Reinheitsgebot aka German Purity Law of 1516

Hey peeps!!! With Oktoberfest come and gone and with my talking about non-alcoholic beers in the post Non-Alcoholic Beers October 29, 2019, I wanted to give you all a historical background on the German Beer Purity Law of 1516 knows as the Reinheitsgebot. Dating back to the early 16th Century, the German Purity Law of 1516 sought to accomplish a number of things.

First, the law was introduced by Bavarian ruler Duke Wilhelm Wittelsbach IV on April 23, 1516. Secondly, the law established that only three ingredients could be used to make Bavarian Beer: water, barley and hops. Yeast would be added to list of allowed ingredients during the 19th century. With the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismark in 1871, the Reinheitsgebot applied to not only to the Duchy of Bavaria but the entire country of Germany. By 1906, the law was has effect in the whole of Germany. What were some reasons for this piece of legislation? There seem to be a number of reasons.

One reason was due to the health of the populace. According to the article The Bavarian Beer Purity Law: The Reinheitsgebot was adopted on 23 April 1516 by Paul Lay from History Today Volume 67 Issue 4 April 2017:

The passing of the Reinheitsgebot was prompted less by a concern for aesthetics and more for the health and wellbeing of the populus. In the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, beer was the staple daily drink, in variable quantities, for men, women and children. Although water was still drunk, it was often easier and safer to drink fermented beer, especially in unhygienic, overcrowded urban centres before the advent of advanced sewage systems. However, it was not beyond unscrupulous brewers to increase prices or add all kinds of unpleasant additions to their concoctions, including hallucinogenic plants. And so the Bavarian authorities insisted that only water, barley and hops could be used to brew beer.

Another reason for the law came down to simple economics. The post 500 Years of the Reinheitsgebot from the Bierhaus NYC website dated April 18, 2016:

Besides the main purpose of brewing only the best quality of beer, another purpose of The German Purity Law was to ensure that bakers would be able to buy rye and wheat for an affordable price. By restricting brewers to barley, it eliminated the competition between bakers and brewers for wheat and rye. This allowed baker's to sell their bread at an affordable price.  

The post Reinheitsgebot: The 16th Century German Beer Purity Law from the Beeriety Blog dated September 24th, 2009 further delves into the economics behind the law:

The land’s barley fields were owned by the aristocrats of the land, and making it illegal to brew with anything else meant that the wealthy land owners were basically able to guarantee themselves a virtual monopoly on the grains bought for brewing.

You might be asking yourself: How is German Hefeweizen allowed to be made in Germany? That beer style was one that was popular among the German royalty class. An exemption was made to allow wheat beers to be produced in Germany by first the Degenberger family and later to other private brewers. The article The Reinheitsgebot - One Country’s Interpretation of Quality Beer by Stephen R. Holle and Manfred Schaumberger from the More Beer website gives a much more detailed history of wheat beer in Germany.

Overall, the Reinheitsgebot set the rules for the exclusive manufacturing and sales of beer in Germany by Germans. This exclusivity would lead to conflict with West Germany and its trade partners in the European Community. The European Community claimed that the exclusivity of only German beer being sold throughout Germany (with the exception of Guinness Stout) created an impediment to free trade.

According to the article In Germany, Bier may be Beer or Biere by James M. Markham, Special To the New York Times dated March 13, 1987, the grievance would be heard by the 13-judge panel of the European Court:

In arguing the case before Lord Mackenzie Stuart, the British chief judge in Luxembourg, lawyers for the Federal Republic went so far as to argue that beer for Germans was far more than alcohol consumed for pleasure. It was, the lawyers contended, a basic source of almost a third of the nutrients ingested by the citizenry. Called Danger to Inhabitants

The average German is reckoned to put away 155 quarts of beer a year, and in Bavaria, which has a third of the nation's breweries, the figure is said to reach 264 quarts for every man, woman and child. In view of these extraordinary consumption levels, the German lawyers maintained that permitting foreign beers and, with what they considered dubious additives, into the Federal Republic could endanger the well-being of its inhabitants.

But Lord Mackenzie declined to accept this argument, saying that the rules of the European Community did not permit a member country ''to cement consumption habits in order to protect an advantage for domestic industry.''

The British judge ruled that West Germany was permitted to demand ''appropriate labeling'' on imported foreign beers but nothing that would convey a ''negative'' view. He also said West Germany could ban additives that posed a genuine health danger, based on ''the results of international research.''

With that the German market was opened to foreign beer while the Reinheitsgebot still applied to all German made beers.

On a side note, I haven't been able to find anything about the Reinheitsgebot and East Germany. East Germany was under Russian control until 1990 when Germany was once again unified after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I don't know if the Reinheitsgebot was recognized by the communist regime. I'll do a supplemental post if and when I find out more

Until Then Happy Drinking,
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