Konvictstrade in Freiburg

[corkybstewart]

Back in the early 80's my wife and I flew into Frankfurt, rented a car and took off south heading towards her family's home in France. We stopped in Freiburg for the afternoon because it was the first time it stopped raining since we got to Germany. Anyway we were walking around the town and came to a street where most of the homes had garages open and people were selling beer and bratwurst. When you bought a beer, you kept the 1/2L mug. All the mugs are printed with Konvictstrade-that may be misspelled. Does anybody know what was going on there. It definitely seemed to de some sort of celebration but nobody would explain anything to us. I was drinking a dopplebock out of one of those mugs last night and realized this was the place to find out.

[hertha fever]

don´t know what was going on, but as the freiburg soccer team is likely being promoted to the top league for next fall, i´ll be meeting some people from there and i´ll ask. i know it´s a way off but i don´t know anyone from freiburg to ask right now!
maybe the equivalent of one of america´s block parties?
:)

[corkybstewart]

It was a great way to spend an afternoon after spending hours looking at the rainy countryside from our crappy rental car. By the time we left I think we had 10 or 12 beer mugs and had eaten a week's worth of sausages. I think it would have been in early June when this happened.
Thanks for the quick response, and welcome to the site. It's always great to hear from the other side of the pond, the culture, especially beer culture, is so different over there and so few Americans ever really travel unless they're in the military.

[hertha fever]

put me in the other category.
i´m actually a pittsburgh guy that´s relocated to berlin since 2004. :eek:

thanks for the welcome and i hope to give as much insight as i can regarding the beers here.

[steveh]

Sounds very interesting and fun. Never run into anything similar in my trips, though we did go to what can be best compared with a county fair just outside of Schwäbisch Hall.

The only reason I compare is that we were able to drink beer from the proper vessels and pay a 25 or 50 pfennigs as deposit... and yeah, we kept the glasses at that bargain price.

S.

[corkybstewart]

Originally posted by hertha fever
put me in the other category.
i´m actually a pittsburgh guy that´s relocated to berlin since 2004. :eek:

thanks for the welcome and i hope to give as much insight as i can regarding the beers here.

I figured you were American when you mentioned Freiburg's "soccer" team. It trips up Americans everytime!!

But you're still experiencing European culture in a way that few Americans ever will.

[chazwicke]

On a trip up the Mosel we came upon wine festivals and enjoyed the wine beer and food that was being cooked outside over big fires.

On another trip right after reunification we drove into East Germany and found a bar that was essentially a garage with a card table and chairs and a refrigerator in a private home. The woman served us beer bottles from the fridge although we had a tough time communicating. We were the only ones there. It was literally a concrete floor in what was supposed to be a one car garage. I remember how run down and dumpy everything in the East seemed. It was 3 or 4 days after reunification.

[corkybstewart]

Chaz, that ws exactly the situation we found in Freiburg-not rundown and dumpy, but all the garages on the one street were open. They each had a grill going, a keg of beer, and a card table with the rolls you held the sausage with. Our communications skills were also nil so we never could find out anything about the event, if indeed it wasn't just a normal Saturday afternnon thing.

Another interesting thing about Freiburg. We parked outside of town by the river and walked about a half mile to the city gates. There was a large arched gate, and across the top of the arch was lettering we couldn't read until we got right up to it. It said "McDonalds". There was a McDonalds just inside the gate, and they had talked the city into letting them use the arch for their advertising. Kind of pissed us off.

[hertha fever]

well, freiburgs soccer team missed the promotion. so, i won´t meet any of them this coming season.
checked the city´s website too, but found no info.
sorry.
i´ll keep my ears opened though!