>>15852
For most of Germany, cheese on bread for breakfast is product of industrialization and specialized agriculture.
In many areas of Germany, a typical breakfast (say ca. 1850 or maybe even in 1930) for farmers would be porridge, e.g. spelt porridge. (Google "Schwarzer Brei" in German). Porridge is the traditional European method of using grain not fit for baking.
Predating the industrial revolution, proper cheese wouldn't be very common in most of Europe. Soured milk would be what farmers produced for their own consumption.
Cheese production and consumption only became widespread when efficient transport became available with the advent of railways. This is when we see the rise of dairy industries in traditional "cheese-making" areas like the Allgäu or the Emmental. (Google "Vergrünlandung" in German, for a novelization read "Die Käserei in der Vehfreude" by Jeremias Gotthelf. ) Prior to the 19th century, cheese was produced directly on high pastures (alms or alps or seters or whatever). With the arrival of industrially produced fertilizer and cheap transport, grain production in areas with bad climates, bad soil and difficult terrain became uneconomical, while production of cheese for export became much more feasible. As local grain/potato/turnip production was replaced by imports, land was converted to dairy farming to produce cheese for export. Cheese production was moved from alps to valley dairies, which operated more efficiently and on a larger scale.
The process of extensivation continued throughout the 20th century, driven by improved methods of conservation of milk (homogenisation, pasteurization, uht), packaging (tetra paks) and transportation (cooling-chain), as well as import of high-quality concentrated feed for livestock (e.g. soy-based pellets).