Beer in Pre-Prohibition USA: From a German Cultural Asset to an Americanized Mass Product? A 'Reinvention of Tradition and Consumption'

通过建立在（德国-）美国移民和食品研究领域的研究，该项目分析了美国啤酒的营销，消费和感知的历史发展，从19世纪世纪开始，当德国式啤酒首次推出，直到1920年全国禁止生产，销售和运输酒精超过0.5毫克- %。在法律上是被禁止的。虽然英国和荷兰的酿造传统在16世纪跨越大西洋，特别是英国式麦酒在19世纪成为主流饮料，但德国移民在19世纪中叶引发了所谓的“拉格啤酒革命”，并从根本上改变了美国的饮酒文化。从那时起，啤酒是德国移民在美国的主要文化载体之一，酿酒商成为代表和传播德国啤酒饮用民族形象的跨文化经纪人。该项目以三个地区（中西部、东部和西部海岸）的案例研究为基础，研究啤酒作为“传统和消费的（再）发明”的文化转移，即：e.作为德国，英国，荷兰，爱尔兰和（后来）在美国的捷克酿造传统之间的差异化的地理和社会文化交流过程，该项目的目的是追溯作为重建的“文化身份”的表达的营销和消费实践，并确定啤酒酿造商的形式，角色和影响。我提出三个假设：（1）啤酒作为一种复杂的、不断协商的德美身份、自我和其他看法的象征而变得高度政治化;（2）啤酒越来越多地作为一种民族的、“德国”的产品销售，以建立一种压倒一切的群体身份感和与其他种族的区别;（3）然而，它越来越多地被推销为适合所有消费者，超越种族，阶级，或性别通过一个理想化的愿景'美国方式的Gemütlichkeit'离开产品实际上没有任何'德国'。重点是三个相互关联的方面：（1）产品开发和营销与现有和新出现的消费模式的关系;（2）啤酒厂/啤酒制造商作为向心力的作用;（3）反复出现的反德宣传，公共卫生运动和禁酒运动的影响。

By building upon studies in the field of (German-)American immigration and food studies, the project analyses the historical development of the marketing, consumption, and perception of beer in the U.S. from the beginning of the 19th century when German-style beers were first introduced until national prohibition in 1920 when the production, sale, and transport of alcohol over 0.5Vol.-% was legally banned. While British and Dutch brewing traditions had crossed the Atlantic in the 16th century and British-style ale in particular had become the dominant drink by the 1800s, German immigrants triggered the so-called 'lager beer revolution' in the middle of the 19th century and fundamentally changed America's drinking culture. Since then lager is one of the key cultural carriers of German immigrants in the U.S. and brewers became transcultural brokers representing and spreading the image of 'the' German beer drinking nation. Based on case studies of three regions (Midwest, East and West Coast) the project studies the cultural transfer of beer as a '(re)invention of tradition and consumption', i. e. as a differentiated geographical and socio-cultural exchange process between German, British, Dutch, Irish, and (later) Czech brewing traditions in the U.S. Overall, the project aims to trace back the marketing and consumption practices as expressions of reconstructed 'cultural identities' and to determine the form, role, and influence of brewers. I propose three hypotheses: (1) Beer became highly politicized as an emblem of a complex and constantly negotiated German-American identity, self- and other perceptions; (2) beer was increasingly marketed as a national, 'German' product in order to establish an overriding sense of group identity and a distinction to other ethnicities; (3) yet, it was increasingly marketed as suitable for all consumers beyond ethnicity, class, or gender through an idealized vision of the 'American Way of Gemütlichkeit' leaving the product actually void of anything 'German'. The focus is on three interrelated aspects: (1) product development and marketing in relation to pre-existing and newly emerging patterns of consumption; (2) the role of breweries/brewers as centripetal forces; (3) the effects of recurring anti-German propaganda, public health campaigns, and the temperance movement.