Title: German Culture: Facts, Customs and Traditions | Live Science
Headings: German Culture: Facts, Customs and Traditions
German Culture: Facts, Customs and Traditions
Values
Languages
Religion
German food and drink
The arts
Business culture
Holidays and celebrations
Additional resources

Content: Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage, and the country is known as the birthplace of a number of beer varieties, including Pilsner, Weizenbier (wheat beer) and Alt. These beers were crafted according to Reinheitsgebot, or the "Purity Law," a 16th-century Bavarian law that decreed that beer could only be brewed from barley, hops and water, according to NPR. Brewers used the yeast available in the air. Brandy and schnapps are also favorite German alcoholic beverages. The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate in Berlin that was rebuilt in the 1700s as a triumphal arch. ( Image credit: S.Borisov Shutterstock)
The arts
Culture doesn't just refer to how people interact and look. " Culture also means refined intellectual, artistic and creative achievement, for example as in cultural knowledge, or a cultured person," Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, told Live Science. Germans have made tremendous contributions to classical music, and the traditions of famous German or Austrian composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler live on today. With their penchant for precision and engineering, it is not surprising that Germans have a strong tradition of printmaking by woodcut and engraving.