Germans and Drinking

I had a southerner once ask me if Germans had any dry counties. I looked at the guy for about 20 seconds and responded that for something like this to come up....a German was fully prepared to start another world war, if necessary.

You can line a hundred German guys, and around ninety-eight will readily consume a beer at a moment's notice. One will limit himself to wine only because of his good taste. And the last guy will ask for a wine-water mix. It's rare that you find any guy who is a "dry" individual. German women are mostly the same way...although wine might be the preferred choice over beer.

Alcoholics? There are these folks around. You tend to have a lesser number than you'd anticipate. The fear of losing your license is enough to make most folks limit their drinking to their village and their local pub. So they walk over....drink a couple of beers....and walk back. The judges won't hesitate to take your license for a full year. There's no hesitation on their part to fix a problem. They even added a funny rule for folks under 21....if you have a license and get caught drunk....it's fairly severe.

You tend to know the real alcoholics in your village...they all walk from place to place. Their license was revoked years ago and they never got it back.

Excessive drinking? You don't see alot of this unless there's a fest in the town. At that point, everyone probably over-drinks. The interesting thing is that you don't see fights occur. German drunks tend to just say silly things, or relieve themselves on the street, or just collapse in a city park.

If you are invited over to a German house....which tends to mean that they have taken you to the inner-circle of their friendly nature, then you will be offered a drink. If you are a teetotaler American....don't worry. You can always ask for mineral water or a soda, and it's totally acceptable. If you do accept the beer or wine....don't do anything stupid by getting drunk on your first visit to the neighbor's house (it'd be in pretty bad taste). Wait till the tenth trip when you both are sipping some cherry schnapps.

You can say some negative things and dwell on this topic a while, but face the facts....a German has worked hard for the simpler things in life. You can't take away this little desire for a tasty beer. This would be the last society on the face of the Earth where a "dry-county" initiative would be brought up and discussed. The German would likely want to engage you deeply into this conversation....and keep offering you a beer to show you their hospitality. Eventually, they'd weaken you enough....and convert you back to the "dark" side.