Siegi Ippisch learned to be a brewer, but then took a different career path.
Once a year, the Erdinger takes a break and works at the Oktoberfest - as a bartender.
Erding – Many people from Erding are visiting the Munich Oktoberfest again this year after a two-year break from the pandemic.
One goes there every day: Siegi Ippisch.
The 50-year-old has been working as a bartender at the Wiesn since 1999 – in the Hofbräuzelt, with his wife Verena.
"It's like family.
You know the people well and look forward to seeing you again.
Everyone was starving.
It's nice to see the old faces again." That's how Ippisch describes his feelings after the first Oktoberfest weekend.
It becomes clear: he really enjoys working in the Hofbräuzelt of the Steinberg family.
In addition to many familiar faces, there are also numerous new colleagues who he gets to know.
The team is international.
The Erdinger is relaxed about the fact that the weather did not cooperate in the first few days and that it was wet and cold.
He can remember a few such Oktoberfest days in the past.
"In 2003/04 there was even snow," he says.
Ippisch is one of twelve bartenders in the Hofbräuzelt.
He started in 1999 at the main inn in the tent.
It has now been used in the beer garden for 15 years.
"That's where I like it best.
There is always fresh air, and I see the guests celebrating.” Friends and acquaintances from Erding also find it easier there than in the back area of the large tent.
The start on Saturday was much better than feared.
Even if a drop in visitors is to be expected this year.
You can also see that in the Hofbräuzelt.
"We are the most international tent," says Ippisch.
At the moment, many Americans are there "because the dollar exchange rate is so good".
There is also something going on in the beer garden, because: “Many prefer to sit here than in the tent.” That is probably due to the pandemic.
However, with the cold temperatures, there is less activity in the evenings, especially since there are no more mobile gas heaters in the beer garden this year: "No one sits outside after 8 p.m. anymore."
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Verena and Siegi Ippisch are a well-established team.
The couple works together at the Wiesn - he at the beer garden tavern, she as a waitress, this year for the first time in the Wirtebox.
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Ippisch takes vacation for his Wiesn job or works overtime.
He is a trained brewer and was trained at Fischer's Stiftungsbräu.
He later moved to the district office in Erding as a hygiene inspector.
Today he works as the organizational head of infection control for the Infectious Diseases Task Force/Airport at the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL).
"I kept serving beer," he says.
Not only at small festivals, but since 1999 at the Wiesn.
A colleague asked him if he would like to do it.
“I took the chance, but I was also nervous about it.” But he had a good teacher – and at first every finger had blisters.
No wonder, when you handle between 7,000 and 9,000 beer mugs a day.
"I had to tape myself on every finger for the first two years," Ippisch recalls.
Those times are long gone.
Today he has mastered the profession without any injuries and – during busy periods – fills a beer in less than two seconds.
Together with his wife Verena, Ippisch drives to the Oktoberfest every day.
The two have a special relationship to the Wiesn.
They met there many years ago, and it was there that he proposed to her in 2011.
In the fully occupied Hofbräuzelt he got on his knees on the stage in front of her.
At that time she was a cashier there, now she has been a waitress for many years.
This year the 43-year-old is working in the Wirtebox for the first time.
In real life, Verena Ippisch runs an H&M branch in Munich.
When the Wiesn is over, the two take a week's vacation - at home.
"You have to find your way back from the Wiesn world to the normal world and tend to your wounds," says Siegi Ippisch with a smile.