New sources: An Ebersberger as an Oktoberfest inventor

Created: 2022-11-28 06:04

By: Josef Ametsbichler

Historical view of the Bäumer beer: Franz Xaver Greckl grew up here and, thanks to new sources, is a potential source of ideas for the Oktoberfest.

F: Stadtarchiv Ebersberg Newspaper articles support theory A "dazzling personality" © Stadtarchiv Ebersberg

Franz Xaver Greckl from Ebersberg could have come up with the idea for the Munich Oktoberfest.

This thesis is represented by none other than the government councilor Claudius Stein, archivist at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University.

He also found a conclusive source.

Ebersberg/Munich

- The colorful history of the Munich Oktoberfest has been enriched by a piece of the puzzle - thanks to a certain Franz Xaver Greckl from Ebersberg.

Not even his date of birth is known with certainty.

Because of a mix-up in the baptismal register, he was of the opinion throughout his life that he had been born in 1762, and he thought he was probably a year older than he was.

A conclusion that the historical source situation, on the other hand, gives: The scion from the family that owned the Holzbräu beer in today's district town in 1810 could have had the decisive idea for the Munich Oktoberfest.

Still designed as a horse race that year, it took place on the occasion of the wedding between Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

The hired coachman and non-commissioned officer Franz Baumgartner is generally regarded as the idea generator.

He is said to have convinced the cavalry major of the Munich militia, Andreas Michael Dall'Armi, of the idea.

He organized the event.

Contemporary newspaper articles name Ebersberger as the inventor of the Oktoberfest

The other trail, leading to Ebersberg, was uncovered by the historian Claudius Stein (44), a government councilor and archivist at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

"Personally, I don't doubt the veracity of these sources," he says.

Stein found Greckl's name in two editions of the contemporary newspaper "Bayerischer Volksfreund", from 1826 and 1833.

Due to the time, the wording from 1833 is a bit old-fashioned:

The author of these lines is not known.

But it is true that a few years earlier the police director and, according to the archivist Stein, who is still a Munich chronicler today, Anton Baumgartner, had blown a similar horn.

He also referred to the coffee house that Greckl ran at the time in the “Bayerisches Volksfreund”:

Hidden sources of centuries-old Wiesn tradition

Here the Ebersberger Greckl even appears together with the non-commissioned officer Baumgartner, to whom Oktoberfest historiography had previously paid more attention.

"It's worth looking at both narrative strands," says historian Stein.

The fact that his protégé Greckl has not been named so far is explained by the fact that the texts appeared in a rather hidden place.

"You have to find that first," says the archivist, grateful for the new possibilities thanks to digitally searchable newspaper holdings in the Bavarian State Library.

Stein, who, curiously enough, is even closely related to Greckl, also says: "One will probably not come to a definitive conclusion." Whether Greckl invented the Oktoberfest or Baumgartner - or both together - the ultimate truth has been hidden by those who have passed since then centuries.

Oktoberfest inventor from Ebersberg a "dazzling personality"

The historian advocates placing the two names next to each other in the future.

And maybe the city of Ebersberg will grant its Wiesn inventor, who suddenly appeared, a plaque at the Holzbräu beer.

Because he was not allowed to inherit it - his stepsister from his second marriage got the preference, Stein's research shows, Franz Xaver Greckl ended up in Munich in the first place.

There he was an innkeeper, squandered his fortune together with his wife through a lavish lifestyle, went broke, worked his way up again, possibly embezzled a lot of money and finally became a coffee house owner, at that time a trade with a partly shady reputation.

And possibly invented the Oktoberfest in between.

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The historian Claudius Stein writes that this path through life cannot be traced at all.

"Nevertheless, the few pieces of news taken together suggest a dazzling personality." On October 11, 1829, Franz Xaver Greckl died, probably at the age of 65, from "dropsy chest and pelvic fever," the archives note.

As luck would have it, his grave in the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich was right next to Andreas Michael Dall'Armi - the cavalry major who put the Oktoberfest idea into practice.

Whoever it may come from.

The whole story

Claudius Stein's text about Franz Xaver Greckl is in the 24th yearbook of the Historical Association for the district of Ebersberg, which has now been published.

It is available for EUR 21.90 in local bookshops and in the Grafing City Museum.

ISBN 978-3-96751-008-9.

You can read more news from the Ebersberg region here.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.