Oktoberfest: Origins

Oktoberfest is the largest beer festival in the world, held every year in Munich on a meadow called the Theresienwiese, and known locally as the Wiesn, short for the meadow. It is famous for its beer tents, brass bands and costumes, and for the millions of visitors who come. But it began as something quite different: a public celebration at a royal wedding, with a horse race at its heart. This chapter traces how a one-off party became an annual fixture, how it changed in the nineteenth century, why a festival called Oktoberfest begins in September, and how it survived wars, epidemics and economic disaster. Dates and names are given from general knowledge and flagged where they should be checked.

The Wedding of 1810

On 12 October 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, who later became King Ludwig I, married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (check the date and the names). Bavaria had recently become a kingdom, in 1806, thanks to its alliance with Napoleon (check), and the wedding was an occasion for the royal house to show itself to its new subjects. Citizens of Munich were invited to celebrate on a meadow outside the city gates, and the celebrations ended with a horse race, on 17 October (check).

From One Party to an Annual Fair

The people of Munich enjoyed the occasion so much that it was repeated the following year, this time with an agricultural show attached, and the festival became a yearly event (check). The horse race remained the centrepiece for decades. The agricultural show, in which farmers showed livestock and machinery and prizes were awarded, was an important part of the Bavarian state's efforts to improve farming, and an agricultural show of this kind is still held on the Wiesn at intervals of several years (check).

• The fair. Over time stalls, entertainers and amusements gathered, and the event became a fair as well as an exhibition and a race.
• Beer. Beer was first sold from small stalls, and by the middle of the century brewers were building larger booths (check the dates).
• The royal presence. The Bavarian rulers attended and used the occasion to present themselves to the public.

The Nineteenth Century: From Stalls to Tents

As the century went on, beer took over from the horse race and the agricultural show as the main attraction. A few milestones are usually cited (check each).

Cancellations and Crises

The festival has been cancelled or reduced many times, and the list shows how closely it tracks the history of Bavaria and Germany (check each).

• Early cancellations. The festival did not run in years of war and epidemic in the nineteenth century, including the Napoleonic wars and the cholera outbreaks of the 1850s, and in the war years of 1866 and 1870 (check).
• First World War. A scaled-down festival took place in 1914, and the festival did not run in the later war years (check).
• Inflation. In 1923 and 1924, the hyperinflation of the early Weimar Republic made the festival impossible (check).
• The 1930s. The festival was held under the Nazi government, which used it for its own purposes, and Jewish stall-holders and brewers were pushed out (check how this is now remembered in Munich, including recent research and memorials).
• Second World War. No festival was held from 1939 to 1945. In 1946, a small autumn festival without beer tents took place (check), and the full Oktoberfest returned in 1950 (check).
• 1950. The tradition of the opening ceremony, in which the mayor of Munich taps the first keg and calls out O'zapft is! ("It's tapped!"), is usually dated to 1950 (check the date and the mayor's name, Thomas Wimmer).
• 1980. A bomb attack at the entrance to the Wiesn in September 1980 killed a number of people and injured many more, and is remembered in a memorial (check the facts, and treat the subject with care).
• Recent times. The festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic (check).

Exercises

Next chapter: Oktoberfest Today, which covers the tents, the Maß, the costume, the food and practical advice.