This Saturday, Franziska Inselkammer will be where she would like to be in the future: in front of an audience. The 19-year-old is the new Munich child and she wants to be an actress. This fits together well because she can practice with the one role that she is already sure of for the other roles that may yet come to her. So on Saturday shortly after eleven o’clock it will be on the Marienplatz and will be officially presented to the people of Munich and all visitors at the city founding festival by Mayor Dieter Reiter. At the same time, Victoria Ostler, who has been her predecessor since 2016, is also said goodbye.
Franziska Inselkammer is currently doing an internship at the Burgtheater in Vienna. That’s why you can only reach her on the phone shortly before the event at the city founding festival. Her voice sounds open and personable. She speaks amazingly constant High German for a native of Munich. The dialect was lost in school, she says. The desire to become a Munich Kindl, however, has remained. She has had it since she was a child. “Even when I was very small, I saw the costume and rifle parade with my grandmother on the first Oktoberfest Sunday,” says Inselkammer. The grandmother on her mother’s side took care of her and her three siblings because their parents, Peter and Katharina Inselkammer, are particularly busy as innkeepers at the Oktoberfest. Her father has been the head of the Armbrustschützen tent since 2015, which he took over from his father.
After their daughter became a member of the Trachtenverein der Chiemgauer z’München at the age of seven, she soon took part in the big traditional costume parade herself. And when the Wiesn landlords moved in on the opening Saturday, she was allowed to sit in the carriage of the Armbrustschützen tent. On all these occasions, the Munich Kindl appears in his black and yellow robe. Possibly someone whispered in Franziska Inselkammer’s ear at some point that, as a scion of the Wirte dynasty, she had a good chance of becoming his successor. It is now the 17th child of its kind. The series begins in 1938 with Pumuckel inventor Ellis Kaut.
The Münchner Kindl must have been born in Munich, be unmarried and come from a Munich family
In any case, it fulfills the requirements perfectly. These are pretty much tailored to young women like her. It is not enough to have Munich as your place of birth in your passport. The Munich Festring eV, which makes the selection, specifies a few other criteria. Franziska Inselkammer knows that you have to have a certain sense of tradition. Also have a connection to the Wiesn and be familiar with Munich history. Her father is a good contact person on this point. In addition, one must be over 18 years old and unmarried, according to the ranks of the Festring. “Filling this office with life is a task.”
But what does that have to do with marital status? Viktoria Ostler, now around 30 years old, actually delayed her wedding until she was able to experience the Wiesn entry on horseback after the Corona period last year. Being unmarried, he finds this criterion a bit backward and outdated, says Festring President Karl-Heinz Knoll. But they’ve never had that problem. So far, there have been enough applicants from the innkeepers’, breweries’ or showmen’s environment. “But look, does a mature woman who might already have children of her own want to be addressed as a child?”
Franziska Inselkammer would like to be a child. She graduated from high school last year and is now thinking about her vocational training. For auditions at acting schools, she has to rehearse roles. Speaking freely and appearing in front of people, she can now practice that as a living coat of arms, Munich has a special feature in this respect. “I really like being on stage,” says Inselkammer. “Being someone else for a moment, that’s fun for me.”
Although she rode horses as a child, she took extra riding lessons for her role as the Munich Kindl. She gets her own horse for her performances. Hans, who was born just a year before her, is “very dear”. It was unusual to ride side-saddle. This position, however, feels safer than Inselkammer thought. A bracket on the saddle above the thigh ensures this. Sitting sideways, the fabric of the robe, which goes back to a Benedictine monk’s habit, is particularly impressive.
Like her predecessor, Franziska Inselkammer has now got her own costume. The order went to the Munich master school for fashion and design and there to Sven Körnig. He is a state-certified fashion designer. Together with Inselkammer he has slightly modernized the historical specifications for the robe. The yellow cross on the front is a bit thinner, the hood is a bit rounder. “The narrow silhouette was important to us.” Franziska Inselkammer, who is 1.66 tall, should not disappear in the floor-length robe. It must not be too hot in summer, but warm in winter. The black fabric is a polyester-wool blend that falls well, hardly creases and is rain-repellent. Victoria Ostler suggested not making the trumpet-shaped sleeves too long. Also, the advice to enjoy the office.
So now she’s counting down the hours until the inauguration. But the start of the Oktoberfest in September is probably more important to her. It’s her birthday shortly before that. “I’m looking forward to representing the city,” says Franziska Inselkammer. You love Munich. The comfort, the food, the nature. Sitting on Marienplatz and looking at people or walking along the Isar with dachshund Dumbledore makes her happy.