What is the Maibock tapping?
Maibock is a strong beer with an alcohol content of 7.2 percent. It was originally brewed for the summer months because the beer had a longer shelf life due to the higher alcohol content.
The Maibock came to Munich in 1614. The dukes at the time had taken a liking to a similar beer from Einbeck in Lower Saxony, but wanted to save themselves the expensive transport – and the money they had to pay for the beer. For their own Hofbräu brewery, they recruited the master brewer from the Geisenfeld monastery in the diocese of Regensburg: Elias Pichler.
From 1638 onwards, bock beer was served to all Munich residents, and from 1874 onwards in the Hofbräuhaus, which – like the brewery – already belonged to the Free State of Bavaria.
The finance minister leads the mallet: Albert Füracker (CSU) with brewery boss Michael Möller and Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU, from left) at the Maibock tapping 2023.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The symbolic tapping of a barrel at the end of April (the beer itself is available from February) has been celebrated since 1910; initially it took place in the afternoon and mainly with officials from the Ministry of Finance as guests.
It is now an evening event to which the Ministry of Finance invites around 600 people to the large ballroom of the well-known Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. As on the Nockherberg, there is a political derblecken that is broadcast by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR).
What is the difference to Nockherberg?
There is no musical theater, just a speech in which a mirror is held up to the political leadership of Bavarian politics present. The cabaret artist Django Asül, who comes from Lower Bavaria, has held this since 2008.
Unlike the Nockherberg, the BR does not broadcast live, but rather sends a recording with a time delay. This year the event will take place on Tuesday, April 23rd, from 6 p.m., the BR broadcast will run on the same evening from 8:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. (it will then be available in the ARD media library).
There is also an appearance by a politician: The Finance Minister – since 2018 Albert Füracker (CSU) – taps in and gives a humorous speech himself. The Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn brass band provides the musical framework.
How did this second derblecken in Munich come about?
Kurt Faltlhauser played a key role. The CSU politician (born in Munich in 1940) became finance minister in Edmund Stoiber’s cabinet in 1998. In this role he also had the main role in the Maibock tapping.
Faltlhauser shone in this one by taking aim at the political world itself in his speech. Alluding to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU), who liked to talk about “Bimbes” when it came to money, Faltlhauser suggested that Bavaria’s payments into the state financial equalization system should be made in kind in the future: “Beer instead of Bimbes!”
Kurt Falthauser, Bavarian Finance Minister from 1998 to 2007, appeared at the Maibock tapping ceremony in 2005 dressed as a firefighter.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Faltlhauser also dressed up for his appearances, sometimes as a fireman, sometimes as a beggar, sometimes as a referee. As such, he showed the visiting Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily (SPD) the yellow card and declared: “There is a Hofbräuhaus in Munich, we’ll throw every socialite out!”
When Faltlhauser resigned from his position as finance minister in October 2007, the brewery had a problem: his successor, Erwin Huber (born in Reisbach in 1946), lacked comedic talent and comedic ambition. The brewery then hired Django Asül, who had previously been dumped at Nockherberg. The Lenten sermon that Asül had given there as Bruno Jonas’s successor was perceived as too harsh. Among other things, Asül pointed out the semantic similarity of the terms “secretary” and “secretary” with a view to the then CSU general secretary Markus Söder.
The place where it happened: the famous Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, in the middle of Munich.
(Photo: Felix Hörhager/dpa)
Why is the event politically interesting?
The fact that “Derblecken” plays on a stage that belongs to a state organization offers a special appeal. The political actors use the opportunities offered by the constellation in very different ways.
Kurt Faltlhauser not only taunted the then Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber (CSU) – “In prison, every robber knows that the greatest is Edmund Stoiber” – but also demonstrated self-irony by appearing disguised as a convict and explaining to those present: “The budget without debts is fine since Faltlhauser has been in prison.”
Markus Söder tapping the Maibock in the Munich Hofbräuhaus, 2011 Bavaria’s Finance Minister Markus Söder (l.) and Michael Möller, director of the State Hofbräuhaus in Munich, tapping the first barrel of Maibock in the Munich Hofbräuhaus.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
At his premiere as finance minister in 2012, Markus Söder made a demonstrative move into the ballroom in front of the then Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) and was also happy to use the opportunity to underline his claim to power with clear points. “We don’t even want to know when (Seehofer/editor’s note) “We just want to know whether he’ll ever go at some point,” he once said to the then Prime Minister. And as a beer that was close to Seehofer, he recommended the “ice-cold hopped Hallodri”.
Where can further background information be found?
Meinhard Prill has compiled historical information and many anecdotes about the Maibock tapping in the film “Powerful is the Bock’s power” for the BR here is available.