Viewed soberly, it was inevitable in this relationship, which was not lacking in puns, between the Germans and their beer. Everything is getting more expensive, this sentence has been repeated so often that it has long since turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So why not the beer too?
“Something’s brewing over beer,” the local press knew months ago. The Picture-Zeitung compressed the vague notion into a number, one that should of course shock: 7.50 euros for half a liter. Converted to the mass, that can’t knock any Oktoberfest visitor in Munich, where the 14 before the decimal point has already leaked out to well-informed beer drinkers.
But the source of the quote for the supposed 7.50 euro shocker comes from somewhere else. From Berlin-Brandenburg, from the local brewery association, namely from Vice President Stefan Fritsche. The man not only speaks of “folk festival” prices, but of extremely normal maximum prices “especially for draft beer in beer gardens, pubs and restaurants”, in short: of the “most expensive beer garden summer of all time”.
Although, for him it is a utopia, something that, according to the dictionary, exists in the imagination of people (or in this case probably above all in the imagination of the brewer), but is not (yet) reality. Or is it? Here and there Fritsche sees his dream come true: the beer price of 7.50 euros for half a liter, which was still considered “utopian” at the beginning of the year, has already been breached in the first bars, he says.
For the Picture-Newspaper is the “bright madness”, yes, pun, wink, bright, bright. And you don’t have to be a dream interpreter to clearly hear the triad of inflation, greed inflation and beer inflation. But only as a prelude to the boiling of the beer-drenched folk soul.
“That would be endless,” says one brewer
Because beer prices and beer bliss relate to each other like two communicating pipes and have therefore always been a political issue. You don’t have to go back to the Dorfen beer war of 1910 for proof of this, which was sparked by the fact that the brewers passed on the malt surcharge decided by the state parliament in Munich to the beer drinkers. Up until a few weeks ago, there was still anger in Landshut about last year’s beer price increase. Things were really boiling in the tubes, which only communicated by fire letter. Because the beer price at the folk festival was raised by one euro compared to the tender – although the city had explicitly forbidden this. The price rose from 8.90 to 9.90 euros. For a mass.
Which also sheds light on the fact that, firstly, it is not the absolute price that is decisive for the boiling point of emotions, but rather the speed of the price increase. Secondly, it also depends on where and how much the prices rise.
In and around Göppingen and elsewhere in Germany, the half will not cost 7.50 euros for the time being. The bosses of the two big breweries there, for their part, warn against alarmism. Christoph Kumpf, the managing director of the Geislinger Kaiserbrauerei, says: “That would be endless.” And Hans-Dieter Hilsenbeck from the Gruibinger Lammbrauerei “can’t imagine it like that now”. Bernd Sauer, board member of the Bierland Oberfranken association, also gave the all-clear for his region: “7.50 euros for a Seidla? Those are fantastic prices. That would be more expensive than in Sweden.” The pros tend to locate the 7.50-euro half in big-city bars, discotheques and chill-out lounges.
On the other hand, there has already been movement in the beer prices, for reasons that have gotten around: higher prices for energy and raw materials, there was even a risk that beer would lack carbon dioxide; and some who work in breweries, at least those in Bavaria, get higher salaries, if they are allowed to. From their point of view, the collective bargaining ended successfully.
So beer tends to be more expensive, but a half does not cost 7.50 euros everywhere, at most in the utopia of some brewers, a land of fantasy. Rather, it could be that prices are based on supply and demand, but that can mean something different depending on whether you’re at Oktoberfest or in the beverage market. “That’s the paradox,” says Georg Schneider, Managing Director of Schneider Weisse, “that people are queuing at the Oktoberfest to pay 14 euros for the mass, and I get a shitstorm every time I buy the box in the supermarket for ten cents make it more expensive.” This paradox shows how elastic prices are.