Trivial pursuits
June 17, 2011
"Just yesterday my little sister was saying something about 'Germany's Next Top Model.' Why the hell didn't I listen?”
These would be surreal sentences in any context other than the one at hand: a pub quiz sponsored by the local radio station Fritz on the first Monday of every month. Tonight there are 72 teams of up to 7 people competing, which means that some 400 brainiacs have braved a summer thunderstorm to show off how much they can recall about things they never needed to know in the first place.
But perhaps the most astonishing thing about the crowd is its average age - somewhere around 24 or 25.
Berlin offers countless opportunities for young people to amuse themselves in the evening. So why do so many of them choose to rack their brains over what amounts to an exam?
And the answer is…
"To be honest, I don't really know myself," says Germo, one of the organizers. "Maybe it's got something to with the Internet, the fact that young people spend a lot of their time surfing around and investigating obscure topics and bits of minutiae. But it's still pretty inexplicable."
The first Kneipenquiz, as the event is called, took place in 2005 in a normal bar, but the series became so popular, with people reserving tables weeks in advance, that it could no longer be held in a local tavern. The pub quiz had morphed into a club quiz.
It also started moving around to various locations in the city. An early apotheosis came in 2007, when the yearly final was held in the visitors' fan block of Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
Around 3,000 people turned up for that evening's festivities, making it arguably the biggest pub quiz ever to be held in human history - and thus a potential answer for a future question.
The prizes handed out to the winners are of the standard radio call-in-contest variety, tickets to concerts and the like, so it's not riches that keep the faithful coming back again and again.
Ironically, what attracts people is something seemingly at odds with the spirit of a competition - fellowship.
All together now…
In comparison with a classic English pub quiz, the questions asked at the Kneipenquiz are aimed more at a younger generation. To have success, you're as well advised to read the gossip sections of tabloids and watch reality TV shows as to pore through encyclopedias and statistics.
As a result, the better teams are made up of people of various ages, diverse interests and varied backgrounds. To do well in this crucible of the mind, teams need men and women, Germans from the East and the West, science geeks and history buffs, bookworms and people who can't be bothered to change the channel when the ads come on.
They also, apparently, need bizarre names like "Snow White and Seven Answers," "Puppy Abattoir" or "Everything's Emo Except My Mom." The best-ever team, which regularly answers 50 or more of the 60 questions correctly, is called "Amethyst in the UK."
"There's a lot we don't know," says one of the team's core members when confronted with a jealous question about Amethyst's uncanny success. "It's not like we're complete geeks who do nothing but prepare for the quiz. It's just…well, maybe we are a bit geeky."
Therein lies the rub. Nerdiness is a factor that spans generations and genders, interests and IQs. And the teams at the Kneipenquiz don't just spend their time whispering amongst themselves, trying to work out the answers. They also interact with other teams, coming into contact with people they otherwise would never meet.
That's always been the appeal of the pub quiz over the decades in England. And every month Berlin is proving that it works just as well among 300 or 3,000 people as among 30.
And in this spirit, Deutsche Welle challenges you to test your knowledge of Berlin. See the link below.
Jefferson Chase can name all the US capitals, including a couple for states that don't even exist.
Editor: Kate Bowen