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The World Needs Gemütlichkeit

By Michael Barr

Gemütlichkeit is one of those German words that has no precise English equivalent. It is tricky to spell and only a German can pronounce it properly. It has nothing to do with sneezing.

Google says gemütlichkeit is a noun meaning "comfort, coziness or friendliness," but that's like saying Lyndon Johnson was a politician or Chester Nimitz a sailor.

Gemütlichkeit is a complex component of German social life. It goes to the heart of what it means to be German.

I have heard gemütlichkeit defined as "that warm, friendly feeling that comes as a natural effect of a sociable evening spent in the company of family and good friends. It's about beer, food, music, laughter and conversation. It is a love of celebrations and the German way of life."

Another way of putting it is that gemütlichkeit is a state of mind in which the gemüt, the inner person, is satisfied. Whatever contributes to that state is gemütlichkeit.

Long ago in Germany, after hard-working farmers harvested their crops, they set aside a time in the fall to have fun. They raised tents and brought in oom-pah bands, beer and bratwurst. They danced, sang and partied hard. Gemütlichkeit came from those celebrations.

German immigrants brought the concept to Milwaukee, St. Louis and the Texas Hill Country. After working hard all week, German-Americans spent Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons at beer gardens, ice houses and baseball games, soaking up a little gemütlichkeit.

Fredericksburg, TX ad for Fair's Biergarten, August 18, 1965

But there was another side to the story. A growing number of Americans believed the German fondness for beer, dancing and frivolity, especially when practiced on Sunday, was scandalous - even sinful.

The New York Times, that 19th century voice of the Eastern Protestant establishment, with its affection for Prohibition and blue laws, expressed hope that German immigrants and their descendants would outgrow their Old World habits and learn to behave themselves like proper Americans. "In the old countries, where freedom is smothered, drinking may be necessary to drown the depressing influence of despotism; but here, where freedom woos the mind to culture, no such beastly compensation is called for, and we believe we have said sufficient to prove that our German fellow-citizens are born for higher and nobler uses than for schnapps and bier."

New England Puritans snobbishly agreed. "It cannot be claimed," the Times article continued, "that its (St. Louis') inhabitants are pious, in the sense of the word as understood in Boston."

Meanwhile the Germans continued to enjoy themselves, without guilt or reservations. An April 1883 article in Lippincott's Magazine explained "Beer and wine the German looks on as gifts of God, to be enjoyed in moderation for lightening the cares of life and adding to its pleasures, and Sunday afternoon is devoted, by all who do not belong to the stricter Protestant sects, to recreation."

The Germans "burst from their homes on the Lord's Day, filling the streets with laughter and chatter, as they make their way to such umbrageous enclosures as beer gardens."

"Music, dancing, ball games and other amusements are indulged in with a zest which shows the intensity of pleasure realized from them by the participants. For them such pleasures are 'soul-feasts.'"

The Cincinnati Inquirer went so far as to suggest that gemütlichkeit, especially the consumption of German beer, helped civilize America. "Formerly Americans drank scarcely anything else than whiskey, frequently very bad whiskey, and the consequence was quarreling, strife and fights. Now Americans drink almost as much beer as the Germans do, and whereas Americans used to pour everything down their throats standing, they now sit down good naturedly and chat over a good glass of beer without flying into one another's hair."

Gemütlichkeit means different things to different people. To me it means life is short, so enjoy it. Lighten up. Have some fun. Savor the special moments and resolve to have more.

Our country is a little short on gemütlichkeit these days. Both political parties could use some gemütlichkeit. Maybe add a little to the drinking water at city council meetings. In fact we all need a little gemütlichkeit after the year we've had.