Germans

Germans (the German people, Deutsche) are the main population of Germany in Central Europe. On this site their traditions are Riesling and the wines of the Mosel, cheeses from the Allgäu and the Harz, Swabian pasta, juniper Steinhäger and Black Forest ham. Most of these names are protected in the EU with official rules, and each is tied to its own area.

Start with wine. Riesling is the leading grape of German vineyards: according to the OIV, in 2015 it covered 24 thousand ha, or 23.3% of the country's area. DNA analysis names Gouais Blanc, Heunisch in German, as one of its parents. The Mosel appellation runs along the Mosel, Saar and Ruwer from Perl to Koblenz: 8,287 ha (2025), about 62% of it Riesling. Here lies the Bremmer Calmont, which the German Wine Institute calls the steepest vineyard in Europe. On a label, Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese speak of grape ripeness, not sweetness.

Germans make cheese both on mountain pastures and from what is left after butter-making. Allgäuer Bergkäse is a hard PDO cheese from raw Allgäu milk: before renneting the milk is heated no higher than 40 °C, a wheel weighs 15–50 kg and ripens for 4 months. Around 1820 Swiss herders were hired here, and they helped develop this very Bergkäse. Quite different is Harzer, a lean sour milk cheese sold as 25–125 g discs with a golden smear. The name is not protected, so it is made all over Germany; in Hesse a similar cheese is marinated in vinegar, oil and onions as Handkäs mit Musik.

Pasta in Germany is Swabian. Schwäbische Spätzle, also called Knöpfle, are an irregular PGI egg pasta: dried ones need at least 2 eggs per kilogram of meal, fresh ones at least 8. The dough is shaped straight into boiling water, and scraping it from a board by hand is still seen as a mark of quality. Schwäbische Maultaschen are egg-dough pouches with a meat (at least 8% meat) or vegetable filling; they are traditional on Maundy Thursday, and Freiberg am Neckar holds a Maultaschen festival every autumn.

Steinhäger is made only in the municipality of Steinhagen in Westphalia. Juniper berries are first fermented and distilled into Wacholderlutter of up to 15% ABV, which is then distilled again with spirit. The finished drink is 38% ABV or more, with no sugar, and its traditional container is the long brown stoneware bottle, the “Kruke”.

On a cured meat platter the Germans are represented by Schwarzwälder Schinken, Black Forest ham, a PGI since 24 January 1997. The boneless leg is dry-salted with spices and never injected with brine, rests for several weeks in its own brine, the Mutterlake, and is then cold-smoked for at least a week over fir wood and sawdust from the Black Forest at +20 to +30 °C. The ham loses about 25% of its weight, and from salt to table takes about 12 weeks, according to the producers' association.

German table traditions also include tea and Christmas. In East Frisia black tea is poured over rock sugar, topped with a cloud of cream, never stirred, and drunk in at least three cups; since 2016 this tea culture has been on Germany's national inventory of intangible heritage. In winter the Christmas markets open with mulled wine and gingerbread: Nürnberger Lebkuchen, Aachener Printen and Dresden Stollen carry EU protected names, and Dresden's bakers have held a Stollen festival since 1994.

Why it matters to you: a Kabinett or Spätlese can be dry, so look for trocken or süß to learn about sugar. “Harzer” names a type of cheese, not a place. And the PGI logo on Black Forest ham guarantees dry curing and fir smoke in the Black Forest, but not that the pig was raised there.