Is this art, or does it have to go? In Munich, a debate has flared up that accompanied the Stuttgart Wasen last year and that now, just 146 days before tapping, is pushing like a dark wall of storm clouds over the Theresienwiese. The second mayor, Katrin Habenschaden, a member of the Green Party, wants an Oktoberfest without racism and discrimination. In their eyes, this noble goal of social reconciliation is blocked by the painted advertising signs on some rides. In the "Voodoo Jumper" carousel, for example, South Seas clichéd islanders and a half-naked woman can be seen pulling off a monkey's bikini top, while at the "Crazy Alm" throwing booth, a black man lifts the dirndl of a young white woman and exposes her bare buttocks. At the gravity test stone "Top Spin Fresh", a bare-breasted surfer looks seductively at the clientele.
It doesn't work at all, says Ms. Habenschaden, which is "unacceptable". She was sure that the Wiesn boss would see it the same way. The head of the Oktoberfest is a middle-aged white man from the CSU, Clemens Baumgärtner, the state capital's economic adviser. He doesn't see the signs the same way as the mayor. He confided to the "Bild" that it was "censorship" that demanded damage to the company, and that he did not want censorship. After all, it is art, namely graffiti art.
Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
But the first child had already fallen into the woke well, effect hit for credit damage: The owner of the "Top Spin Fresh", seventy-four-year-old Manfred Zehle, announced yesterday that he would sell his ride. This debate was too stupid for him, a repainting would cost him at least 60,000 euros, money that he did not want to take in hand. On the homepage of the city of Munich, Habenschaden and Baumgärtner present themselves as decisive economic promoters. The business economist Habenschaden promises that she wants to ensure that Munich remains "home for all people, regardless of their wallets"; Baumgärtner, a lawyer, promises that he wants to "ensure cohesion in society through participation and integration".
However, he did not find any appreciative words for his political opponent's proposal – but a rather clear diagnosis: "If you allow topless bathing in swimming pools, but don't tolerate bare skin at a folk festival, that's schizophrenic." He probably said the thing about the bare skin, the real one, not the painted one, because in the beer tents it happens again and again with advanced disinhibition that women dancing on the tables voluntarily get rid of their dirndl tops. Whether such behavior is action art has not even begun to be discussed. How the Greens intend to put an end to these activities is an exciting question. It should be answered before the election is held five days after the end of the Oktoberfest in Bavaria.