Beer Steins Online

While there were the traditional German steins or American steins, there were also character steins. Character steins were shaped like animal or human heads, people, or other “characters”. Whimsy, of course, played a large part, and allegorical figures, animals with pseudo-human features, and popular or humorous figures were, and still are, great favorites. Let’s discuss a few of the better known character steins.

Both being drunk and having a hangover were known as having a Kater (“tomcat”). Similarly, a monkey (Affe) on one’s back was to be a drunk. Spring beer is a Bock (“ram” or “goat”) Bier; to have Schwein (“pig“) mean having good luck; just like the saying in the United States when a person is a fox, they are being clever; of course, a night person and/or a scholar is an “owl”. The tomcat, the monkey, the goat, the pig, the fox, and the owl were early character stein favorites. They were given human features, clothes to wear, and pipes to smoke.

Big, white radishes are the favorite beer snack in the Bavarian mountains. Because of that, radish character steins were inevitable. Other Famous characters were animails donned in hunters gear (as a testament to the type of game the hunter hunted), skulls, devils, monks, and even the famous Nuremberg funnels.