Brewers seek UN world heritage status

Brewers have applied to UNESCO, the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture, to have their “Reinheitsgebot”, the German beer purity law, join a list of “intangible heritage” that includes Spanish flamenco and Turkey’s Kirkpinar oil-wrestling festival, media reported at the end of December 2013.

In 2016, the “Reinheitsgebot” celebrates its 500th anniversary, so some of the country’s top brewers seem to want it acknowledged as “world heritage” by the United Nations’ cultural agency.

Whether anybody cares if the “Reinheitsgebot” receives this status, is another matter. The whole UNESCO world heritage stuff is just getting ridiculous. Originally, it was intended to save and preserve heritage that was in neglect or danger of destruction, but it has now turned into an international quango with governments lobbying and likely paying money to boast about how special they are.

No question: brewing in Germany is in danger. Beer consumption has been falling for two decades and no one knows when the decline will bottom out.

However, if officials think the UNESCO world heritage status for German beer will mean people will start buying more of it, they are dreaming.