Oktoberfest - The History

The Oktoberfest, or Wiesn' as the locals call it, started way back October 12th, 1810. Prince Ludwig of Bavaria got hitched to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen and celebrated the wedding with a horse race in a big field outside the city. The citizens were invited to attend and some 40,000 people showed up for the party. The Prince even got the Munich breweries to knock up a special brew in commemoration of the event. This was the beginning of what has grown into the biggest piss-up on the planet. Just to explain, the word 'Wiesn' means meadow. The field where the Oktoberfest takes place is called the Theresienwiese, or in English, "Theresa's Meadow". Simple really. Anyway, the following year the locals added an agricultural festival to the celebrations. The horse race has gone by the wayside, but the agricultural festival remains to this day, although it only takes place every three years.

The first beer tents arrived in 1896. Originally the tent owners paraded from Munich to the meadow (remember, the city used to be a lot smaller) where the event took place. This tradition has survived and on the first Saturday morning of the Oktoberfest there is a traditional parade into the Wiesn which is culminated in the mayor of Munich tapping the first keg with the well known cry of “O’zapft is’!”

If you do the math you'll see that this year, 2004, is the 194th year since it all began. During that time, the event has only been cancelled 24 times. These cancellations were due to cholera, war and inflation so you can sort of make allowances. So, this year we have the 170th Oktoberfest celebration.

As to why a large portion of the festival is held in September and not in October, the answer goes way back to the 15th and 16th century. In those days beer would never be brewed in the summer months. The batches would never turn out good.
The last batches were usually made in March. These last batches would have higher alcohol content to take advantage of alcohol as a preservative. Traditionally there would be a big fest starting on the last Saturday in September till the First Sunday in October. The purpose was to drink up the old stocks of beer to make room for the new brew that would be make after harvest.

There are a number of theories as to why most of Oktoberfest is held in September rather than October. Most of the theories are utter nonsense. At the end of the day it's really not important. What is important is that it exists and it's the biggest piss-up on the planet!