Stammtisch is closed society. The fact that the members do not close the doors behind them and sit in public should not let fool you. Never sit at the Stammtisch table (which is not always obviously recognizable) if you were not explicitly invited.
In essence it is not unlike a British club. Not much help against loneliness if you are not deeply integrated in the community already and therefore likely not very lonely to begin with.
The less romantic way to see it, is that it is a hundreds of years old customer loyalty program. Regulars get a guaranteed seat and other perks like artfully crafted beer kegs with their names.
As a German: you are exactly right. Sitting down at the Stammtisch is asking for trouble. It's reserved for the die hard locals - it's coming from Stammkundschaft which roughly translates to regulars. Still it's perfectly fine to sit next to it or somewhere else in the bar. Usually sitting directly at the bar is the place for newbies or foreigners and people are often willing to talk and interact. Sometimes the bar keeper is interested in having a conversation or someone ordering a few beer initiates a conversation and invites you to their table.
Unfortunately my experience (in eastern Germany, maybe it's not universal) you tend to meet lot's of broken and fucked up people in bars and very little normal ones. At least I seem to have a talent to attract assholes and fascists that tell me their world view after a few beer. But this depends on the bar and the area. It's not all happy happy live.
i live in southwest germany and that seems like a esst germany problem. here i can meet interesting people in bars. for sure drunk nuts but hey its a bar. i think the real german thing against loneliness is the Verein. you go there and share interests with people and usually u become friends witj them.
I think that very much depends on the Stammtisch. There are also welcoming ones and open ones. Some you might have to RSVP for, some you hear about from friends.
Funny how this whole reply of me was just a misunderstanding after reading https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42497747 and even more funnier I'm doing this and most of my friends but nobody calls it Stammtisch here. It's usually just called Treffen. Stammtisch is so hard wired in my brain to bars full of smoke and people drinking beer at a table called Stammtisch.
It's all a complete confusion. My comment has little to do with your comment. It's two completely separate things.
Another German here: I think the term has become a bit overloaded and may mean different things.
Generally yes, a Stammtisch is in theory the exact opposite of an open "just drop in and join" culture that might be the idea of a normal pub.
However, the term has also been coopted for low-friction, introductory meetups of larger organizations, fan communities, organized subcultures, etc. (Those can be anything from political parties to hobby groups to the local furry community)
They still have some formalism - you're expected to go there if you 're either already a regular or have a specific interest to meet people from the organization/subculture/etc; many ask you to register in advance - but they do have the explicit purpose of "onboarding" newbies and serving as "entry points" into larger communities.
So I think those kinds of organized "Stammtische" can be effective in combatting loneliness, but more as a tool to bring people into organized communities and less as a thing of its own.
In essence it is not unlike a British club. Not much help against loneliness if you are not deeply integrated in the community already and therefore likely not very lonely to begin with.
The less romantic way to see it, is that it is a hundreds of years old customer loyalty program. Regulars get a guaranteed seat and other perks like artfully crafted beer kegs with their names.