There is enough beer at the commemoration of the fire in the National Theater 200 years ago. The mood is remarkably good, although two competitors for the rooms of the “Südtiroler Stuben” meet.
A lot of fuss about an unsuccessful attempt to extinguish the fire: Brewery boss Michael Möller, together with the Hofbräuhaus landlords Wolfgang and Michael Sperger, drove to the historic site of 1823 with a historic aerial ladder truck, borrowed from the Munich Fire Brigade Museum. Also on the fire engine: a quartet of Obermüller musicianswhich are something like the house chapel of the Hofbräuhaus.
The Magirus-Deutz vehicle, which leisurely drove from Platzl via Am Kosttor and Maximilianstrasse to the opera forecourt on Thursday morning, has of course nothing to do with the actual operation – there were no automobiles 200 years ago. Back then, at the behest of King Max I Joseph, the helpers rolled beer barrels and brewing water by hand to the burning opera house. Despite courageous intervention, it burned down to the foundations because all the extinguishing ponds had frozen over due to the extremely cold winter at the time. And the beer that the people of Munich had left in the Hofbräuhaus was far from enough to extinguish it.
There were enough of them in the State Hall of the National Theater on Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, after the great fire, the opera was rebuilt true to the original according to Leo von Klenze’s plans. Because Michael Möller and State Opera director Serge Dorny were able to tap a keg of Hofbräu beer there more or less together; in addition there were white sausages for the opera staff and the press. Four soloists from the State Orchestra, which has just celebrated its 500th birthday and is therefore slightly older than the 434-year-old Hofbräuhaus, were also used (and then a few minutes late for the rehearsal, as they say).
The State Opera could theoretically have served with its own beer, because the brewery of the Odelzhausen Castle Estate has been brewing the strong beer Operator every year since 1963 – a group of friends of the National Theater had suggested this at the time, because on November 21, 1963 the State Opera was closed after the destruction of the Second World War reopened. Which means that another milestone birthday is coming up in late autumn, when it will be the 60th anniversary of the reopening.
The official representatives of the Hofbräuhaus and the State Opera met in a remarkably good mood: After all, they are currently something of a competitor for the rooms in the now closed “Südtiroler Stuben” by Alfons Schuhbeck on the Platzl. The house belongs to the Free State of Bavaria, and the state-owned Hofbräu would like to establish a restaurant there again. But the State Opera also has an interest in it. The affiliated state ballet could accommodate another hall and a day care center there, it is said. The decision on who gets the premises is still pending and will probably not be made for a few weeks. After all, the Bavarian Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Art are officially applying; the decision rests with the state-owned company Immobilien Freistaat Bayern.