"All that's Holy is not Hoppy: St. Marienstern" Panschwitz-Kuckau by richiecdisc

The images of Germany the average tourist conjures is full of fairy-tale castles, verdant valleys, big pretzels and beers big enough to hoist but never quite finish off. Truth be known, 90% of all tourism surely centers around the south of the country where the “lucky” got partitioned off from the not so when after WWII the US grabbed the “Disney Castle” and Hofbrauhaus as their own. A few gazillion postcards later and it's no wonder everyone thinks the home to Goethe is full of men running around in lederhosen.

Those behind the Iron Curtain experienced a different fate and while it may not sound so promising to those from the western side of the fence, I've yet to meet anyone from the former GDR that while fully cognizant of their lack of variety and full freedom, doesn't smile and remember fondly the simpler time from which they sprang when The Wall came tumbling down. That said, there were repercussions. While they may not have been deluged by Coca Cola and McDonald's, they were stifled in two important ways. While true that religious freedom was never a cornerstone in European thinking, it now became a thing of disdain to have a religion of any kind aside from allegiance to The Party. This could certainly have been seen as an interesting experiment as to how man fared without his security blanket of Heaven and Hell but it also had the disastrous effect of many beautiful old religious buildings falling into disrepair and often being subject to pilferage. No matter your stand on religious thought, the monuments to such ideas are historically important and certainly things of beauty if even in a curious manner. Another important development was the suffocation of private business in an attempt to promote communism. While this may also have had an admirable motive the effect overall was a loss of variety and as time would prove, quality. One such area was in the world of brewing beer. If you've ever wondered why there are so many more breweries in Bavaria than say Saxony, look no further than The Party's attempt to thwart capitalism. Now, capitalism is not the apple of everyone's eye either. Look no further than Beck's to see how success in that sphere can lead to less variety and quality too. Still, there is no denying that in places where private business remained the norm mixed in with adherence to tradition and regional differences, brewing thrived. Franconia lies just south of Saxony and has the highest concentration of breweries in the world and there is no reason to believe that its northern neighbor would not have been similar if it were not for their unfortunate geographic constraint.

what would Kloster St. Marienstern have been if...

Kloster St. Marienstern is an interesting example of this historical development. This was a monastery much like its Bavarian counterparts to the south. In the middle of the 1200s, a beautiful setting with a great water supply led to the gathering of monks and hence a place for them to live and practice their religion. That they would brew beer was not surprising, it was after all one of the things monks did in those days. Seven hundred years later, they were shut down though it's unlikely anyone would have called them particularly capitalistic, at least not by modern standards! The monastery fell into disrepair and of course the beers were long forgotten. With the fall of The Wall, it has been in a state of restoration and while perhaps not in as glorious shape as say Kloster Andechs in Bavaria, it has a more refined and quiet charm to it. Unfortunately, brewing has not resumed. Chances are the equipment is no longer in place and in an area of few tourists, it probably doesn't make much sense to invest in such things. A regional brewer is now making beers under the monastery's name and they are served at the restaurant which is one of the restored monastery's highlights. While it is true that the beers do not match the monk's to the south, it is a valiant effort to bring them and the monastery back to at least some of its glory. A stop here is well worth your effort and acts as a reminder that man is a creature best left unrestrained by large entities when it comes to creating things of beauty, be they buildings or beer.