeck-Forster says beer gardens are important institutions where families with children can get together without having to spend a lot of money. 'A beer garden in an urban environment fulfils a very big social function.'

Over the past two centuries the beer garden has become a symbol of Bavarian culture as well as a tourist attraction. 'Beer gardens are a very attractive image for our tourism campaign,' says Weishaeupl. So attractive are the state's beer gardens that a few of Germany's other states are trying to latch on.

North-Rhine Westphalia 'accidentally' used a photograph taken from the English Garden in Munich in one of its tourism brochures. When the mistake was discovered the state's authorities said they would replace the picture when the brochure is printed again.