There are said to be quite a few Munich residents for whom this is a tangible threat: “All of Munich is Oktoberfest!” But it’s not a threat, it’s the motto of the Munich city center hosts, who are holding their “Wirtshauswiesn” for the fourth time this year – at the same time as the normal Oktoberfest on the Theresienwiese, so this year for a whole 18 days, from September 16th until October 3rd. Which means: In the 36 participating restaurants there is a special Oktoberfest decoration, special gingerbread hearts, of course also Oktoberfest beer in mugs and almost everywhere also special Oktoberfest delicacies from chicken to large Oktoberfest pretzels.
On Thursday afternoon, the innkeepers presented their program in Weinhaus Neuner on Herzogspitalstrasse, one of the three new members of the Association of Munich Downtown Innkeepers. And a traditional restaurant on top of that, because the wine house has been around since 1621. Almost 190 years longer than the Oktoberfest, which took place for the first time in 1810 on the occasion of the wedding of the then Crown Prince and later King Ludwig I with Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen . At that time, the attraction still consisted of a horse race, but there was only food and drink in the town’s taverns. That’s where the revelers went after the races.
In 2020, the Munich city center hosts and the Wiesn hosts took this as an opportunity to rediscover this excursion activity during the Corona pandemic. The Wirtshauswiesn was invented, so it was possible to celebrate with beer and chicken with distance rules. And dirndls and lederhosen didn’t have to stay in the closets because of the ban on the annual traditional costume carnival in the beer tents. Luck in disguise, so to speak.
Also this year you can wear your traditional costume – or what you think of it – in the 39 participating restaurants. Of course, there is no compulsion, there is no dress code analogous to the P1, which in the past, for example, you could not get into if you were wearing cheap Trevira trousers. Inside, live music awaits you in many inns, usually folksy brass music in a smaller cast. The trio was involved in the presentation of the program in the Weinhaus bavarian extreme, who even brought an alphorn along. That’s not part of the standard for pub musicians who still want to hear it: “We play at the Wirtshauswiesn every day in the Andechser am Dom!”
Not all tavern musicians have that with them: the trio “Bayrisch Extrem” impressed with an alphorn.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Gregor Lemke from the Augustiner Klosterwirt and spokesman for the Association of Downtown Innkeepers was pleased that not only the 36 member companies “from gourmet restaurants to cafés and the largest inn in the world are there, but also our friends from the Augustinerkeller, from the Löwenbräukeller and from the Ayinger in der ouch”. In the meantime, the Wirtshauswiesn have almost become a tradition. And even if there are Oktoberfest copies worldwide, “there is nothing like what we have here anywhere else”.
Peter Inselkammer, spokesman for the Oktoberfest innkeepers and a participant in the Wirtshauswiesn with the Ayinger am Platzl and the Ayinger in der Au, agreed: “The Wirtshauswiesn has become established. Next year we’ll be five years old, so it’s almost a tradition.” He has to laugh a little himself.
It remains to be seen whether some new creations for the Wirtshauswiesn will achieve traditional status. Karl-Heinz Wildmoser, who otherwise has his restaurant-café in the former Gasthaus Zum Ewigen Licht on Marienplatz, presents a “Wirtshauswiesn-Pizza” in his Italian restaurant Pizzarei am Dom, for example, the topping is still a secret. And the Schnitzelwirt in the Spatenhof puts a “Wirtshauswiesn-Cordon bleu” on the menu: a schnitzel filled with Obazdem, bacon and onions. Dishes that don’t necessarily make friends, at least not among culinary purists.