Ethnologist Gerade Möhler questioned this legend of the bottom-up founding of the Oktoberfest in her dissertation for three reasons:

1. Chronological inconsistence: Not only would the king’s approval within three days have been extraordinarily quick and curiously, invitations were already printed and given to dignitaries one day early. Also, the costumes, children wore at the festival, probably had to be specifically produced, which is at least ambitious ins such short time.

2. Baumgartner is said to have brought his idea forward while exercising with the national guard. As they were not planned to be part of the celebrations except for the horse race, the question arises, why the national guard exercised in September, if not for the horse race?

3. Dall’Armi motivates the festival in his submission with the advancement of the Bavarian horse breeding. Opposed to that, the horse race was eventually not mainly performance-oriented, though.

Consequently, Möhler is sceptic, if the Oktoberfest really accidentally developed from a horse. It seems rather realistic that the young kingdom was prescribed a national festival in order to give the royal family a possibility to present itself as such.

The Race Day

The celebrations of October 17, 1810 began in the Bürgersaal in the city center with a mass. Afterwards, the national guard and the regular military divisions accompanied the wedding party to the still nameless Theresienwiese, where a procession of 16 children couples in different traditional costumes started the event. After a choir performance of students of the “Feiertagsschule”, the awaited horse race was finally about to start.