Munich parties clash over Teufelsrad clothing changes

Munich’s Green and CSU groups are criticising the city’s equality office over clothing changes to figures on the Teufelsrad, even though both parties reportedly supported recommendations behind the changes, BR reported.

The dispute concerns the figures mounted on the outside of the ride’s tent at Munich’s Theresienwiese, the Oktoberfest grounds. The figures have sat laughing on a stylised devil’s wheel for decades. This year, however, they show considerably less skin than they have over the past 80 years: one figure now wears a tight-fitting yellow dress instead of a bikini, while two other female figures have been given leggings.

The Teufelsrad has been part of the Oktoberfest since 1908. Riders try to stay on a rotating disc for as long as possible while spectators laugh and the announcer provides Bavarian-style commentary.

The new clothing is said to have followed a recommendation from the city’s equality office. Munich’s CSU council group accused the office of going too far in its criticism of the historic figures. The Greens also questioned the redesign. Munich’s second deputy mayor, Mona Fuchs of the Greens, called for greater proportion, while Green councillor Anja Berger said the changes were excessive. The CSU said the city council should be involved in future decisions of such significance.

Stefan Jagel, leader of the Left’s council group, said the council had already dealt with the issue. In 2023, the council’s equality commission unanimously agreed to recommend that fairground operators remove racist and sexist depictions from their rides, he said. Members of the CSU and Greens also supported the recommendation.

The issue was also discussed by the cross-party working group on Oktoberfest matters, known as IFAK, which followed the recommendation, Jagel said. The equality office was therefore only implementing decisions taken by the council in two bodies, he argued. He accused the CSU and Greens of concealing this and said it was an affront to the equality office and the city administration.

Former SPD councillor Micky Wenngatz, who chaired the equality commission at the time, also expressed anger. During a tour of the Oktoberfest grounds before the festival opened in 2023, the commission had examined the rides and unanimously concluded that some depictions were sexist or racist, she said. The tour formed the basis of the recommendation. Wenngatz said she was disappointed that the Greens, who otherwise presented themselves as a feminist force, were not mentioning this.

The Green council group told BR that Berger was not yet a member of the equality commission in 2023. At the time, the commission had developed general criteria to prevent sexist depictions at the Oktoberfest, which the party still considers appropriate. However, each ride must be assessed individually and the criteria applied with proportion, the Greens said. That had not happened in the Teufelsrad case, they argued. The city council must be involved in future redesigns of Oktoberfest rides, the party said.

Fuchs defended the city’s equality office, saying it made an indispensable contribution to women and girls in Munich. She said the numerous cases of upskirting at the Teufelsrad were more important than how much skin a figure showed. Women had been filmed under their skirts without their consent, she said, and this had to be prevented in future. The dispute over the figures’ clothing was focusing on the wrong issue, Fuchs argued.