Beer Gardens are open-air spaces where beer is served at rather simple tables, often under trees. Beer gardens are considered a core element of southern German beer culture, but the concept has been copied and modified to fit into any beer oriented gastronomical environment. While large beer gardens like the ones in Munich only evolved in the 19th century, the roots of the beer garden culture are much older. The oldest legal document regulating taverns in Bavaria was the “Lex Bavariae” dated 1244—it made the innkeeper (owner of a “legitima taberna”) a regular profession. It says that no one should drink wine or beer unless in a legalized tavern. The text does not mention if these taverns were allowed to have beer gardens, but old pictures show people dancing and drinking outside, so most probably it was a custom to drink in the garden. Before these regulations were established in medieval cities noble guests and officers would be invited into a burgher’s home (which preceded the more professional taverns of later times) to have food and drink but lower ranking people would be served jugs of beer outside—and be encouraged to bring their own food. Up until today it is a custom in many Bavarian beer gardens to bring food and even a personalized beer stein to a beer garden.

Many medieval towns were granted the right to brew beer, which actually meant that they could sell the beer that was brewed by the town patricians (burghers who owned a house made of stone and had some right to vote on a city level). This gave a boost to the development of a—albeit small-scale—brewing industry that developed the beer styles that became typical for the town. These brewers (some, but not all of them licensed inn-keepers) soon began to build cellars on the outskirts of their cities to store and mature their brews. These cellars were a core element in the development of lager beer—if they were cold enough, bottom-fermenting yeasts would grow there. By the 17th and 18th centuries some of these cellars had gained some popularity especially among students because there was always fresh and cool beer at hand. To keep theses cellars cool, brewers would plant tree varieties featuring large masses of leaves (preferably water chestnut) that could substantially lower the surrounding temperature by evaporating water through their leaves. These trees would also provide shadow for those sitting “auf dem Keller” (“atop of the cellar”) where the brewer was allowed to sell his beer (but again no full meals). Later brewers were also allowed to accommodate guests indoors; therefore, some beer gardens have adjacent beer halls featuring similarly simple furniture and the same limited offer of drinks (beer and not much else) and food that can be found outside year long. Notable examples are the Löwenkeller and the Augustiner Keller in Munich.

Munich’s beer gardens became extremely popular in the 19th century. Breweries grew in size—and so did their gardens. Today the largest beer garden in the world is the Hirschgarten in Munich seating 8,000 guests (1,200 in a serviced area with full food service; the rest is self-service) with a choice of beers brewed by Augustiner, Herzogliches Brauhaus Tegernsee, and Schloßbrauerei Kaltenberg. However, its fame is challenged by the slightly smaller beer garden around the Chinese tower in Englischer Garten serving Hofbräuhaus-beers. Both gardens were formerly owned by the royal family of Bavaria and opened to the public in the last years of the 18th century.

Ayinger Brewery’s Liebhard beer garden in Bavaria, Germany. brauerei aying franz inselkammer

During the 19th century the concept of the beer garden was exported to other regions of Europe and in fact the whole world—often along with beer from Bavaria. Bavarian style dark lager was the typical product to be found there at the time. In large capital cities like Berlin and Vienna these gardens were often the venue for concerts of military bands and some masterpieces of classical music (including many waltzes by Johann Strauss) were first performed in front of a beer drinking audience in these popular gardens.

By the middle of the century the beer garden hit America. Stanley Baron writes in his book Brewed in America that German style beer gardens were popular in San Antonio, Texas, where one-third of the population was German (which includes some immigration from Austria and Bohemia) in 1856. For New York City Baron records: “The Bowery in New York City became particularly famous for a number of beer gardens that were established on that street in the 1860s … These beer-gardens are generally spoken of approvingly, because they provided entertainment for simple hard-working families, and offered a wholesome antidote to the corrupt and licentious gin-dives or dancing parlors that were also current in New York and other cities. At the beer-gardens entrance was free.” Baron quotes Edvard Winslow Martin (pseudonym of James Dabney McCable) who wrote in his book The Secrets of the Great City (1868): “Beer and other liquids are served out at a small cost … The music is a great attraction to the Germans. It is exquisite in some places, especially in the Atlantic Garden, which is situated in the Bowery, near Canal Street.” The Atlantic Garden was on the eastern side of the Bowery in the block south of Canal Street, closer to Bayard St, in the same block where the Thalia and the Windsor Theatres were. Today this is where the Manhattan Bridge ends. The area east of the Bowery and north of Division was known as “Kleindeutschland” (“Little Germany”) until the 1870s. In 1871 Harper’s Monthly wrote a piece on the Atlantic Garden: “On every side there are family groups, father, mother, and children, all merry, all sociable, all well-behaved and quiet. There is not the remotest danger of insult or disturbance, or need of the presence of any policeman.”

After the end of prohibition the beer garden became an all-American institution, made popular again by the famous song “Roll Out The Barrel” (a composition by Czech composer Jaromir Vejvoda originally titled “Modřanská polka” and later “Škoda lásky” which means “Wasted Love”) performed by the Andrews Sisters. The same tune is played in beer gardens back in Germany with a different text and title called “Rosamunde.” Today, the beer garden is making a comeback in many areas of the United States. In New York City, the Bohemian Hall in Astoria Queens, the city’s only surviving old beer garden, is once again bustling. It was built in 1910 and on warm days still seats thousands of people under soaring old trees.