First Oktoberfest began - October 12, 1810

On this day in 1810, the first Oktoberfest began after the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey y'all, I'm Eves and you're listening to
This Day in History Class, a podcast for people interested
in the big and small moments in history. Today. It's
October twelfth, nineteen. The day was October twelfth, eighteen ten.

(00:26):
Crown Prince Ludvik married Princess Teresa of Sexa Hildeberghausen, and
the citizens of Munich were invited to celebrate the occasion
in the fields in front of the city gate. This
celebration is the origin of october Fest, a festival and
fair in Munich that's held annually and attracts visitors from
around the world. In the days after the marriage, the

(00:49):
people of Bavaria gathered in front of the zen Linger tour,
a gate leading to Munich. The festivities in the inaugural
year of october Fest included a feast in horse races,
which around forty thousand people attended. The fields where the
celebration was held had been dubbed terse and Visa, which
means Teresa's Meadow after the crown princess. Today, locals often

(01:14):
called the celebration of Viasan, after the nickname for the
fair grounds. October Fest was held again in eighteen eleven,
including horse races, drinking and feasting, but that year an
agricultural show was also part of the festivities. The eighteen
thirteen october Fest was canceled because of the Napoleonic Wars,

(01:34):
but after that the october Fest began to grow. In
the beginning, there weren't many amusements to choose from the
first carousel and two swings were set up in eighteen eighteen.
After eighteen nineteen, october Fest was planned as an annual event,
and more beer stands and attractions were added. The duration
of the festival was lengthened and moved to the end

(01:57):
of September to take advantage of longer and warmer days.
Bludavic became king of Bavaria in eighteen twenty five and
Teresa became queen, and they remained so until Ludvig abdicated
and his son Maximilian the Second took the throne in
eighteen forty eight. Still october Fest continued, though it has

(02:17):
been canceled in many years because of war, cholera, hyper inflation,
and other things that disrupted the normal course of events.
Electricity began powering the festival around eighteen eighty and beer
tents were introduced years after that. Beer has been served
in glass mugs at october Fest since eighteen ninety two.

(02:39):
Horse races are no longer featured, but the agricultural show
still happens once every four years. October Fest grew to
include amusements like bowling alleys and dance floors, and cities
outside of Germany that were home to many German descended
residents began hosting october Fest celebrations based on the original
event held in Munich. Though october Fest is celebratory, in

(03:03):
the early nineteen thirties, the festival did serve as a
vehicle for Nazi propaganda and nationalistic pride, and Jewish people
were forbidden from working on the fairgrounds. Now, october Fest
begins in late September and last until the first Sunday
in October, and parades kick off the festivities. Though the

(03:23):
event has expanded to include concerts, theater and other productions
and it draws millions of people, is still an important
part of Bavarian culture. I'm each deathcote and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you're hungry for more history, you can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i h

(03:47):
C Podcast, and you can send your thoughts are comments
to us at this Day at I heart media dot com.
Thanks for listening, We'll see you here again tomorrow with
another their episode. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

(04:12):
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.