In Russian, Czech or Slovak, I have never ever seen or heard it being used in the context of an innocent camp. It just means bad kind of prison and sometimes military barracks - when you want to imply you don't like those military barracks.
When лагерь is used by itself, it depends on context - could be a prison/labor camp, kids summer camp, a historical military reference to an army camping on a campaign, or even a refugee camp or a tourist camp. Not that different from English “camp” really.
Russian also borrowed lager bier in “лагер” (without the softening “ь”), whereas Czech and Slovak have native words for it (ležák/ležiak) with a similar (if not greater) complexity in styles to Germany.
Nobody here calls it "Lager", u less it actually is one. We have Helles, Dunkles, Weissbier, dunkles Weisbier, Kellerbier, Pils, Lagerbier... If you order a Lager in Bavaria I honestly have no idea what you would get. Most likely still a beer, I have to try it next time, weather is nice enough for a first trip to a beer garden anyway!
You'd get a Helles or Pils, depending where in Germany you are. Either because the waiter/waitress know that they are lagers, or alternatively, they don't, but understand Bier, in which case they'll serve you a Helles or Pils as well.
I’m surprised that Kölsch is top-fermenting as I (a Dutch beer noob) would describe Kölsch as “like a regular lager, but then really nice and in a long drink glass”.
A lot of home brewers who don’t want to mess about with temperature controlling bottom fermentation go for a top fermenting Kölsch yeast to achieve the same effect.
The article talks about 90% of all consumed beers are "Lager" which definitely isn't what I would expect when I hear "Lagerbier". The "90% mainstream beer" is called Pilsner in Germany (unless you're in Bavaria where the mainstream beer is probably Hefeweizen).
PS: I'm actually surprised by the article, I thought this type of beer was first brewed in Pilsen/Plzeň (thus the name "Pilsner")
Not sure about the rest of Bavaria, but "Helles" (Lager) is the mainstream beer in Munich. Weißbier (Hefeweizen) isn't that uncommon but rather cliche...
I don't know about Swabia and Franconia but if you are in Upper Bavaria (or probably any part of Altbayern [0]) and order a beer (without specifying anything else), you will definitely get a Helles.
Nobody I know orders their beer "ein Untergärig bitte" (Switzerland here). Although not THE name, still everybody knows what a Lager is (as in, whether they want a helles or dunkles). Yes of course there's the camp meaning as well, but you wouldn't mix that up in a Kneipe. Only when you read just a random internet article and you have zero context to know which is which - even though this phrasing would be really weird if it referred to a camp (for me, non-native English speaker).
Yeah, Lager inside a Kneipe / Wirtshaus is obviously meant in the "category of beer" way. At least here in Bavaria, it would just be "ein Helles" (or "ein Dunkles"). :D
This is commercial advertising, a product description. That has of course its place but it's something different from the daily usage, which is what I meant. You wouldn't order at the Theke ein Untergäriges, or would you???