Beer in everyday and holiday German’s culture

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to provide a brief overview of the history of beer in Germany from the middle ages to the present time, based on the analysis of the primary infor-mation from scientific monographs and local lore literature. Realiz-ing the goal of the study leads to the following tasks: to trace the origins of German brewing and its regional specificity, to charac-terize etiquette forms, beer customs and tastes of the Germans, to find out the features of the German beer culture, to highlight the patterns of organization and brewing holidays on an example of the Munich Oktoberfest. Methods of research. The article uses the method of historical analysis and the paradigmatic approach to describing contemporary cultural phenomena. The article also uses a comparative approach in considering the culture of brewing and winemaking. The cultural context is used as a tester of the correct-ness of the author's conclusions. Scientific novelty. It was made an attempt to trace the origins of German brewing and its regional specifics, characterize the etiquette forms, beer customs and tastes of Germans, clarify the features of the German beer culture, and highlight the patterns of organizing and conducting beer festivals in the case of the Munich Oktoberfest for the first time in the pro-posed study. Conclusions. Proceeding from the analysis, we can state that beer has played an important role in the life and everyday life of the Germans. For a long time it was used not only as an alcoholic beverage, but also as a necessary portion of the diet. The spread in Europe in the era of industrialization of such new bever-ages as vodka, coffee, tea, cocoa significantly narrowed the scope of beer consumption.