Confusion of rules for the Wiesn: the article shows how strange the journey through Munich will be

Created: 09/08/2022, 09:48 am

Fortunately, the Oktoberfest doesn't look like this this year.

There are no distance rules or mask requirements.

In the S-Bahn, on the other hand, visitors must wear a mask (symbol image).

© Arne Trautmann / IMAGO / Panthermedia

Everything looks as if the Oktoberfest will take place again this year.

However, the confusion of rules surrounding the Wiesn caused ridicule in advance.

Munich – After a two-year break, an Oktoberfest will finally take place again in 2022.

There will not be a mask requirement there, even the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has already announced that he wants to visit the Oktoberfest without a respirator.

Everyone should "decide on their own responsibility whether and how they visit the Wiesn," he told the

.

However, the Wiesn rules could cause confusion, especially for international visitors.

Because the mask requirement has now also fallen on the plane, but not on public transport such as buses and trains.

Oktoberfest: Rule confusion about the obligation to wear a mask – a lot of ridicule on Twitter

The corona pandemic is not over yet, but the largest folk festival in the world is taking place.

While most Oktoberfest fans are simply looking forward to the Oktoberfest, others ridicule the Oktoberfest rules.

The accusation is that the regulations are a patchwork quilt - and illogical at that.

“Ride on the train from the German border to the Oktoberfest with a mask requirement, to get drunk there with hundreds of thousands of people without a mask requirement.

It makes perfect sense!” wrote one Twitter user on Tuesday.

Corona rules for the Wiesn: No mask requirement on the plane, but it applies on the S-Bahn

Another agrees with the content.

"I fly to Munich without a mask, then take the train from the airport to the Oktoberfest with a mask, and then drink with tens of thousands - without a mask," he summarized the rules.

The mask requirement on the plane fell on Tuesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had previously traveled without a mask on their flight to Canada.

The bus and train industry has now also spoken out about the different requirements for corona masks in traffic.

This has nothing to do with understandable regulations, the Association of German Transport Companies criticized on Tuesday in Berlin.

"On airplanes, where passengers sit close together for hours without being able to move, avoid or get off, masks should no longer be required in the future," said CEO Oliver Wolff.

"But on long-distance trains, where you can move constantly, where there are alternative areas and stops every 30 to 60 minutes where the doors are opened and air is exchanged with fresh air, a mask should continue to be worn."

Wiesn 2022: What speaks in favor of maintaining the mask requirement on public transport

The crowded platform of the Hackerbrücke train station in Munich with arriving and departing Wiesn visitors in 2017. © Ralph Peters / Imago

There are said to be people in Munich who don't really know what to do with the Oktoberfest, but who at the same time cannot avoid using public transport.

Anyone who doesn't have a car and encounters thousands of Wiesn visitors on the way to work or to the university in a confined space has no chance to avoid or keep a minimum distance.

For residents who avoid the Oktoberfest, the S-Bahn and Co. become a risk of infection.

Because unlike a flight or a visit to the Wiesn, it is difficult to avoid the way to work.

In view of the crowds at Oktoberfest times - for example at the Hackerbrücke S-Bahn station - the obligation to wear masks can protect bystanders.

Various scientific studies have shown that masks work.

For example, that of the Corona expert panel, although the scientists point out that the face mask must be worn correctly in order to have an effect.

An overview study published in the renowned journal

t in 2020 also confirmed that masks significantly reduce the risk of infection.

It also recently became known: Even frequent wearing of a mask does no harm.

Before the Oktoberfest tapping in Munich: Söder speaks of the “currently stable” corona situation

In any case, at the Oktoberfest, visitors can celebrate without a mask and minimum distance.

The corona situation is “currently stable”, Söder had said and there was “no increasing burden in the hospitals”.

The Oktoberfest takes place from September 17th to October 3rd, after which doctors expect a "Wiesn wave".