The start-up fair “Bits & Pretzels” likes to adorn itself with the highest celebrities as speakers. After the organizers were able to win the former US President Barack Obama and the actress Jessica Alba as “speakers” at the last edition of the fair in 2019, this time Arnold Schwarzenegger will be the star guest.
It actually goes quite well with a start-up fair: since the 1960s, it has made itself a brand, pumped itself up to the max, fought its way to become one of the biggest Hollywood stars on the big screen, and the US state for eight years California rules. Today, by his own admission, he is three-quarters vegan, Trump and Putin opponent, climate activist and animal lover. For his fans, Schwarzenegger, who is now 75 and no longer quite so muscular, is and will always be Arnie.
Three years ago, former US President Barack Obama was at “Bits & Pretzls”…
(Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP)
…and actress Jessica Alba (left).
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/picture alliance/dpa)
So Arnie is coming to Munich again. The fact that Bits & Pretzels takes place from September 25th to 27th, i.e. during the Oktoberfest, is a good thing, because the Oktoberfest has done it to him. In 2016, for example, he grabbed the conductor’s baton in the Schützenzelt and mimed the conductor. He repeated this the following year, this time accompanied by his friend Ralf Möller, also an actor and not quite as famous a muscle mountain aD Arnie was also spotted in the Marstall tent, sometimes with the beetle.
Schwarzenegger and Munich: That’s quite a long story. From 1966 to 1968 the bodybuilder lived and trained in the city, which he also describes decades later as his stepping stone on the way to the title of Mister Universe. Munich is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, he said four years ago at an event in the Olympic Hall. He loves coming back to Munich. You can watch everything on Youtube.
From 1966 to 1968 the bodybuilder lived and trained in the city and kept coming back – here a photo op in 1985.
(Photo: Istvan Bajzat/picture alliance / dpa)
Schwarzenegger managed to attract attention in Munich at the beginning of his career. In 1967, the photographer Rolf Hayo created a photo series that was legendary among Arnie fans, in which the then 20-year-old bodybuilder walked through the city wearing only tight panties and posed at Stachus and in the main station, among other places. This caused some astonishment and some admiration among passers-by. One of Hayo’s pictures shows an elderly market woman on Bayerstrasse feeling great joy on Arnie’s biceps. When Arnie opened Planet Hollywood 30 years later in the presence of all sorts of other celebrities, thousands of people were waiting to catch a glimpse of the (this time fully dressed) superstar.
In 2016, Schwarzenegger also attracted attention as a traffic hooligan when, accompanied by his bodyguard, he cycled through the main station and was stopped by the federal police. The officer who stopped and lectured him was given a selfie as compensation. The federal police proudly passed the picture on to the press. When do you have the opportunity to read the riot act to the Terminator?