For thrift-loving Germans looking to salt money away, a pub inHamburg's red-light district can be just as good as a bank.

At Schlemmer-Eck in the St. Pauli neighborhood, HerbertStender—a 75-year-old bartender with tattooed arms and a skull andcrossbones on his black baseball cap—has guarded deposits paid inby regulars to the savings club they fondly call “Lawless Hill”since 1987. The association is reminiscent of the kind that oncehelped foster a culture of fiscal rectitude and propel Germany'seconomic rebound after World War II.

Today, communal saving in venues such as taverns, pubs, orbarber shops is a largely social affair as the traditionexperiences a revival in cities like Hamburg and Frankfurt, thecountry's banking capital. In an age of record-low interest ratesthat's prompting Germans to spend more and save less, the clubsoffer the engineers, lawyers, and students seeking to join a way todo both while upholding the custom started by their mostlyworking-class predecessors.

“Banknotes are the rule,” said Stender, who watches over thegray metal savings box with eight rows of five slots each thathangs between refrigerators and a poster of a Norwegian punk-rockband in a back room of his pub. “It's just a great gift to haveabout 500 euros (US$543) left at the end of the year to spend on avacation or as a last reserve to pay the power bill.”

Savings clubs have existed in Hamburg and other port cities onthe coast since the second half of the 19th century. They spreadacross northern and western regions of the country after World WarII, when banks actively promoted them as an antidote to thehyperinflation that helped usher in the rise of Nazism.

At a time when wages were paid in cash on a weekly or monthlybasis, savings banks provided the boxes adorned with their logosfor free. They supplied the envelopes to put the money in andsponsored recreational events as they tried to draw new customersin pubs, sports clubs, company canteens, and places where laborersgathered.

The clubs usually required members to pay in a small amountevery week, with penalties applied to those who fell back on theircontributions.

Shifted Focus

“People lost everything they had in the war and the economiccrisis before,” said Sven Ulrich, managing director at NordiaFeinblech GmbH, a company that claims to have built the firstsheet-metal savings box in 1922. “There was a political will tocollectively save money.”

Nordia sold more than 10,000 boxes a year in the heyday ofsavings clubs between the 1950s and the early 1980s. When demandstarted to decline, the company shifted its focus to industrialclients.

It's considering stopping production altogether this year afterselling a mere 600 boxes in 2014. Ulrich estimates that half of the850,000 safes Nordia produced over the years remain in use.

Most of the savings clubs in existence today still observe thetraditional rules.

Each Monday, Stender jots down members' contributions on a filecard before taking the money to the local Hamburger Sparkasse AG,where he deposits the funds on one account. Those who forget toleave their part pay a 2-euro fine.

While the penalties pay for a year-end knees-up with a porkroast feast in December, some members still follow the tradition ofbuying Christmas presents for their loved ones with the rest oftheir hoard.

About 250 miles away in Frankfurt's Nordend district, a similarclub has taken root in the Piccolo winebar, where a blue savingsbox is shared by 24 regular customers. Klaus Krestel, a 59-yeareconomist, owns one of the compartments. Although he regularlyleaves some cash, his aim is to spend it, not save it.

“With the savings box here, one is happy to come to the bar,once a week, and have a beer or a glass of wine,” he said, whilehaving dinner with a friend. “Actually, you save more by staying athome. But it's a good reason to get out.”

Some of the savings at Piccolo go toward a communal party at theend of the year.

“For years after I moved to Frankfurt, my mother continued topay my quota every week back home; I didn't want to accumulatefines,” said Petra Loncar, 51, the winebar's owner, who comes fromthe northern state of North Rhine-Westphalia. She was introduced tosavings clubs as a child by her father. “Setting up a club here isa bit like feeling at home.”

She founded the club Krestel belongs to a year ago after buyingher savings box at online auction company EBay Inc., wheresecond-hand boxes trade for as much as 150 euros.

Another sign of high demand are the long waiting lists kept atPiccolo and Schlemmer-Eck.

“It's not that we don't take our money to the bank,” said PerryDiepes, 38, who shares a slot in the savings box at Schlemmer-Eckwith his girlfriend Sina. “It's just great fun to be part of theclub.”

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