Mathäser’s Beer Hall in Munich

In 1928, American writer and belles lettres editor George Jean Nathan wrote-up noteworthy beers he encountered when travelling in Germany.

He used the conceit of a theatre review to convey his impressions. The piece sparkles, in more ways than one.

Mathäserbrau was among the beers covered. I hadn’t been aware of it, but a brief check revealed the beerhall that birthed it, and its long history.

An earlier book of 1914, Europe After 8:15, is a Continental travelogue by H.L. Mencken writing with George Jean Nathan and Willard Wright. Mathaser’s forms the centrepiece of a florid Munich “beeriad”.

The book gives a vivid impression of the Munich beer hall just ahead of World War I.

As the trio reported it, Mathaser’s beerhall was mostly the resort of the working and trades classes. It offered sturdy food and beer of good colour – dark colour being held evidently a mark of quality. The trio variously typed the beer “red” or “dark”, served they said in unpretentious surroundings.

 

 

It came frothing to the tables in earthenware mugs and was held superior to the paler beers of Hofbrauhaus and Augustiner, best known of the Munich beer shrines.

Mencken et al. gave the other halls their due but seemed more taken by Mathaser’s. The authors liked the bluff nature of all the German beer halls, though.

They observed – the wording has the mark of Mencken solo – that enlisted soldiers in their “coma” of love gave their “Lizzies” a simple hug, while monocled officers practiced “diableries” when charming an intended inamorata.

They, or Mencken alone, added, “no Munchener ever threw a stone”, which must be one of the great understatements of German social history, but never mind.

Mathaser’s met its demise some twenty years ago when it was converted into a multiplex theatre. Until then, it was the city’s largest “Bierstadt” with a capacity approaching an astounding 5000 persons.

This Munich visitors’ page sketches some of the hall’s early history. After the First World War it carried on, and did so even after the next war. To the end, it seems it kept its essential nature, even as in last years it shared ownership with erstwhile rival Lowenbrau.

Some notoriety attached to Mathaser’s. The Bavarian Free State was proclaimed there in 1918 by revolutionaries. Hitler is reputed to have spoken there although the notorious beerhall putsch occurred in a different place.

A blog page of the Potable Curmudgeon contains good notes on Mathaser’s as it was not long before its closing. Readers’ comments lend additional colour and context, particularly from ex-employees.

In all, one gets the feeling its ethos of fine beer, the communal experience, traditional food, and folk music is now of the past.

Yet classic beer halls still endure in Munich. The main ones are Hofbrauhaus, Paulaner in its modern industrial complex, Lowenbrau, and Augustiner’s smaller hall.

Hopefully they will remain prosperous as a new international beer culture, powered by American craft beer, encroaches on their traditional turf.

These halls, and England’s pubs in a somewhat different way, represent a pre-modern form of entertainment. They emerged and long-reigned when there was no television, no or just incipient radio, and no or few mass sporting events.

Socializing occurred outside the home, in the pub or church. Maybe the circus came once a year. One might attend the odd concert or play.

Public gatherings of this type became less attractive as radio, TV and then “home entertainment centres” emerged, lubricated by inexpensive bottled and canned beer.

Today, our online world permits communal engagement from the home desktop, or a phone. There is no need to sit in serried ranks with the like-minded in a drafty hall. If you want a drink it’s in the fridge.

It makes sense that 20 years ago Mathaser’s became a movie emporium. Movies then were at their height of popularity as a medium of mass-entertainment.

Maybe soon those theatres will morph into something else. An IPA hallen, perhaps.

Everything has its time, and place. Its zeit.

 

 

Note re images: the first image above was sourced from a German post card website, here. The second was sourced from this beer coaster website. All intellectual property therein or thereto belongs solely to their lawful owner.  Images are used for educational and research purposes. All feedback welcomed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 thoughts on “Mathäser’s Beer Hall in Munich”

  1. Loved Mathaser! Went there all through the 70s. Went back in 2001, sad to see it was gone.

  2. December 1959, I have been there! I remember dresses and folks-songs. My oncle was the still photographer in a film about the life of Wernher Von Broun, with Curd Jürguens, Herbert Lom, Gia Scala.

  3. My wife and I went to the Mathaser Bierstadt in June of 1985. A local suggested we go there rather than the Hofbrau Haus because that was where the locals went and it was not as touristy. He was correct – we had a great time. We went to the Hofbrau later in our trip. I was back in Munich a few years ago and looked for it and couldn’t find any info on it. Sounds like it had long since closed.

  4. Fond memories of this beer hall during my stay in Munich while attending the 1972 Olympics! Why did it close?

  5. At my first visit to Mathaeser in 1963, I was intimidated by the liter mugs around me. But, I noticed an elderly couple nearby with half-liter glasses. So I suppressed my shame at my low capacity, and ordered the same. Then I saw that they were using their half-liters only to chase their glasses of schnapps.

      • I went with some German soldiers from a regiment I was seconded to in 1970. We met up with a load of luftwaffe guys and what a night it was, oompahpah band belting out German army songs etc…..shame it’s no longer there..

  6. My favorite place (smaller & more intimate than Hofbrauhaus) to dance with friends while working in Munich, 3/’73-4/’74. Ahhh, die Andenken!?

    • Thanks for this. Do you remember the beer being particularly good, or different from elsewhere in the city?

      Or was it more the ambience and food perhaps, at Mathaser, that made the difference?

      Gary

Comments are closed.

error: Content is protected !!