Oktoberfest - ein Fest der Landeshauptstadt München
Photo: picture alliance/Matthias Balk/dpa

Günter Werner: Not a day missed in 60 years at the Oktoberfest

Regular guest for 60 years: Wiesn visitor celebrates special anniversary

That's what we call loyalty! Günter Werner is a regular guest in the Schottenhamel Festhalle on the Oktoberfest - and has been for an incredible 60 years. According to his own statements, the 76-year-old has not missed a single Oktoberfest day - and probably holds a record.

His table is reserved automatically every year

60 years of loyalty is rewarded: Landlord Christian Schottenhamel from the beer tent of the same name automatically reserves the table for Günter Werner every year. "It's set - he never has to call before." At the end of the 1980s, the regular guest even had his own telephone connection put at the table. At that time, as an employee of a sanitary company, he was still there with corporate customers - a few glasses of beer made business much easier . For the telephone, a box was installed on a column near the table; the key was given to the regular waitress. "That worked fine for five, six years - then the mobile phones came," says Werner.

The 60th anniversary is celebrated in a special costume

Werner admits that he was already nervous before the start of "his" jubilee show this year. He had taken his father's leather trousers - albeit a little too big, but historical - out of the cupboard for the traditional tapping of the first beer barrel. He also took his hat to the hatter to have it decorated with pheasant feathers and fresh hop cones.

Werner dislikes dancing on the benches

Dressed up in style he greets his guests, only a few meters away from the well-known "Anstichbox" in the Schottenhamel tent, where Munich's lord mayor opens the Oktoberfest every year. What Werner doesn't like at his table: When people stand on their benches and celebrate wildly. You can't talk there, and the beer spills out of the mugs - onto those who have stayed seated. After all, the barley juice always flows. He had "Something over eight masses of beer" on the first day, Werner says: "That's not much." After all, he's had practice for 60 years.