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Oktoberfest reveals official beer mug of 2015

As work begins to pitch the tents and stock the bars for Oktoberfest in Munich, the festival organizers gathered on Tuesday to present the official litre mug that will grace the hands of visitors this year.

Published: 18 August 2015 16:04 CEST
Oktoberfest reveals official beer mug of 2015
This lady will have to up her game if she wants to be a credible beer server at Oktoberfest. Photo: DPA

The limited-edition Maßkrug, bearing a colourful inscription reading “Oktoberfest”, was presented in the Hacker-Pschorr Tent by Toni Roiderer, the long-time spokesman for the festival, and comedian André Hartmann.

The Oktoberfest, the world's largest folk festival, will last from September 19th to October 4th.

There has been controversy this year as organizers announced that a litre of beer will cost more than €10 for the first time ever.

Tent owners say that it's down to Germany's new minimum wage laws, which mean that staff can't work as many hours over the two weeks of the festival and more have to be hired to cover all the shifts.

Earlier this year, tent operators were accused of under-reporting the amount of beer sold at festivals in recent years by over as much as a million litres, hoping to preserve the event's family-friendly image.

SEE ALSO: Six million beers, 720 arrests, 48 lost kids

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MUNICH

Four injured as WWII bomb explodes near Munich train station

Four people were injured, one of them seriously, when a World War II bomb exploded at a building site near Munich's main train station on Wednesday, emergency services said.

Published: 1 December 2021 16:41 CET
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich.
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Privat

Construction workers had been drilling into the ground when the bomb exploded, a spokesman for the fire department said in a statement.

The blast was heard several kilometres away and scattered debris hundreds of metres, according to local media reports.

Images showed a plume of smoke rising directly next to the train tracks.

Bavaria interior minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild that the whole area was being searched.

Deutsche Bahn suspended its services on the affected lines in the afternoon.

Although trains started up again from 3pm, the rail operator said there would still be delays and cancellations to long-distance and local travel in the Munich area until evening. 

According to the fire service, the explosion happened near a bridge that must be passed by all trains travelling to or from the station.

The exact cause of the explosion is unclear, police said. So far, there are no indications of a criminal act.

WWII bombs are common in Germany

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about WWII bomb disposals in Germany

However, most bombs are defused by experts before they explode.

Last year, seven World War II bombs were found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs were also defused in Cologne and Dortmund last year.

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

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