More than 360 guests gathered Oct. 19 at Guglielmo Winery for the fifth annual Oktoberfest celebration, raising funds for scholarships and local charities while enjoying authentic German cuisine and beer from an almost millennium-old Bavarian brewery.
The event, sponsored by the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus, featured traditional fare including Bavarian pork schnitzel, sauerkraut, German potatoes, pretzels, sausages and apple strudel. Entertainment was provided by “The Internationals,” the only American band to have performed twice at Munich, Germany’s renowned Oktoberfest.
Carl Reinhardt, chairman of the event committee, said the celebration typically generates $12,000-$15,000 annually for community causes.
“We donate it to scholarships, and also help by distributing food to the needy out of St. Catherine’s,” Reinhardt said. “So it all goes back to the community.”
The beer served at the event comes from Weltenburg Abbey in Kelheim, Germany, near Reinhardt’s birthplace of Regensburg, Bavaria. According to organizers, the abbey brewery has been in continuous operation since 1050, making it the oldest abbey brewery still functioning in the world.
Reinhardt imports the beer through a San Francisco distributor, maintaining a personal connection to his German heritage and the regional brewing traditions of his hometown.
“In my hometown, in Regensburg, there were two competing breweries,” Reinhardt recalled. “One was from the Bishop, and one was from the Prince. So what they did is they divided Regensburg down the middle and said, ‘Okay, you can go to the left, then I’ll go to the right.’”
This year’s event featured an authentic Oktoberfest beer, which occupies a midpoint between the light “Helle” and dark “Dunkel” lagers that are usually offered.
Planning for the annual celebration begins about two and a half months before the event, with about 12 committee members meeting weekly to coordinate volunteers, ticket sales and logistics. On event day, the operation requires about 80 Knights of Columbus members participating, with eight to 12 volunteers dedicated solely to beer service.
The event has grown significantly since its inception. The first year’s revelry was held at St. Catherine Parish with a capacity of 200 guests, but demand quickly exceeded the venue’s limitations.
“We started outgrowing that the very next year,” Reinhardt said. “And so now it’s become almost like a tradition. There’s more and more people that are repeat customers. They come, they like it and they buy tickets again.”
The origins of Oktoberfest trace back to a royal wedding celebration in early 19th-century Bavaria, when Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria married the princess of a neighboring duchy, Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
According to Reinhardt, the princess was originally intended to marry Napoleon Bonaparte, but the French emperor withdrew from the arrangement, and the princess married Ludwig instead. The couple celebrated their union with a grand public festival on the outskirts of Munich that lasted several weeks, and has continued to be celebrated annually for more than two centuries.
Despite its origins rooted in local Bavarian history, the festival has evolved into an international celebration of German culinary culture, with a particular emphasis on beer, that has won over the hearts and stomachs of folk from all across the world, especially Americans.
“This year, I just got the numbers from the Oktoberfest in Germany, there were 6.5 million (visitors) that were there,” Reinhardt said. “They determined the largest group was Americans, with more than 40 percent.”
The festival showcases Germany’s rich brewing heritage, with multiple breweries competing for the attention of attendees. Regional pride runs deep in German brewing culture, Reinhardt said, with nearly every town maintaining its own brewery and fiercely defending its product’s superiority, a tradition Reinhardt himself embraces by importing beer from the abbey near his birthplace.
“They have so many different breweries that kind of compete against each other,” he said. “Almost every town in Germany has their own brewery, and it’s very nationalistic. Everybody thinks their own brewery is the best one, just like I think this one (Weltenburg Abbey) is the best one. And so I bring that beer in, so I fall into that category, too.”
Proceeds from the Oktoberfest ticket and alcohol sales support local scholarships and charitable work through the Knights of Columbus organization.
Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill-based freelance writer.
