First Oktoberfest: Munich Celebrates Royal Wedding

Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810, and the citizens of Munich were invited to a grand celebration on the fields outside the city gates. Nobody at that royal wedding party could have imagined they were launching what would become the world's largest folk festival, drawing more than six million visitors annually to a tradition now inseparable from German cultural identity. The original celebration bore little resemblance to the modern beer-soaked spectacle. The centerpiece was a horse race held on October 17, attended by the royal family and 40,000 Munich residents. The grounds where the festivities took place were named Theresienwiese (Therese's Meadow) in honor of the bride, and locals still call the Oktoberfest grounds "die Wiesn" today. Beer was present but secondary to the equestrian events and the civic display of loyalty to the Bavarian crown. King Maximilian I Joseph decided to repeat the celebration the following year, and it gradually expanded to include an agricultural fair, carnival rides, food stalls, and the beer tents that would eventually define the event. Bavarian breweries began competing for the honor of serving at Oktoberfest, and by the mid-nineteenth century, the festival had evolved into a major commercial enterprise as well as a cultural celebration. The festival has survived two world wars, multiple cholera outbreaks, and countless controversies over its modern excesses. Official Oktoberfest rules require that only Munich breweries operating within city limits can serve beer at the festival, and the brew must conform to the Reinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Law) of 1516. Modern Oktoberfest runs for sixteen to eighteen days ending on the first Sunday in October — which means most of the festival actually takes place in September, a calendrical irony that doesn't trouble the millions who attend each year.