No, says Katharina Wiemes, there have been no complaints over the years because of the name. “But he just doesn’t fit in with the times anymore.” And that’s why she renamed her coffee tent at the Oktoberfest. It is now called “Café Theres” in honor of the Bavarian Queen, whose marriage to the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig in 1810 was the impetus for the folk festival that the Bavarian state capital proudly calls the largest in the world today. The tent was previously called “Café Mohrenkopf” after a famous dessert from the pastry shop that her grandfather Paul ran in Munich’s Maxvorstadt. “Out of date” is the right term, and Katharina Wiemes already has a new name for the dessert: “Theresienbusserl”.
For Wiemes, the small Oktoberfest tent, which can accommodate 420 guests at classic coffee house tables, is an important part of his own life. “Even as a child, I used to come here every day after school and do my homework,” she says. How was that for you? “Nice!” she says from the bottom of her heart and laughs. At that time, she was born in 1962, her grandparents were still in charge. Large, brownish photos on the walls of the tent show the various stations; on the one from 1930 you can already see the grandmother pottering in a coffee shop. Back then, the grandparents didn’t have their own tent, but helped out with friends.
“The Wiemes family only came to the Wiesn after the Second World War,” says the granddaughter. Augustenstrasse, where the grandparents had their café, was a landscape of ruins for a long time, and a city councilwoman, a regular at the café, pointed out that there should be an Oktoberfest again “because people need normality again”. You can apply there for a stand. The grandparents scraped together their money and bought a grove in the suburb of Gröbenzell. In turn, they used the wood to build the first coffee tent and went to the Oktoberfest. 1950 was that.
“They paid extra for the first two years,” says Katharina Wiemes, “but around 1954 it took off like a rocket.” In 1970 you could afford a new, larger tent, as the photos on the wall show. Father Paul took over and his daughter Katharina has been the boss since 2000. “Basically, that’s what my life was all about right from the start,” she says and smiles. “For example, I trained as a hotel clerk at the Bayerischer Hof, it was really a nice time.” Later she ran her own café in Munich-Pasing, currently she is a silent partner in a café at the forest cemetery and occasionally helps out there. The Mohrenkopf, now Café Theres, keeps her busy all year round, there is always something to do: repairs, pre-orders, looking for staff.
Now, after two Oktoberfest breaks, it was time for something new. “And Therese Charlotte Luise Friederike Amalie von Sachsen-Hildburghausen,” she correctly lists all her first names, “really deserved it, she was a very educated, clever woman.” Although the Theresienwiese is named after her, the focus is always on her husband, who later became Ludwig I, with his shady love affairs.
At least here, on the festival grounds, Therese gets a belated appreciation – with the Theresienbusserl, but also the specially created Theresientorte. In the tent with its own factory, freshly baked goods are baked every day, and Wiemes attaches great importance to that. During the day there is coffee and cake, and in the evening from 6 p.m. also wine, sparkling wine and champagne at the bar. And because she keeps up with the times, Katharina Wiemes now also offers vegan cappuccino and apple strudel. The kids got her going, she says, and she has a few new ideas herself. But they can only be seen at the next Wiesn.