Devotee: No, before that, there was no Christian.
Prabhupāda: What they were? No religion?
Devotee: They were like you said. They were just tribespeople.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So these Germans were tribe people, uncivilized?
Devotee: Yes, before Christianity, Europe was completely uncivilized.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Therefore the order is, "Thou shall not kill." Simply their business was killing. Uncivilized persons, they kill animals and eat. So due to past habit they could not forget this killing business. This is the proof that this system of religion was preached among the crude people, not civilized. So why they introduced this beer?
Devotee: It was a kind of refreshment.
Prabhupāda: But before that, they were not drinking.
Devotee: Well there may have been something like wine. The monks also used to make wine.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they make wine. Uncivilized men, they know how to make wine. In India they do so by rice boiling and keep it for some days. It becomes wine, fermented. (aside) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) . . . used to say that, "I was drinking beer in barrels." He said. Forty years ago he said me like that. Here I don't see them, but Hamburg I have seen, yes, passing urine on th