In Germany, coffeehouses brought about a different state of affairs for women. As the industrial revolution brought German farmers into the towns, their wives were freed from the ordinary routine of agricultural life. With more free time, they came into contact with other townspeople, gathering over coffee to talk about Goethe or Beethoven, as well as the latest births, marriages and scandals. Uneasy husbands derisively termed these get-together's “Kaffeeklatsches” (literally, “coffee-gossip”), but for the women involved, they served as important opportunities to think and speak freely — often for the first time.