Wenn Wein und Biere sich bekriegen, Wer wird siegen, wer wird unterliegen?
If wine and beer fought a war, who would be victorious, who would be vanquished?
In the German-style pub, the Stiftskellar, of the Memorial Union at University of Wisconsin Madison the walls are covered in amazing German-themed murals, the best of which is the one below.
Beer and wine are actually having a war. Beer stein infantry are attacking Gnome Sekt artillery with castles in the background.
The murals were painted by Kurt E. Schaldach in 1978.
Schaldach passed away just this last April 18 at the age of 95.
Here is another blog writing about the Schaldach mural.
One of the most striking murals in the Stiftskeller is Schaldach’s version of the “Battle between Beer and Wine.” Based upon the mural in the Munich Rathskeller, it depicts an army of beer steins streaming out of a town to assault a contingent of gnomes employing wine and champagne bottles with cork cannonballs to defend their Rhine
Valley castle.
– When wine and beer fight (Nearly) Everyone’s an Immigrant Immigrant Studies, German-American Style 25 Jan 2008
That guy also refers to a similar mural at a cheese store and tavern in Monroe, Wisconsin.
When I stopped at Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern in Monroe,
Wisconsin, last summer, one of the many things I loved about the place was a mural of “The War Between Beer and Wine,” a German’s dope dream of an army of Teutonic steins of beer, waving flags and charging across an open field at Frenchy-looking bottles of wine.
– The war between beer and wine Cold Hard Football Facts 24 Jan 2006
The university has a history of the Rathskeller and Stiftskellar online that has a sketch of the mural.
Butts, Porter
Der Rathtskeller [sic] + Der Stiftskeller 1928-1978
Madison, Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Union, 1978
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/UW.Rathskeller