Martin Luther and beer. It’s a famous story.
Here are the top five Luther quotations regarding the “loudmouth-soap.”
#5: A Letter to Katie Luther to Send all the Wine and a Bottle of Beer
Yesterday I drank something which did not agree with me, so that I had to sing: If I don’t drink well I have to suffer, and yet I do like to do it. I said to myself what good wine and beer I have at home, and also what a pretty lady or (should I say) lord. You would do well to ship the whole cellar full of my wine and a bottle of your beer to me here, as soon as you are able; otherwise I will not be able to return home because of the new beer. (Luther’s Works, 50, 81)
#4: When Good Beer is Available, People Run to Drink It
The people become weary of the Word and suppose that it will endure forever. When a good beer is available at a certain place, everybody runs there without delay, knowing that the supply will not last long. This commodity is not to be had every day; therefore people get it while it is to be had. If it could be obtained for a long period of time, our appetite would become surfeited, and the beer would not be prized. But here we assume that the Word will remain with us always, although, in fact, it stays and endures but a short time before it is gone. If you do not accept it gratefully and reverently, you will soon be without it. And once the Word is gone, the time will come when you would fain be pious and be saved; you will want to obtain God’s grace, forgiveness of sin, and heaven. But all will prove futile. You will not find grace, forgiveness of sin, life, and righteousness. All will be under condemnation, even your best works. (LW 23:262-263)
#3: I Have to Look after the Beer, I Can’t Come to Church
The third companion and tempter is Master Devil [Junker Teufel]. He tempts you by causing you to disregard God’s Word: Oh, I have to look after the beer and malt, I can’t go to hear a sermon; or if you do come to church to hear the sermon you go to sleep, you don’t take it in, you have no delight, no love, no reverence for the Word. Then pray that you may not despise it! (LW 51:180)
#2: Drunkeness vs Spiritual Joy
For drunkards suffer physically from this evil. In addition, they shout, blaspheme, curse, and make much noise in the wineshops, as can be seen among our citizens and peasants, whose taverns resound far and wide with shouts and yelling even during our sermons. They howl and bellow when they drink beer. On the other hand, spiritual drunkenness makes them joyful and proud, so that they praise God, give thanks, and proclaim God’s blessings. (LW 8:260)
#1: In the most famous of all Luther Quotes, he gives the credit for the Reformation to the Wittenberg Beer:
In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf,6 the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. (LW 51:71)
Luther paid attention to German sayings about beer. Here are a few:
The Germans have a proverb which says: “Beer tastes like the keg. If the mother is a harlot, the daughter is not pious.” (On Genesis 41:45)
“They are bold soldiers when it comes to draining mugs and glasses (beer knights). They live in smug security and for their own pleasure.” (On Isaiah 5:22)
When one’s head aches after a drinking bout, as the Germans say, “He bumped into the beer and fell under the bench,” because they themselves are drunkards and live like beasts of the field. (On Isaiah 28:1)
Earlier Habakkuk compared the king of Babylon to a fisher who gathers everything to himself and eats and devours it. Here he compares him to a drunkard who gorges himself to the point of vomiting. He wishes to say: “At first the wine goes down so smoothly and sweetly, especially when the drunkard is a show-off and wants to be praised as being a beer-hero or a wine-knight. When the drunkard wants to achieve a prize with his guzzling, it is easy to drink the wine down. But finally the guzzled wine will attain the mastery in the head; now it hurls the tippling knight under the bench and makes him a filthy pig. Now he vomits and soils everything, so that house and yard reek. Now the proud man and fine hero lies there like a dumb, senseless beast, as a sow might lie, with no trace of the human being remaining except his human form. And that is a disgrace to behold and to hear. (LW 19,199-200)
Luther preached a sermon on moderation. Here’s an excerpt:
There is no moderation in these things. When there is a wedding or a dance you always have to go to excess. Christmas and Pentecost mean nothing but beer. Christians should not walk around so bedizened that one hardly knows whether one is looking at a man or a beast. We Christians ought to be examples. We Germans are especially swamped in this vice. (LW 51:296-297)
Got some more Luther quotations about beer that should be included? Comment below!
