On some threads elsewhere on the forum I have gained the feeling that some CBFers did not give appropriate respect to that near-holy artefact - beer. I recalled an occasion when the proper role of beer in life was nicely illustrated.
Three or four years ago I, with some colleagues, visited a manufacturing company in the very pleasant small German town of Passau. This is situated at the confluence of the Danube and the Inn (the river that runs through Innsbruck) in the easternmost part of Bavaria close to the Czech border. We arrived at the factory at 7.30 am, which I thought a bit early considering the hospitality we had enjoyed from our hosts the night before. We first met with the Financial Director for initial discussions and he then gave us a tour of the factory including the machine tool shop. Machine tools are at the core of engineering and shape metal by drilling, boring, grinding and turning. Operating them is highly skilled work with a potential for danger if things go awry.
We arrived in the shop at 9.00 which happened to be breakfast time. There were two long trestle tables laid out; at one sat the men and at the other some women from an adjoining department (machine tools are the preserve of men in Germany). I was surprised to see that each of the men, in addition to piles of black bread and sausage, had a bottle of beer on the table. My surprise showed and the FD asked "Do you not have this in Britain?". I replied that UK employers tended not to encourage drinking on their premises and I suspected that drinking in a machine shop might even be illegal on Health & Safety grounds. He was appalled. "Stop the workers from having their beer? This is unthinkable. You might as well try to take away their bread. Unthinkable. This is Bavaria".
