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The history

From servants' festival to Munich tradition

How the free morning hours of cooks and menservants became a festival, why the authorities banned it in 1904, and how it came back in 1989.

Chapter I · The origin

The festival of those who had no festivals

The Kocherlball is not something the tourist office dreamed up. It tells of the people whose work kept the middle-class city running, and of the one hour that belonged to them.

Towards the end of the 19th century an army of domestic staff served in Munich: cooks, known as Kocherl, along with nursemaids, parlourmaids, maids and menservants. They almost never had time off, and certainly not in the evening. What they had were the early hours of summer Sundays, before the household woke.

So they met at dawn at the Chinese Tower. The gathering became a dance, and the dance became a festival. Between five and eight the brass band played, and on a good Sunday several thousand are said to have come. They talked, courted, laughed, and for once in the week nobody was watching from upstairs.

Chapter II · Ban and silence

1904: Stopped for ‘lack of propriety’

That freedom was the ball's undoing. In 1904 the authorities banned it, and the reason on record is ‘lack of propriety’. Servants dancing at dawn and courting one another with nobody keeping an eye on them did not fit the order of the day.

Then came 85 years of silence. The Chinese Tower stayed a beer garden, but Sunday mornings went back to business. The Kocherlball lived on only in stories.

  • 1880s

    Heyday

    Servants meet at the Chinese Tower on Sunday mornings from about 5 am, and dance.

  • 1904

    Ban

    Banned for ‘lack of propriety’. The ball disappears.

  • 1989

    Revival

    For the English Garden's 200th birthday the ball returns.

  • today

    Folk festival

    Every year on the third Sunday in July, with many thousands of guests in Tracht.

Chapter III · The return

1989: The tower dances again

In 1989 the English Garden turned 200, and for the anniversary the Kocherlball was brought back: the same place, the same early hour, the same dances. What was meant as an idea for a jubilee year became a habit again at once.

Today the ball is organised by Haberl Gastronomie, the family who run the beer garden at the Chinese Tower, with programme support from the City of Munich's Department of Arts and Culture. The dancing takes place every year on the third Sunday in July from 6 to 10 am, with no entry fee, and many thousands come, a fair number of them dressed as the servants once were. The festival of one class has become the festival of the whole city. It has kept faith with its origins all the same: it starts early, it happens outdoors, and it belongs to nobody.

Nobody knows exactly how many servants came. The City of Munich speaks of up to five thousand, older accounts of up to eight thousand. The scale is established; the number is not.

Questions about the history

In brief

Where does the name Kocherlball come from?
From ‘Kocherl’, the Bavarian word for the cook and, by extension, for the whole household staff. The ball was the servants' festival: cooks, nursemaids, maids and menservants.
Why was the Kocherlball banned in 1904?
Officially, for ‘lack of propriety’. Servants celebrating without supervision did not fit the order of the day.
Since when has the Kocherlball existed again?
Since 1989. The ball returned for the English Garden's 200th birthday, and it has been danced every year since on the third Sunday in July.
Why does the Kocherlball start so early?
Because the servants had only the hours before work to themselves. The early start is not folklore. It is the heart of the festival.

History you can dance

Every third Sunday in July, once again since 1989.

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