'Beer Mat' Currency, Germany

I still have a beer mat outstanding in a strip bar somewhere in St Pauli's, Hamburg. That should teach the young barman to keep his eyes on the mat,and not on the meat.

Don't worry Galahad - I cleared that one for you. BTW you owe me DM276:83.

"DM"

Wie Bitte ?

Deutsch Marks (aka beer tokens)

Themaadone wrote:

Deutsch Marks (aka beer tokens)

You'll be lucky. They call em Euro's these days. I miss Deutsch Marks.

Me too! Since we have the euro, everything has become almost twice as expensive...

You can be glad that you still have your British Pounds.

The only advantage is that you mustn't exchange currencies in central Europe.

Quote :

I miss Deutsch Marks.

I don`t,,but then again, i haven`t seen one for 47 years.

I don't remember a lion bar, but I have many happy memories of HM's

jim wrote:

I don't remember a lion bar, but I have many happy memories of HM's

You could end up in the tower if you are not careful!

There was an excellent Lion Bar in Singapore..

Quote :

but I have many happy memories of HM's

I would expect that from Brum,Not you Jim

Gordon. wrote:

There was an excellent Lion Bar in Singapore..

Quote :

but I have many happy memories of HM's

I would expect that from Brum,Not you Jim

I heard that !

Pardon ?

Oh by the way Brum ,i have just got the key to the Brigs bog..I trust you have left it in pristine condition..

Gordon. wrote:

Oh by the way Brum ,i have just got the key to the Brigs bog..I trust you have left it in pristine condition..

What I've left in there gives a whole new meaning to the term "Log in" mate !

(We haven't got to Dine you In have we ?)

Teabag wrote:

I always thought that it was very civilised. How did they signify a large beer from a small one? I have forgotten.

It varied...some used two lines, others used a cross..an X

alan8376 wrote:

In the old days, the German bars serving staff would tick ones beer mat with the amount of drinks you ordered in your round. Generally, the average squaddies paid up at the end of the night drinking.

You guys out there still in Germany as civis! Is the beer mat method still around?

I remember this from my posting to Germany. Was in Munsterlager and a lot of the bars would keep a tab for you if you were short, then again back in those days people were more relaxed and trusting. They still use beermats to write how many beers you have if you are a regular but not so sure about keeping them for the Month.

When i started in Munsterlager in 88 there was only 32 there so all the local pub owners knew where to come if they had problems.

Anyone remember Tony the Spick as he was known (not meant as a derogotary statement).

Tony was a guy who could get you anything you needed literally..

The system worked very well in the customer's favour if you were fortunate enough to be with the guy who was the boy friend of Herr Ober's daughter. On one occasion that was me. After a rather hearty afternoon we got up to leave and I asked about the bill. "Ah, forget it!", exclaimed the Object of Her Affection as he tore the mat into small pieces.

Sadly, I was never able to culture such a happy relationship for myself in any of the other watering holes around Werl. (Probably for the best.)

ah yes, I had many a German Girlfriend but never a bar owners one, shame nearest I got was a hairdresser and free haircuts

I think the most amusing aspect of this system was the fact that you might have been in a bar for say 8 hours, numerous guys would have come and gone from the table, countless beers, oxtail soup and half chickens would have been consumed and the waitress could still with great accuracy and good humour reckon up what you owed.

There was not the least point in attempting to pull the wool over her eyes or to argue about the amount due.

Finally, in your drunken confusion, you might mistakenly hand over a higher denomination note than was necessary but she would never take advantage.

The waitresses I came to know over the years were the salt of the earth.

steve jones wrote:

Martin, the bar at the back of Rippon Bks was Hans Meyer's. Great bar.

as for shagging in cars, a friend of mine was doing the deed with a young lady in the car park of a disco in Hohenlimburg, when a policeman opened the door. he suggested that this might not be the best spot to be fornicating and suggested that the Schloss had extensive grounds and was a little more quite. so off he went, and found a nice quite spot in the castle grounds. after a bit of persuassion he managed to get back to where he had been in the car park when the same policeman again opened the car door and issued him a DM20 fine for being in the castle grounds after it was officially closed !!!!

