SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's winter, and shorter days and cooler temperatures can be a little isolating and lonely. But there's a German tradition that can offer a social respite from the winter blues. For our Sounds Of The Season series, NPR's Laurel Wamsley takes us to one convivial gathering.
LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE: On a recent evening in a Washington D.C. neighborhood, stringed music floats through the air under dark, cold skies. Stepping inside a local pub called Right Proper, there's a gathering that feels immediately warm and inviting. Werner Hein says it's inspired by an old-world tradition.
WERNER HEIN: In Germany, you had basically a gathering in a repetitive way. People who like to associate with each other, they will always meet in a bar or in a restaurant, and they will have a special table.
WAMSLEY: That special table and the gathering around it is called a Stammtisch. Hein is 80 and says Stammtisch was traditionally defined by drinking and freewheeling discussion among a like-minded group of men.
HEIN: Playing cards every Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock. You'll find even tables where they have certain insignia on it of this group where they meet. And then two hours later, someone else comes - another group. They have their own insignia there. It's an enormously old tradition.
WAMSLEY: Tonight's Stammtisch is a modern take, a chance just to visit and speak German.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking in German).
WAMSLEY: There are women here, not just men. And instead of that big table, there's a bar. But everyone here seems to agree that the basic format of Stammtisch is a good one. That's to say, a standing invite at the same time and place, so no need to check everyone's calendars. And it happens at a place like this, so no one has to tidy up their home for company. Robert Christoffel stands chatting with a beer in hand. He's 45 and says Stammtisch has been making a bit of a comeback.
ROBERT CHRISTOFFEL: Growing up in the '80s, '90s, early 2000s, the idea of Stammtisch in Germany's youth was sort of rejected as this is something that our parents' generation, our grandparents' generation, would do. But a lot of my friends, nowadays, in Germany - maybe because they have gotten a little older as well - they are now meeting up and sort of establishing Stammtisch.
WAMSLEY: Does a Stammtisch have to involve alcohol?
CHRISTOFFEL: If you consider beer alcohol, yes, I think so. I think so.
WAMSLEY: In another part of the bar, I meet 36-year-old Julia Naue. And, yes, she's at a Stammtisch but says she would never label a gathering of her friends that way. The connotation with old men is just too strong. But she says...
JULIA NAUE: The idea of it is a totally good thing. I mean, to meet a certain group of people on a regular basis that might not be your closest friends, but because you're somehow connected, that's a good thing.
WAMSLEY: In modern life, as fewer people go to church - which in Germany might be followed by drinking at the tavern - these gatherings take on more weight, says Hein.
HEIN: That's a place where you meet in person. It's hard to see a Stammtisch on Zoom.
WAMSLEY: And he says men, in particular, can find it hard to be vulnerable with one another. But here, it's comfortable.
HEIN: You open up on things, on your very personal things. And nowadays, I have to almost say more important than ever to have a kind of Stammtisch.
WAMSLEY: Though, he says a Stammtisch takes a bit of dedication.
HEIN: A kind of commitment to have fun.
WAMSLEY: And something to look forward to all through the winter.
Laurel Wamsley, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MENAHAN STREET BAND'S "HOME AGAIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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