At exactly 12 noon on Saturday, Munich’s Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) tapped the first barrel of this year’s Oktoberfest in the Schottenhamel tent. An hour and 41 minutes later, the Ratsboxe on the gallery of the tent, to which the state capital always invites guests from politics and society for this occasion, was still well filled, the band started the song, which had recently been the subject of much discussion : “Layla”.
This was well received by the audience. It was sung loudly, also at some tables in the gallery, where there was also a standing party – including by a group of Japanese, a delegation from Munich’s twin city Sapporo, who, however, it can be assumed that they were not aware of which debates were refrain lines like “I have a whorehouse and my whorehouse mom’s name is Layla // She’s prettier, younger, hornier” recently triggered in this country.
Such songs, so early in the day, performed in front of the assembled political celebrities from town and country: Festwirt Christian Schottenhamel made it clear shortly afterwards that this was by no means planned. He himself was surprised when the song was played, he explained to the SZ. He then asked his Kapellmeister: He had been taken by surprise by a comedian who had approached the musicians with a camera, offered to conduct and asked if everyone knew “Layla”. The Kapellmeister thought: That was certainly coordinated and let his musicians get started. Accidental sexism, so to speak.
The song had previously provided a topic of conversation again. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) explained, immediately before Reiter swung his stick to tap: “Everyone should wear what they want at this Oktoberfest, everyone should eat what they want, and if the band plays a song here, that not everyone likes it, then everyone should be able to sing what they want.”
In the guest of honor gallery, many a pair of eyes rolled at the table of the state parliament Greens and Munich’s second mayor Katrin habenschaden (also Green) said: “In my opinion, the comment would not have been necessary.” However, this did not prevent Söder from repeating them a few more times in a similar way. He was in favor of “that there are no bans on songs”.
Animal welfare activists who had previously tried to disrupt the Oktoberfest landlords’ entry to the festival grounds accused Söder of spoiling the game: “There’s always someone who wants to spoil the fun.” Söder continues: “This whole ban discussion, which is annoying. Wokeness may be interesting, but if it’s exaggerated, then it’s stuffy, and the Wiesn is everything but stuffy.”
The city of Würzburg had banned the performance of the song “Layla” at the Kiliani folk festival in July after sexism debates. The song, which was number five in the German single charts in the week of September 9th, is not banned at the Wiesn. The city’s economics officer, Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU), who is also responsible for the Oktoberfest, had rejected this because he didn’t want to be the “cultural or language police”.
The puff mother’s performance in front of the politicians on Saturday was apparently not the first on the Theresienwiese either. According to witnesses, the song had already been started shortly after 1 p.m. in another tent.