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Guess what? More 19th-century statistics. And I remembered it was German month. Not Austro-Hungarian month. That's May. Or is May Mild Month? I get confused.

A fascinating table today. Showing wonderfully the fragmentation of Germany on the eve of unification. And how much the density of breweries varied.


Number of breweries per German state in 1865 no. breweries male workers workers per brewery population pop per brewery Prussia 6,817 11,026 1.62 21,793,900 3,197 Hannover 454 638 1.41 1,854,700 4,085 Kurhessen 332 402 1.21 738,500 2,224 Nassau 165 182 1.10 1,389,000 8,418 Hessen-Homburg 21 28 1.33 27,400 1,305 Frankfurt am Main 97 379 3.91 87,500 902 subtotal 7,886 12,655 1.60 25,891,000 3,283 Königreich Sachsen 619 1,324 2.14 1,916,700 3,096 Oldenburg 149 124 0.83 314,300 2,109 Braunschweig 90 189 2.10 292,700 3,252 Anhalt 77 120 1.56 193,000 2,506 Sachsen-Weimar 225 303 1.35 280,200 1,245 Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha 272 131 0.48 164,500 605 Sachsen-Meiningen 419 311 0.74 177,800 424 Sachsen-Altenburg 165 139 0.84 141,800 859 Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 109 123 1.13 73,800 677 Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen 69 94 1.36 66,200 959 Reuss, jüngere Linie 94 106 1.13 86,500 920 Reuss, ältere Linie 61 79 1.30 43,900 720 Schaumburg-Lippe 31,400 Lippe-Detmold 27 47 1.74 111,300 4,122 Waldeck 25 34 1.36 59,100 2,364 Grossherztogthum Hessen Oberhessen 352 103 0.29 252,400 717 Grossherztogthum Hessen Unterhessen 289 409 1.42 564,500 1,953 Baden 859 1,306 1.52 1,369,300 1,594 Württemberg 2,026 3,313 1.64 1,748,300 863 Bavaria 5,385 9,727 1.81 4,774,600 887 Luxemburg 36 87 2.42 203,700 5,658 Total 19,234 30,724 1.60 38,757,000 2,015 Sources: “Bericht über der Welt Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 133.
http://www.populstat.info/
I find a couple of things amusing. Like Württemberg having more breweries per head of population than Bavaria. Or the most heavily-breweried states - Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, Sachsen-Meiningen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt - all being in Thüringen (despite the Sachsen in two of their names.

419 breweries for 177,000 people. That's crazy. And it shows how far the USA has to go before being saturated with breweries. At least by 19th-century, central European standards.

In case you've forgotten, (and if your memory is as bad as mine you surely will have) in the same year Austria-Hungary had 3,138 breweries at a rate of one per 11,256 inhabitants. Or quite a way behind Germany. Today the situation is reversed, with Austria having more breweries per head than Germany. (Austria has 170 breweries at a rate of one per 48,087 inhabitants. Germany has 1,259 breweries at a rate of one per 66,468 inhabitants. I include the numbers as I assume many of you aren't sufficiently motivated to follow that link.)

I'm starting to enjoy these old stats. That's a threat.


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