When the Oktoberfest mass still cost half: the city of Munich explains how prices are determined
Created: 09/23/2022, 20:59
Visitors on Sunday, September 18th in the Hacker marquee "Himmel der Bayern".
The Mass beer costs between 12.60 euros and 13.80 euros.
© IMAGO/Frank Hoermann/SVEN SIMON
Inflation does not stop at the Wiesn - on the contrary.
The prices for the Mass rise faster at the Oktoberfest than anywhere else in Germany.
Munich – Everything is getting more expensive, including the mass at this year's Oktoberfest.
A liter of beer costs between 12.80 and 13.50 euros this year.
It's been a long time since the Mass was half the price.
A look at historical beer prices makes you nostalgic on the one hand - but also shows that Oktoberfest visitors have had to pay 50 marks for a liter of beer in the past.
Historical beer prices make you nostalgic: when a beer still cost 12 Kreuzer
If you want to know when the mass at the Wiesn cost half as much, you have to go back a few years.
The first Oktoberfest took place in
1810
, at that time the Mass is said to have cost 3 Kreuzer and 3 Pfennig.
An exact conversion is difficult, but according to estimates, this would be around 7 euros today.
A hundred years later, a liter of beer at the Wiesn cost 38 pfennigs - in
1922
it was a whopping 50 marks.
However, shortly after the end of the First World War, there was a global economic slump and high inflation in Germany, which subsequently developed into hyperinflation.
In 1924
the Reichsmark was introduced, the price of the Mass at the Oktoberfest was only one mark and in
1933
it even dropped to 90 pfennigs.
In 1948 Germany got another new currency: the Deutsche Mark.
In
1981
, Oktoberfest visitors paid exactly 5 DM for a liter of beer. On January 1,
2002
, people in this country received their first "starter kits" with euro coins and banknotes and the Mass Prize at the Oktoberfest was awarded in euros for the first time.
That was the moment when a liter of beer at the Wiesn cost around half the current price: it was 6.40 euros in 2002.
Cost of Mass at the Oktoberfest is rising faster than traditional beer prices
The rising Oktoberfest beer prices cannot be explained by the general inflation rate alone.
Because the development of beer prices in Germany and the cost of a mass at the Oktoberfest diverge.
Between 2008 and 2017, the price of beer at the Wiesn rose by around 37.2 percent - from an average of 7.80 euros to 10.70 euros.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the consumer price index for beer rose by only 9.6 percent over the same period.
"The beverage prices are not set by the state capital of Munich," clarifies the Oktoberfest portal of the city of Munich.
"As the organizer of the Oktoberfest, however, the city checks the prices of the restaurateurs to ensure that they are reasonable.
To do this, she compares the prices with those of the large gastronomic establishments in the Munich city area.
For beer, these prices are currently 6.70 euros and 11.20 euros per liter export,” the city continues.
