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—— ON THIS DAY ——
OCTOBER 12, 1810
Munich, Bavaria
216 years ago
Oktoberfest, the Munich folk festival that traces its origin to the public celebration of the royal wedding of October 12, 1810, and is now the largest event of its kind in the world.
On October 12, 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, the future King Ludwig I, married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen in Munich. Bavaria had been a kingdom for only four years, elevated by Napoleon, and the royal family was eager to build popular affection. The people of Munich were invited to join the celebrations, which ran for five days with free food, beer, music, and illuminations across the city.
The festivities closed on October 17 with a grand horse race on a meadow just outside the city gates, an idea proposed by a National Guard officer and banker named Andreas Michael Dall'Armi. Some forty thousand spectators watched from a natural grandstand on the adjoining hillside. The meadow was named Theresienwiese, Therese's Meadow, in honor of the bride. Locals still call the festival simply the Wiesn.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
Ludwig I of Bavaria, the crown prince whose wedding celebrations gave rise to Oktoberfest, later a king known for his passion for the arts, for Greek antiquity, and for the dancer Lola Montez.
The race had been such a success that it was held again in October 1811, this time combined with an agricultural show meant to promote Bavarian farming. The annual repetition is what turned a wedding party into a tradition. Over the following decades the city of Munich took over the organization, and swings, carousels, bowling alleys, and tree-climbing contests appeared. Small beer stands multiplied until, in 1896, enterprising landlords working with the breweries replaced them with the first large beer tents.
Beer now defines the event. Only six Munich breweries are permitted to serve at the festival, and they brew a special, slightly stronger lager for it, poured by the liter into heavy glass mugs. In a typical year around six million visitors drink about seven million liters, along with enormous quantities of roast chicken, pretzels, and sausages. Since 1950 the festival has opened with the mayor of Munich driving a tap into the first keg and declaring, in Bavarian dialect, that it is tapped.
Two details surprise newcomers. The horse races that started it all were eventually dropped from the program, and Oktoberfest mostly takes place in September: the dates were moved forward long ago to take advantage of warmer evenings, and the festival now ends on the first weekend of October. It has been cancelled about two dozen times in its history, for cholera epidemics, wars, hyperinflation, and most recently the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. The marriage that inspired it was not a great success. Ludwig's many affairs culminated in a scandal over Lola Montez that helped force his abdication in 1848. The party he started has outlasted the Bavarian monarchy by more than a century.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
Oktoberfest is the largest folk festival in the world. With around six million visitors a year, it is a major economic event for Munich and one of the best-known annual gatherings anywhere, imitated in cities on every inhabited continent.
It began as an exercise in nation-building. A new royal house used a public celebration to bind its subjects to the crown. The monarchy is gone, but the festival remains a central expression of Bavarian identity, complete with traditional dress.
It shows how traditions are made. A one-time horse race became an annual fair, which became a beer festival, which became a global brand. What feels timeless is often the product of steady reinvention.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On October 12, 1810, a Bavarian crown prince got married and the citizens of Munich were invited to a party on a meadow. They enjoyed it enough to do it again the following year. Two hundred and sixteen years later, six million people a year still show up, mostly in September, and the horses are long gone.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
“O'zapft is!”
— Traditional cry of the Mayor of Munich on tapping the first keg, meaning 'It is tapped!'
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about the origins of Oktoberfest, the royal wedding of 1810, the Theresienwiese, and the traditions of the world's largest folk festival?
