german beer history

When beer and history meet together in germany what would you expect?

For germans beer is something you drink, not to think about. But its also a point of identification, a way to hallucinate some kind of national identity. If you ask a german dude who invented beer he will answer "we", no matter how little he actually knows about brewing.

It is al long tradition to state that beer was the beverage of the germanic (in opposition to the wine of the romans).
I state most styles that are brewed today in germany were not invented by germans. It was either british or bohemian or some kind of pre-national collaboration like in the Belgium-region.

like Stan Hieronymus said: "when you think about the way beer moved around [...] take away those borders and think about the space"

For me beer and germany are no sources of pride. Beer can be a tasty thing, and germany ... well thats another topic.

To sum it up: beer-history (like most history) in germany is mostly ignorance mixed with fantasizing.
So if you read on any german brewery-site (and also books and articles) about the history of brewing, be cautious. Being old, traditional, "alt", "urig" or the like is a number one selling point and most time not much more.