Any infringement of these rules, or any levity in the manner the ritual was performed, was punished by your being told to “_Einsteigen_”[7] (or by the words, “_In die Kanne_”), which meant you had to go on drinking till the offended party said “_Geschenkt_.” If you disobeyed this rule or did anything else equally grave, you were declared by whoever was in authority to be in B.V., which meant in a state of _Beer ostracism_. Nobody might then drink to you or talk to you. To emerge from this state of exile, you had to stand up, and someone else stood up and declared that “_Der in einfacher B.V. sich befindender_” (“The in-simple-beer-banishment-finding-himself so-and-so”) will now drink himself back into _Bierehrlichkeit_ (beer-honourability) once again. He does it. At the words, “_Er thut es_,” you set a glass to your lips and drank it all. The other man then said: “_So-and-so ist wieder bierehrlich_” (“So-and-so is once more beer honourable”). Any dispute on a point of ritual was settled by what was called a _Bierjunge_. An umpire was appointed, and three glasses of beer were brought. The umpire saw that the quantity in each of the glasses was exactly equal, pouring a little beer perhaps from one or the other into his own glass. A word was then chosen, for choice a long and difficult word. The umpire then said: “_Stosst an_,” and on these words the rivals clinked glasses; he then said: “_Setzt an_,” and they set the glasses to their lips. He then said: “_Loss_,” and the rivals drained the glasses as fast as they could, and the man who finished first said: “_Bierjunge_,” or whatever word had been chosen. The umpire then declared the winner. All these proceedings, as can be imagined, would be a little difficult to understand if one didn’t know that they involved drinking beer. Such had been my plight when the ritual was explained to me by Mr. Braun. I found the first evening extremely bewildering, but I soon became an expert in the ritual, and took much pleasure in raising difficult points.
These gatherings used to happen every evening. If you wished to celebrate a special occasion you ordered what was called a _Tunnemann_, which was a huge glass as big as a small barrel which was circulated round the table, everyone drinking in turn as out of a loving-cup. A record was kept of these ceremonies in a book. The boys who attended these gatherings were mostly eighteen or nineteen years old, and belonged to the first two classes of the school, the _Prima_ and the _Secunda_. They belonged to a _Turnverein_, a gymnastic association, and were divided into two classes—the juniors who were called _Füchse_ and the seniors who were not. The _Füchse_ had to obey the others.