ABSTRACT
Inns and taverns furnished soldiers and military recruiters with space for both professional and social activities. Even the state financing of military operations was partially dependent on public houses, for they provided a significant amount of revenue in the form of taxes on alcohol sales. Inns and taverns had a role in the process of constructing the distinct soldier identities that would ultimately drive a cultural wedge between the military sector and the civilian populace. This chapter explores the role of inns and taverns in defence systems and in the lives of soldiers in Germany from the sixteenth century through the 1618-1648 War, primarily on the example of the imperial city of Augsburg and its environs. A tragic example of the pressure soldiers and members of the guards could face in tavern situations is provided in the case of Caspar Aufschlager, a guardsman interrogated in 1591 for killing another soldier in a duel that began in an Augsburg public house.
