Bierhof

In the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period, a beer courtyard was the name given to an urban residential building to whose ownership the brewing right was tied. This means that the right to brew beer was not tied to a person but to a property, so-called real law. This gave the property a high value.

The number of beer yards was limited in most cities, so that brewing beer brought their owners safe and often high income. This was also ensured by the city's beer regulations , which largely ruled out mutual competition between the beer yards. There it was determined for the whole year which beer yard was allowed to brew how many beers and when. A beer meant a larger amount, usually several large barrels. Often there were different brewing rights in the beer yards of a city, that is, there were some with four, eight, twelve or more beers.

The beer yards were mostly not the actual brewery . Many municipalities had communal brewhouses and malthouses , so-called communal brewhouses . The expensive brewing pan also belonged to the city.

In many cities the owners of the beer yards belonged to the urban upper classes . They were always fully entitled citizens, not infrequently they even belonged to the sexes capable of being advised.

In the village the right to brew beer was on the shower bar .

The term "Bierhof" has been used in the names of a large number of restaurants , which often also have outdoor catering areas, to this day.

literature

• Eberhard May: History of the Saxon Beer Brewery. University thesis, Borna-Leipzig 1905 (dissertation at the University of Tübingen ).
• Brewing justice . In: Prussian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 2 , issue 3 (edited by Eberhard von Künßberg ). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de - publication date 1932 or 1933). “Nobody should brawen, because he has his own house, which he lives in and which has been his brawl righteousness from ancient times” (1593).