Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
August 2019
Beer Label St. Pauli Girl
Historical Context
Since the mid-18th century, the world-famous Beck’s beer has been brewed in Bremen. The close connection between the Hanseatic city of Bremen and the USA is evident both in the past and present of the brewery. When the Bremen master builder Lüder Rutenberg decided in 1853 to convert the former St. Pauli Monastery into a brewery, he received support from brewer Helmut Beck. He had just returned from the USA after his emigration overseas did not bring the expected success. Accompanying him were plenty of new experiences he had gathered in a brewery in Chicago. His brewing method revitalized the newly established St. Pauli Brewery – now Beck & Co – and helped it gain an excellent reputation beyond the borders of Bremen. Soon, Rutenberg and Beck decided to expand their business across the Pacific Ocean. As a Hanseatic city, Bremen offers a particularly favorable location to export the beer of the St. Pauli Brewery to the USA, Beck’s old home. From 1886 onwards, the beer was regularly exported overseas by the imperial postal steamers of the North German Lloyd from Bremerhaven – the Bremen brewery exclusively supplied the then largest shipping company in the world.
Short Biography
Among these exported beers is also St. Pauli Girl. Little known in Germany, it remains one of the most popular German import beers in the USA to this day. The beer is still produced and bottled at the former St. Pauli Monastery – contrary to what one might assume, the name has nothing to do with the well-known district of the neighboring city, Hamburg. The image that adorns the beer’s label is based on an encounter between the then graphic designer and a Northern German server. The sight inspired him to create a detailed sketch of the young woman, depicted with beer mugs and flowing braids.
Significance of the object
In the 1970s, the image of the dark-haired waitress changed to a blonde young woman in a dirndl. The St. Pauli Girl thus conforms more to Bavarian style rather than revealing its actual Northern German origin. With its design and adherence to the German purity law for beer production, the brand likely symbolizes the category of ‘typically German’ in the USA. Whether brown- or blonde-haired, whether old tradition or marketing through German stereotypes – the over 100-year history of the St. Pauli Girls illustrates the culinary traces of Germany in present-day USA.
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de