1820s
Early Oktoberfest Rules Reserve Beer Service for Munich
In the 1820s, Munich restricted admission to Oktoberfest's beer stalls to eighteen local publicans. The wooden stalls formed a ring on the festival grounds, where beer service was becoming an increasingly important part of the celebration. An early municipal rule, in force until 1850, reserved beer service at the festival for these Munich publicans and beer from local breweries. Four publicans from the surrounding area who wanted to sell beer from Tölz were directed instead to the Sendlinger Höhe outside the festival. This provides an early example of Oktoberfest's preference for Munich beer, well before the later restriction to established Munich breweries reviewed by a court in 1990.
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Sources
These sources support the dating and historical claims in this entry.
Eymold, Ursula. “Oktoberfest.” Historisches Lexikon Bayerns. Section “Bewirtung”; dates the restriction to eighteen Munich publicans to 1825.
Münchner Zeitensprünge. “Die Zahl der auf dem Oktoberfest zugelassenen Bierwirte wird festgelegt.” Chronology entry dated August 6, 1824. This differs from the 1825 dating above; the entry therefore uses decade precision.
European Commission. Publication of the application for “Oktoberfestbier,” 2022/C 252/08. Official Journal C 252, July 1, 2022, pp. 21–25, section 5. Historical account of the municipal restriction in force until 1850 and the exclusion of Tölz beer from the festival, citing Gerda Möhler's study.
Landeshauptstadt München. Rathaus Umschau, September 17, 2010, p. 11. Account of the separate judicial review of brewery admission restrictions on January 17, 1990.
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