Muenchener Kindl

 

If Munich was a cute young lady it would be

the Muenchener Kindl

First a monk, then a boy, then a gender-neutral child, a girl, and finally a young woman on a horse leading the way to Oktoberfest.

The Münchner Kindl sure has evolved since it first appeared on Munich's coat-of-arms over 800 years ago.
The symbol stems from Munich's first inhabitants, an order of monks who lived around the St Peter's Church in Munich's centre.

BEER KID: The Münchner Kindl featured on a 1900 postcard from the Hofbräuhaus.

The original coat-of-arms is more or less unchanged, a black-and-yellow-robed monk holding a book in one of his outstretched hands.

But through the centuries the Kindl has taken dozens
of different incarnations, including many where the book is given up for a much more appetizing mug of beer and a radish.

Some speculate the Kindl was the inspiration for the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, which makes sense.

Keep your eyes open and you'll see the coat-of-arms everywhere in Munich - on trams and underground trains, manhole covers, beer steins, at the very top of the Neues Rathaus tower and, of course, the Destination Munich banner.

NEW KID: Munich's Stefanie Krätz in Muenchener Kindl robes. Pic: CC fourme

A young Munich woman traditionally dons the robes to play the role of the Kindl at two events for Munich's Oktoberfest:

1. The Einzug der Festwirte (Grand entryof the Oktoberfest Landlords and Breweries) on the first day.

2. The Trachten - und Schützenumzug (The Costume und Riflemen's Procession) on the second day.

She sits "high to horse" and is followed by a few carriages carrying Munich's lord mayor and other honchos.





Since 2006 (and again in 2009) the Kindl will be played by 19-year-old Stefanie Krätz, the daughter of Sepp Krätz, the proprietor of the Hippodrom beer tent, which well explains how she landed the job.

In 2009 the Kindl also participated in the opening of the Munich asparagus season along with, funnily enough, the Bavarian Asparagus Queen. Which goes to show that Munichites love their stalk vegetables just as much as their traditions.

LEADING THE WAY: Krätz as the Muenchener Kindl at the head of a procession to the Oktoberfest.© Eraffe

Here's a YouTube video of the opening of the Munich asparagus season (Spargelanstich).
Standing next to the Muenchener Kindl is the 34th Schrobenhausen Asparagus Queen (Spargelkönigin) Sabrina Kaierle.
Schrobenhausen, a small Bavarian town north of Munich, is the centre of the state's asparagus-growing region.

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