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We also have door mats and place mats (table mats) in British English, just to confuse things

• ThePadawan 5y ago
  To make the confusion complete: Seeing as the authors are German speakers, they might refer to beer mats as "Bierdeckel", which literally means "beer lid". Yes, that doesn't make a lot of sense since they go under the steins. But back in the day, you would drink outside and would primarily want to keep dirt and flies out of your stein, rather than the table clean. So to this day, they're called lids, even though they're coasters (regional variations apply).
  • Jarwain 5y ago
    I think the idea of beer lid also kind of funny due to the convention of putting your coaster on top of your drink to signify not wanting a new beer or the idea that the seat is occupied