The Hunger War: Food, Rations & Rationing 1914-1918 by Richardson Matthew

Author:Richardson, Matthew [Richardson, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473873988
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-10-29T21:00:00+00:00

This advertisement for Asbach Cognac shows a U-boat about to sink an enemy vessel, and was one of relatively few to make any visual reference to the war. (Author’s collection)

Interestingly, alcohol in Germany did not become the subject of state control to anything like the degree that occurred in many Allied nations, and there certainly does not appear to have been the same element of moral repugnance towards alcohol in Germany as was produced elsewhere by the war. An observer noted only that there were shortages, naturally caused by the scarcity of grain for brewing, but that, as with other deficiencies, Germans on the whole bore them stoically:

When I left Germany they had no beer or tobacco cards, but there was talk about them. The beer restaurants receive only a certain amount of beer each day, and when this is gone the people must wait until the next day. Most beer halls serve only two glasses to each person. In Munich, because of the shortage of beer, some of the beer halls do not open until 6 o’clock at night, and at 4 o’clock the Müncheners gather at the doors with their mugs in their hands, patiently waiting. Sometimes they knock the mugs against the doors to a tune. Munich without beer is a very sad sight!

In Berlin some of the restaurants will serve beer only to people who can get chairs, but this does not faze the clever Berliners, and when they want their beer they bring camp stools with them, and then they are sure to have a seat. It is forbidden to make certain kinds of fine beers because they take too much malt and sugar. None of the beer is as good as in times of peace, but the Germans have forgotten the delicacies of the past, and they live in the food ideals of the present, and they smack their lips and say, ‘Isn’t the beer fine tonight?’9

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