Bavaria Says Yes

In a referendum on Sunday, Bavarian voters ended the dithering and doubt about smoking in their state with a decisive "yes" to banning it completely in in all public buildings. The previous strict law had been weakened by political in fighting and dubious avoidance by some pubs, as well as single room exceptions. All these have been swept away.

Over three million voters participated in the referendum, with 61 percent voting in favour of the ban. The citizens' initiative "for real protection of non-smokers" will impose a total smoking ban on all clubs, bars, restaurants, cafes and beer tents from 1st August.

As someone who goes to Bavaria a lot, I welcome this and look forward even more to my trip later this year. Whether it will be welcomed quite as much in the filthy "Raucherclubs" is a different matter, but the state has already said it will enforce the law from day one. The sting in the tail is that the Association of Private Breweries announced that it will mean price rises due to the cost of enforcement, particularly in beer tents. "The citizen must pay for it through higher beer and food prices" they said.


It seems though this year's Oktoberfest will be exempt and smoking will be allowed for the last time.

Poll Result

In a huge response (190 votes) the results of my poll on smoking in pubs were:

Should never have been introduced and should be repealed	58 (30%)
Should have been in introduced in a modified form to allow smoking in some areas	34 (17%)
Is a progressive and positive thing	56 (29%)
Is regrettable, but inevitable and we should accept it and move on	3 (1%)
Has ruined pubs and changed them for the worse	8 (4%)
Is a dead subject which we shouldn't even be discussing	31 (16%

The poll was interesting in that the smoking brigade, mostly anonymously, popped out of the woodwork to vote. Another interesting feature was the dodgy and bloody boring stats that were hauled out to defend the cause. One thing was clear from the smokers. They wish to conflate the smoking ban with a general health push against drinking; you can decide for yourself on that one. Most who didn't smoke, it appears, couldn't care less about smoking, but just didn't want to stink of the stuff. That aspect was scarcely addressed by the pro-smoking brigade. I could go on, but won't.

So if you count answers 1 and 5 as "anti", they polled a respectable 34%. If you count answers 3, 4 and 6 as "pro" ban, that is a total of 46%. The middle ground of a modified ban polled only 18%, so it seems we are all pretty entrenched in our positions. I notice it doesn't add up to 100%. Seems 3% is lost in the rounding.

My conclusion? Smokers were the ones losing their "rights", but even now they don't favour the compromise solution. Seems they weren't and aren't prepared to compromise even retrospectively. Non smokers aren't either, but they don't have to.

New Poll

Inspired by a discussion over on Curmudgeon's Blog, I have devised my second ever poll on this blog, this time on the subject of smoking in pubs. It is a subject that perhaps should be dead, but won't lie down. Or has ruined our pubs and caused untold misery. Or points between

I have tried to make it as reasonable as possible and cover all the main views. Have your say.

No Longer in the Schwemme of Things

My thoughts on the German pub scene are still in the formulative stages, so you'll have to wait for that one. Instead I'll share a few observations of the German Rauchsverbot or smoking ban, as applied in North Rhine-Westphalia. Unlike the Bavarian version, this state allows smoking in separate enclosed rooms and one roomed pubs are exempt, thus making this drinker avoid a number of promising boozers. The smoke also chased us out of the Pilsner Urquell Ausschank after one hastily consumed half litre of U Fleku dark.

Of course my drinking in Dusseldorf was largely confined to the classic brew pubs and it was here the hurt was deepest. It started off promisingly though in F Schumacher's Altstadt pub. Here in the schwemme or public bar, (my favourite spot so I can watch the barrels being tapped and the beers poured,) there was no smoking - in fact it was no smoking throughout. I always think the delicately balanced, hop infused alt here is the finest to be had and many glasses were consumed over the two days we were there. This lulled us into a false sense of security, as across the road, Zum Schlussel's schwemme was a smoking zone. Damn. Fortunately this is my least favourite alt, though by no means bad, so we had a couple in a separate no smoking area and left. Later that day we were due to meet some American friends in Zum Uerige, in my opinion, one of the best pubs in the world. Here, my favourite room was given over entirely to smokers. Curses. I love that room. We fled to the comfort of the side room where at least, we could watch the beer being poured, as uniquely among the four home brew pubs, the schwemme is not the setting for beer dispense. I like Uerige's Alt, more distinctly bitter than the others and very, very drinkable.

The next day in a sleetstorm, we headed for Im Fuchsen - The Fox. Here the schwemme was firmly no smoking with the alcove at the right , previously part of the main schwemme, now with doors on it and a new sign saying "Raucherschwemme". We settled in at one of the typical high tables here, having quite a few glasses of another well balanced alt.

It seems that North Rhine-Westphalia has reached a reasonable compromise as far as big pubs go. The smokers are confined to small enclosed areas. Regrettably the apparent exemption for one roomed pubs makes quite a few places unpleasant to visit. There was no sign of diminished business in any of these pubs, in fact all were going like a fair, but the quality of the beer and the general "offering" is outstanding, so why should it?

The figures in the photo are in the schwemme in Zum Uerige.

The Bavarian Smoking Ban in Action

There is a lot of rubbish talked by the one of the Publican's bloggers about how the German High Court has ruled the German smoking ban as unconstitutional. It hasn't. What it has said is the law must be applied in consistent way, so that single room pubs are not disadvantaged by allowing multi roomed pubs a smoking room. Thus in three German states the law must be revised. The likely outcome is a complete ban on smoking. It would be unthinkable to go back now and I confidently predict that they won't.

Bavaria has no such problem. Smoking is completely banned in all pubs, so a level playing field and no need for law revision. Smoking is banned and it is constitutional. OK? This makes Bavarian pubs even more delightful places to be in and as far as I could tell, just as thriving as they always have been. Why am I telling you all this? Well our next stop on our tour was the walking and ski resort, Oberstdorf. We arrived knackered after a long ride high into the Allgäu Alps. Our room looked over towering peaks and a ski lift. It was stunningly beautiful.

After a good meal in a pub owned by the Allgäuer Brauerei who do a strong range of beers with the very decent, chewy, malty dunkel being my favourite, we strolled around the town before the call of beer became too strong. The nearest pub to our hotel would do. After all it was late. Nearly half past nine. I already told you it is early bed in the Bavarian sticks. After assuring the waiter that we only wanted a bevvy, we were shown into a delightful side room in which another family were sitting - mother and young child, father and what seemed to be a grandfather with his mate. All was well until the grandad lit up! The waiter rushed in, threw open the windows and angrily berated the old guy, pointing out smoking was "verboten" and reminding him of the presence of the young child. The miscreant said the mother didn't mind him smoking and the waiter was withering in his reply. A row ensued with the waiter (who was black) being told that this is a German pub - what right had he to tell him, a German to stop smoking. We watched in amazement - public rows in Germany are rare beasts - and the matter was concluded by the family being told to drink up and go. We exchanged glances and rolling eyes with the room's only other two occupants until order was restored.

The waiter returned and politely declined my order of another half litre*. He pointed out it was nearly ten and they'd be closing. Wouldn't a small beer be better? I wasn't going to argue with this guy! A small beer and "ein korn" were duly ordered. "Jawohl" says he.

*Postbraurei Nesselwang!

Fresh Air? What Fresh Air?

A lovely day so far, so in the normal scheme of things, your mind turns to al fresco supping. Problem is al fresco boozing, in the pub at least, has been hi jacked by smokers. The average outdoor drinking area has become polluted beyond belief. The smoking ban is good I believe, but it means you have to pick your outside drinking carefully and be prepared to give it up most of the time.

There is always my garden though. That's smoke free, so I may have to buy some in.