Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, MunichStaff wear Tracht with men in Lederhosen and women in DirndlThe ceiling features elaborate frescoes in the baroque style.Beer is served in standard 1 liter mugs called Maß, this one shown in the Wirtsgarten.
The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl is a beer hall in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, originally built in 1589 by Bavarian DukeMaximilian I as an extension of the Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München brewery. The general public was admitted in 1828 by Ludwig I. The building was completely remodeled in 1897 by Max Littmann when the brewery moved to the suburbs. All of the rooms except the historic beer hall ("Schwemme") were destroyed in the World War II bombings. The reopening of the Festival Hall in 1958 marked the end of the post-war restoration work.
The Hofbräuhaus was largely destroyed from allied bombing raids during World War II,[2] but by Munich's 800th anniversary in 1958 the building had been faithfully reconstructed.[3]
Munich's largest tourist attraction after the Oktoberfest, the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl is also frequented by locals, many of whom keep their personal mugs ("Krüge") stored there.[4] During regular hours traditional Bavarian music is played. The famous Hofbräuhaus song (Hofbräuhaus-Lied), composed in 1935 by Wilhelm "Wiga" Gabriel, goes: "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus, eine, zwei, g'suffa!" ("There's a Hofbräuhaus in Munich—one, two, down the hatch!" in the local dialect).[5]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived around the block from the beer hall in the late eighteenth century. In a poem he wrote, Mozart claimed to have written the opera Idomeneo after several visits to the Hofbräuhaus fortified him for the task.[citation needed] In the nineteenth century, most of the breweries in Munich, including the Hofbräuhaus, were converted into large beer halls, restaurants, and entertainment centers with large, cavernous meeting rooms for weddings, concerts, and plays. In the period just before World War One, Vladimir Lenin lived in Munich and reportedly visited the Hofbräuhaus on a regular basis.[9] In 1919, the Munich Communist government set up headquarters in the beer hall, and in February 1920 Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists held their first meeting in the Festsaal, the Festival Room, on the third floor.[citation needed]
On 24th February 1920, Hitler presented the Nazi Party's Twenty Five Point Program in the Hofbräuhaus.[1] On that day, the Nazi party held a large public meeting and whilst Hitler was speaking, the meeting erupted into a melee. There was a massive fight between the Social Democrat and Communist opponents of the Nazi party, and the anti-fascists eventually won the melee. Hitler managed to finish his address, notwithstanding the chaos of smashed tables and chairs and hurled beer mugs all about him. On 4 November 1921 the Hofbräuhaus was also the birthplace of the later feared Nazi terrorist organization, the Sturmabteilungen, or SA.
^ abGaab, Jeffery S. (2006). Munich: Hofbräuhaus & History : Beer, Culture, & Politics. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. p. 63. ISBN978-0820486062.
^Gaab, Jeffery S. (2006). Munich: Hofbräuhaus & History : Beer, Culture, & Politics. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. p. 83. ISBN978-0820486062.
^Gaab, Jeffery S. (2006). Munich: Hofbräuhaus & History : Beer, Culture, & Politics. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. p. 96. ISBN978-0820486062.
