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"Everything was better before"? Munich city guide explains Oktoberfest myths

2022-09-22T11:27:29.829Z


"Everything was better before"? Munich city guide explains Oktoberfest myths Created: 09/22/2022, 13:12 By: Nina Bautz In the 187 years of the Wiesn, quite a few myths and prejudices have arisen. However, not all of them are true. City guide Reichlmayr enlightens on a tour of the Wiesn. Munich – Everything was better in the past... You often hear this sentence at the Wiesn. But what actually h


"Everything was better before"?

Munich city guide explains Oktoberfest myths

Created: 09/22/2022, 13:12

By: Nina Bautz

In the 187 years of the Wiesn, quite a few myths and prejudices have arisen.

However, not all of them are true.

City guide Reichlmayr enlightens on a tour of the Wiesn.

Munich – Everything was better in the past... You often hear this sentence at the Wiesn.

But what actually has a tradition at the Oktoberfest?

What's always been there?

What has perhaps even changed for the better?

Our newspaper spoke to an absolute expert on history: Georg Reichlmayr (55), who has been offering tours of the Wiesn for the city of Munich for over 20 years.

He does the Oktoberfest myth check for us.

Oktoberfest 2022: "The Wiesn degenerates into a promotional event"

While the city is now trying to keep third-party advertising away from the Oktoberfest, this was not frowned upon in the past.

"The 19th century was the century of self-portrayal and self-marketing," says Georg Reichlmayr.

He cites the horse dealer Franz Xaver Krenkl, who has professionalized "see and be seen".

He came to the Wiesn specifically to make his racing team big and popular at the horse races there.

"The Wiesn is traditional Bavarian"

Not quite.

The origin, the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese (born in Thuringia) in 1810, had international roots.

"The first king's tent was from the Ottoman Empire and the Dall'Armi family brought horse racing from Italy," says the expert.

“The Wiesn used to be more relaxed”

The film with Lisl Karlstadt and Karl Valentin from the 1920s shows that the Wiesn used to be full.

Reichlmayr: "The visitors are literally pushed over the Oktoberfest." The beer tent is part of the Oktoberfest: At first there were only small booths.

It was the Franconian restaurateur Georg Lang who brought the beer castles, which are similar to today's beer tents, to the Wiesn by combining several stalls.

He is also considered the inventor of the Gaudi beer tent.

"In order to generate more sales, he used large, loud instruments and handed out lyric notes to sing along to," says the city guide.

"Live and let live"

The Wiesn used to be anything but open and tolerant.

Reichlmayr: "Around 1900, the ethnological exhibitions were commonplace." For example, African women were exhibited in a kind of cage - with poisoned arrows.

Reichlmayr explains that there were still midget shows up until the 1970s.

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"The costume - an Oktoberfest phenomenon"

In the 1970s and 80s, for example, visitors went to the festival in everyday clothes.

But at the beginning of the 19th century, according to Reichlmayr, the costume came into being "to build a sense of togetherness in the new kingdom".

At that time, the Oktoberfest acted “as a catalyst for the traditional costume”.

“It used to be more peaceful”

Today there are repeated reports of violent excesses at the Wiesn.

It might not have been that brutal in the past, but there were more fights.

"In the 1970s and 1980s, mass brawls were not uncommon.

Whole tents were evacuated," says Georg Reichlmayr.

The Maurer-Wiesn, which always took place on Mondays, is reported: "A small group started a fight to distract the security service - so that the real fight could start at the other end of the tent."

The Munich police also had to intervene in 2022: a thirsty Wiesn visitor wanted to help himself at the tap, for example.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-22

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