Germany, Switzerland, and Austria share a common history, with the strong trade routes between the countries and the frequent shifting of the borders between them ensuring much overlap in their drinking traditions. Yet there are also significant historical differences, particularly when it comes to Germany: in the north, spirit was primarily made from grain and later from potatoes, while in the south there are strong traditions of distilling alcohol from fruit and even in some areas roots.
In the twelfth century, when the practice of distilling spirits began spreading throughout southern Europe, Switzerland, Austria, and most of Germany were part of the Holy Roman Empire, along with large areas of what is today Italy. It is not overly speculative to assume that the knowledge of distillation spread north, probably via monks and monasteries. In any case, distillation was firmly established in the region by the 1400s. In the year 1507 grain brandy was mentioned for the first time in documents in the city of Nordhausen. See korn. The first potato distillery was built in the Palatinate in 1750. In 1810, distilling was generally permitted, previously only allowed to gentry and brewers (this restriction was not always followed). In the years 1810–1887 many more grain and potato distilleries were established, especially in the German north. Already in 1831 there were approximately seventeen thousand potato distilleries.
This diversity of small distillers is a feature of the industry in all three countries: there is no multinational “big player” from the region, and most producers are small or middle-sized. Only a few products have an international distribution. One exception is the herbal liqueur Jägermeister, which is the most successful German spirit, being in the top 100 worldwide. See Jägermeister. Korn, though widespread in the region, is virtually unknown outside of it, although it was quite influential on the early development of the United States’ rye whisky. See whisky, rye.
Two spirits that have found export markets, if specialized ones, are a pair of eaux-de-vie, kirschwasser and poire Williams. See kirschwasser and Poire Williams. Nowadays the Williams pear has around 1,500 varieties worldwide, of which there are over seven hundred cultivated varieties in Germany alone. But in the south basically every type of fruit is distilled, with many regional specialties and even strictly local ones, where small producers have spirits made of ingredients that grow only in that locale. See eau-de-vie; obstler; and schnapps.
Recent developments show a big investment in whisky distillation in all the three countries, with many fruit distillers moving into grain distillation. The best known of them outside the region, Hans Reisetbauer of Austria, began making apple schnapps in 1994 and whisky in 1996, and today makes a wide variety of innovative spirits. Currently Germany has more whisky distillers than Scotland, if considerably smaller ones. The same is true for the big seller early twenty-first century, gin. Switzerland forbade the distillation of potatoes or grain during World War I, to protect the nation’s food supply. This prohibition was only lifted for potatoes in 1997 and for grain in 1999. In Austria it was possible to use grain, but it is uncommon.
Feuerzangenbowle. This experience meant that many German bartenders were highly successful in America. See Ensslin, Hugo Richard; Johnson, Harry; and Schmidt, William. Some German American bartenders returned to their home country and influenced the drink culture there. In Germany the Verein der Barmixer (bartenders’ union) was founded in 1909 and published the first bartending magazine in Europe, the American Bar Journal. The first German bar book, Lexicon der getränke, by Hans Schönfeld and John Leybold, followed in 1913. In Austria, the first bartenders’ union was established 1926, and in Switzerland it started in Zürich in 1927. All three were suspended or abolished during the world wars but were able to re-establish themselves in the 1950s. Even in the former East Germany bars continued to be found in hotels, and there was even a cocktail book, Wir mixen, published in 1958. The leading figure in the field of bartending and mixology in the three German-speaking countries was the Swiss J. H. “Harry” Schraemli (1904–1995); he published the first manual at the Hotelfachschule Luzern. His book Das große Lehrbuch der Bar is today a collector’s item. (The inventive Swiss-Italian mixologist Elvzio Grassi must also be mentioned, who as bartender at the Bar Argentino in Lugano published Mille misture (1936), one of the most inventive cocktail books ever written.)Until the 1980s, cocktails in the three countries were served mainly in hotel bars: the “American bar” as a solo establishment was a rarity, although there were exceptions, such as Kruger’s American Bar in Vienna, which dates back to the 1920s. Other types of bars existed, of course, but there the leisure and pleasure factor was more important than the quality of mixed drinks. The first wave of new cocktail bars started in the early 1980s and got a real boost at the beginning of the 2000s. From 2007 on, an important impulse was provided by the first bar show on the continent, Bar Convent Berlin (BCB). At first just for the so-called GSA countries (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), it evolved into the world’s leading high-end bar trade show, spreading to other countries (e.g., Bar Convent Brooklyn, launched in 2018) or inspiring them to create their own.
All three countries nowadays have a vivid cocktail scene, mainly concentrated in the bigger cities. In Austria, Vienna is dominant; in Switzerland, it is stronger in the German-speaking part, and particularly in Zurich (where the Kronenhalle Bar is an institution), Basel, and Berne; but Geneva, in the French part, also has a modern bar scene. In Germany, Munich has the most prominent bar internationally with the legendary Schumann’s, followed by Le Lion in Hamburg. After becoming the capital again, Berlin is also an excellent place for mixed drinks. But in every significant city the sophisticated drinker will find a decent spot for a mixed drink.
Bundesverband der Spirituosen Industrie. https://www.spirituosen-verband.de/ (accessed March 22, 2021).
Henseler, Udo, and Bernhard Weichsel. Wir mixen. Leipzig: Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1958.
Schäfer, Bernhard. Gin. Munich: Gräfe und Unzer Verlag, 2016.
Schraemli, Harry. Das grosse Lehrbuch der Bar. Luzern: Fachbücherverl. Union Helvetica, 1949.
Siegel, Simon, et al. Handlexikon der Getränke. Linz: Rudolf Trauner, 1985.
Bernhard Schäfer
The Christian Beltz kornbranntwein distillery in Nordhausen, Germany, as portrayed on a 1902 invoice. Note the mashing/still room top center, with its twin brick-jacketed pot stills and the coopers preparing barrels for shipping bottom right.
Wondrich Collection.
The Christian Beltz kornbranntwein distillery in Nordhausen, Germany, as portrayed on a 1902 invoice. Note the mashing/still room top center, with its twin brick-jacketed pot stills and the coopers preparing barrels for shipping bottom right. Source: Wondrich Collection.