Clever, those polizei.....clearly decided to direct the horny squaddie to the Schloss grounds in order to score DM20 out of him. Talk about initiative and generating cash flow for the Kreis (county). Yes, rather a cynical and really not very fair thing to do, but funny and quite clever as well. At least he didn't get charged for lewd and lascivious public behaviour or what-have-you like he would have here!

I have fond memories of those beer mats (decals) and actually had quite a collection of them as many of them were wonderful little examples of the printer's art. Somewhat like old art show or rock concert posters in that regard; at the time of use nobody really paid much attention to them, they were merely a means to an end -- adverts for a concert -- but many of them, and a few folk picked up on this and saved them, were really very creative pieces of art work.

Same with the decals/mats. Each brewery issued their own, probably by the gross!, most just printed with the brewery label, but a few were quite clever things too...cartoons, or quizzes, or jokes.

Since I spent most of my youth in various gasthofs -- and to this day I do NOT see it as misspent in any way -- I acquired quite a collection. Certainly pocketing the cardboard mats was not something the gasthof landlord concerned himself with. He was more concerned about beer steins, beer glasses, ashtrays, and glass lampshades being taken as souvenirs than he was about some beer mat that cost him 2 pfennig, if that. And, yes, like many of us I also had an extensive collection of beer steins, beer glasses, ashtrays and glass lampshades all emblazoned with whatever brewery's logo....

The other thing about beer mats was -- or so I often heard -- was if someone did not, in fact, pay his bar tab, the landlord could take him to court and produce the marked beer mat as evidence and it would accepted. Try that here!!! first off, the case wouldn't make it to court and secondly, even if it did, the judge would throw it out citing 'insufficient evidence'....

When I left Germany, and my beloved Soest, in 1971 (heartbroken as only a teenage boy can get), I took with me a Warsteiner matt. My best friend, who I had been promising I would return, gave it to me saying "You won't come back, but if you do, show me this and I'll know it's really you...."

Fast forward a year and a half. I'd finished school (Yahoo!!!!), worked a bit, fought with the German Consulate for appropriate visas etc (an experience unto itself!!!), said 'screw it', and flew back to Germany, landing in Lahr and getting a ride up to Soest from friends of friends of my parents.

Dropped my bags off at my friend's parents place (I was still only barely 20 at this time, he was 19 or 20) and dashed off to the gasthof I knew he'd be at (Milch Bar in the Married Quarters).

Sure enough, there he was at the bar "Drunk as a lord" as he used to say (an expression he picked up from you lot, not us Canadians!! LOL).

I went up and said "Hi...I told you I'd come back..."

"Who's that?" he said in all his bleary-eyed wonder.

"Me! Stephen, you dumkopf...."

"Nooooo...it is not possible...."

I produced the beer mat, slapped it down in front of him, he gazed at it for a small eternity, broke into a broad grin and yelled "STEPHEN!!!!". The rest of the evening is a blur as we proceeded to get very drunk, very quickly...I had a lot of catching up to do ehehehe....

I once ordered, from the Warsteiner Brewery, 100 beer mats and a few thousand of those little paper thingys that fit round the stem of the glass to absorb the spillage. Still have a load to this day, sad really!!

Don`t worry about it Shelldrake,it takes all sorts

I don't think you're sad mate - I do think you need help though

Shelldrake wrote:

I once ordered, from the Warsteiner Brewery, 100 beer mats and a few thousand of those little paper thingys that fit round the stem of the glass to absorb the spillage. Still have a load to this day, sad really!!

If that's any indication, your MFO must've been a sight to behold !

Wish I hadn't mentioned it now!