Three months before the start of the Oktoberfest, the debate about racist and sexist motifs on fairground rides, which has been smoldering since spring, is over. In the intergroup Wiesn working group, the representatives of the city council and the economic department agreed on Thursday with the showmen concerned to change the motives that were the subject of the complaint. “In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of talk in the background and solutions sought,” summed up the second mayor, Katrin habenschaden (Greens): “I am pleased that there is now an amicable solution.”
Habenharm had been the driving force in the discussion, she had demanded that the images on a throwing booth and a carousel, which were perceived as discriminatory, should no longer be tolerated. Economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU), on the other hand, had long defended the paintings as “art” before giving up his opposition. The motifs were once a black man looking under the skirt of a white woman, and the other time a woman surrounded by jungle dwellers whose bikini top was ripped away. These images will now be removed.
In this context, it was not only habenschaden that praised the owners of the two amusement parks as “very cooperative”. Klaus Peter Rupp, one of the two SPD representatives in the Wiesn working group, acknowledged that the operators themselves had made constructive suggestions for the redesign. And Wiesn city councilor Anja Berger (Greens) found: “You have to thank them from the bottom of their hearts for being open-minded and taking part.”
Especially since the showmen now have to bear the costs themselves, and they are not exactly small. Painting and varnishing the car should amount to a five-digit amount. Berger emphasized that the operators did not want to be accused of intentionally using racist motives: “They were not aware of that.” They also didn’t want to be excluded from the Wiesn, which could have endangered their existence. In this respect, she is now “happy and relieved” about this solution, said Berger.