Munich · English Garden · since the 19th century
The Kocherlball at dawn
At six in the morning, while Munich still has its curtains drawn, the band at the Chinese Tower strikes up the first waltz. Cooks and farmhands once danced here in the only hour they could call their own. Now half the city comes, in Tracht, and nobody pays to get in.
Until the first note
Sunday, 18 July 2027, 6:00 am · Chinese Tower
Chapter I · The Tradition
The hour before duty
The Kocherlball is not something the tourist office dreamed up. It is a piece of Munich's social history, and it tells of people who otherwise had no festivals at all.
Towards the end of the 19th century an army of servants kept Munich's middle-class households running: cooks, nursemaids, maids, menservants. The cook was the ‘Kocherl’, and before long the word stretched to cover the whole household staff. Free evenings were unknown to these people. What they had were the summer Sundays between five and eight in the morning, before the bell rang upstairs. They spent those three hours in the English Garden, at the Chinese Tower.
The meeting became a dance, and the dance became an event. On a good Sunday several thousand servants are said to have come. They danced to brass music, talked, courted one another, and not one of their employers was there to watch.
That was precisely what the authorities could not abide. In 1904 they banned the ball, citing a ‘lack of propriety’. For the next 85 years, Sunday mornings at the tower went back to ordinary business. Only in 1989, for the English Garden's 200th birthday, was the Kocherlball brought back. It has been danced every year since on the third Sunday in July, and it still begins, as it always did, at six.
- 1880s
Origin
Servants meet at the Chinese Tower on Sunday mornings, before work begins, and dance.
- 1904
Ban
Banned for ‘lack of propriety’. Then 85 years of silence.
- 1989
Revival
For the English Garden's 200th birthday the ball returns.
- today
Custom
Every year on the third Sunday in July, with many thousands of guests in Tracht.
Impressions
The morning in pictures
Taken by our Stammtisch, which turns up early enough every year.
More pictures on Instagram: @chinesischerturm
Chapter II · The Programme
Four hours, one rhythm
The Kocherlball has no need of a printed programme. The band plays, people dance, and every so often the dance leaders on stage explain the figures for the group dances.
- from 4:00
The first arrivals
Long before sunrise the tables are half taken. The oldest rule of the beer garden applies: first come, first seated.
- 6:00
The first waltz
At six sharp the band begins. With the first waltz, the ball is open.
- 6:00 - 10:00
Open dancing
Waltz, polka, Zwiefacher, Landler. Those who want to dance, dance. Those who would rather watch, watch, and that too has a long tradition here.
- throughout
Group dances
The dance leaders explain the figures step by step. Nobody needs to know them in advance.
- towards the end
The Münchner Française
The high point: a figure dance in lines and squares, in which strangers take each other's hands and by the end are strangers no longer.
- 10:00
Close
At ten the ball is over, and the beer garden goes back to being a beer garden.
Chapter III · The Dances
What is danced is learnt on the spot
Nobody here has to dance well. Most of the dances can be explained in a few minutes, and the dance leaders call the figures from the stage in any case.
The foundation of every ball, turned at an unhurried pace and usually the first dance of the morning.
The Bavarian couple dance in even time, down to earth and with plenty of swing.
Switches mid-piece between Dreher and waltz. The Old Bavarian peculiarity by which the experts recognise one another.
Quick, easy to learn and hard to sit out.
A calm turning dance from the Alps, and one of the oldest played here.
The figure dance for the finale, in lines and squares, called from the stage.
Chapter IV · Tracht and Custom
What to wear and bring
Tracht
- Tracht is welcome but not required. Nobody is turned away.
- Dirndl, Lederhose, Janker, or simply your good Sunday clothes.
- Come in an apron or a linen shirt and you pay your respects to the servants who gave the ball its name.
- Firm shoes: the dancing is on gravel and grass.
- A jacket against the chill before sunrise.
Good to know
- No entry fee, no registration, no obligation to reserve.
- Children are welcome. The ball belongs to every generation.
- Food and drink are sold in the beer garden at the tower, and in the self-service area you may bring your own.
- A blanket or folding chair helps when the benches are full.
- In steady rain, plans can change at short notice.
Chapter V · Getting there
By bus, tram or bike, not by car
There is no parking at the Chinese Tower, and the English Garden is closed to cars. The best way in is by bicycle, or by bus and train. Early on a Sunday they run less often, so it is worth looking at the timetable the evening before.
Chinesischer Turm stop
Right at the tower. According to the city, lines 58, 68 and 154 stop there too.
Tivolistraße stop
From there, a short walk through the park.
Giselastraße stop
About ten minutes on foot through the English Garden.
Bicycle
For many, the finest way into the morning. Bikes can be left along the paths.
Chinese Tower · English Garden · 80538 Munich Open in maps
Chapter VI · Who writes this
The association at the tower
This site is written by Chinesischer Turm e.V., a Munich association that looks after the customs of the tower. For years our Stammtisch, the regulars' table, has sat at the long tables on the third Sunday in July, and it usually gets there early.
We do not organise the ball. It is organised by Haberl Gastronomie, the family who run the beer garden at the Chinese Tower; the City of Munich's Department of Arts and Culture supports the programme. We are guests like everyone else, though guests with long memories.
Here we set down what we know about the festival: where it comes from, what is danced and how best to take part. If on the day you notice a table of people in Tracht who have plainly been at breakfast since four, do wave.
Chapter VII · Questions
Common questions
When does the Kocherlball take place?
What does it cost to get in?
Do I have to reserve a table?
What should I wear?
Does the ball go ahead in the rain?
Can I learn to dance without any experience?
Are children and families welcome?
Where can I park?
Chapter VIII · In depth
More about the Kocherlball
For those who want to know more, each question has a page of its own.
Date, times and the rule of the third Sunday in July.
Why there are no tickets, and how to find a seat regardless.
What suits a July morning at six.
From the waltz to the Française, and where to practise beforehand.
Servants' festival, ban and return.
The morning at the tower in photographs, with a few notes on taking your own.
The ball of 19 July 2026.
Where else people dance into the morning: Bad Tölz, Abensberg, Osterhofen.
Evidence
Sources
- muenchen.de, offizielles Stadtportal: Kocherlball am Chinesischen Turm in München.
- Haberl Gastronomie, Biergarten am Chinesischen Turm: Kocherlball am Chinesischen Turm.
- Wikipedia: Kocherlball.
The third Sunday in July, at six
No ticket, no entry fee, no guest list. Just the early hour, the music and a city that forgets, for one morning, that it could have slept in.
Getting there