Probably the most beautiful picture of the day is Svenja. With her back to the hustle and bustle, she set up her newly purchased garden bench, sat down on it and opened a diet coke. She is exhausted from the bustle behind her, but very happy with what she has found. “It’s just perfect,” says Svenja, meaning the chic white two-seater, a piece of furniture “for only 60 euros! And in the cream-colored sewing basket here comes an ice cooler – wonderful. I’m so happy! Now I just need a taxi that this thing drives me home.” No problem, because of course the taxi drivers also got pointed out that there is good money to be made at the big flea market on the Theresienwiese and the spring festival next door.
If you even get to the eye of the hurricane by taxi. Because traditionally, this flea market Saturday is like a few months later at the Oktoberfest. From the Goetheplatz, people are already crowding towards Theresienwiese in the morning. The flea market begins far in front of the Wiesn-Oval, in Mozartstrasse and Kobellstrasse all those who would otherwise have had no space have set up their stands.
From there you always hear and marvel at the same stories: about people who get up in the middle of the night to get rid of their stuff for a few euros several hours later, according to the motto: “Everything has to go!” Just like the family of Melina from Regensburg, who have crystals and almost antique comics on offer. “My alarm clock rang at 2.45 a.m., and we were here at half past four. Dad had already spent the night in the car and reserved the seat.” The grey-haired wears a red T-shirt with the grumpy Muppet grandpas Waldorf and Statler and the words “Old school” on it.
Weird figures are out and about, on both sides of the stalls. There is one of those singing llama blankets that you know from the pedestrian zone, and they offer their panpipes in all colors and sizes, with a huge plume on their skulls that would make any peacock green with envy. Another carries a yellow shoulder bag with the inscription “I’m not buying anything, I’m just looking”. Or the bearded hipster with a baseball cap who offers a beautiful xylophone for sale, but no mallet. Couldn’t he even play a note? “Oh, maybe later, when I’ve smoked a bit.” But then he grabs a chess piece and gropes around a bit on the instrument. A few meters away, a teenager shows his friends his catch: a knight’s helmet with a visor. And the boys were like, “Dude, why?”
Where else can you show kindergarten children how to use the phone in the past?
Well, why does the flea market phenomenon still persist in times of ebay classifieds? Perhaps because it is a wonderful coexistence and coexistence in this otherwise barren part of the city, a wonderfully anarchic arrangement of the perfect and the imperfect, where the collection of beer mats lies next to the cleavers, where the Turk has a nutcracker, “Erzgebirge, Original!” sold and where two dozen milk cans and framed pictures of Jesus are available at the same stand. It’s always amazing what’s on offer: a Playmobil Circus Maximus complete with lions and four-in-hand horses for chariot races, medical cutlery for immediate surgery, plastic bags from Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, high heels with 30 centimeter heels. And where else can you show kindergarten children how to use the phone in the past? On that thing with a handset and a dial? Disbelieving looks at the offspring.
In addition to the large flea market, thousands of visitors are also drawn to the Theresienwiese spring festival on Saturday.
(Photo: IMAGO/Wolfgang Maria Weber)
Full beer garden at the Munich Spring Festival. No wonder, the weather on Saturday was fantastic.
(Photo: IMAGO/Wolfgang Maria Weber)
But underneath all the good-humored harmony, the Grant sometimes flashes through. An incident is reported from a credible source, in which the flag of an esoteric stand hit the neighboring stand, whereupon it became verbally ugly and a bad sentence was said: “esotericism kills.” Even the gentleman who wants to sell a punching bag has to communicate a lot: “It’s for sale, not for hitting! If you throw it in the porcelain for me, you’ll have to pay for the bowl.”
The top three typical flea market sentences on this day: “Honey, now we’ve really hit it, haven’t we?” Followed by “You know: you have to carry it forever” and “Dad, I’m so hot!” The weather app shows only 17 degrees, but it feels like twice as much. It’s understandable that one or the other is still drawn over to the spring festival, where brass music sounds from the Festhalle Bayernland. Although everyone should be drawn into the sun after the autumn temperatures, the beer tent is jam-packed. It’s also pretty weird here: Japanese women in dirndls, fire sausage by half a meter and golden ghost train exclamations like “Ui, a zombie!”
The stream of flea market fans doesn’t stop until the late afternoon. And Svenja, the lucky bank buyer? Apparently found a cab. She’s probably been sitting on her new piece of jewelry with a cool drink from the sewing box for a long time. Thanks flea market.