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German heritage looms large in Cincinnati
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Oompah bands push their brass instruments to the limit as a group of locals sporting lederhosen and dirndl dresses raise their beer steins to loud cheers.
It could be a scene from Bavaria but instead it is in the US heartland city of Cincinnati, which celebrated one of the largest Oktoberfest events outside of Munich last weekend.
The dressing-up and beer drinking is not all for show: this midwestern city has authentic German roots hidden in a neighborhood called Over-the-Rhine, which is slowly recovering from decades of poverty, urban decay and racial tensions.
“Cincinnati has a rich, deep culture related to Germany,” Pat Sheeran from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce said. The city’s Oktoberfest breathes “the spirit of Germany from a food standpoint, from a beer standpoint, from the way people dress,” Sheeran said.
Although only a minority of the German immigrants who settled in the United States actually came from Bavaria, Oktoberfest is widely seen as the quintessential Teutonic event.
“I think it goes back to the post-World War II era, when Bavaria was the occupation zone for the US army,” Don Tolzmann, author of several books on German-American history, said.
While the image of Germany was scarred by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, many US soldiers brought back positive memories and sometimes even a Bavarian wife.
“German-Americans supported it, regardless of whether they were Bavarian or not,” Tolzmann said.
“They saw this as a positive way to help revitalize and rebuild their heritage.”
‘America’s Oktoberfest’
At Cincinnati’s Oktoberfest, some 650,000 people flock to the main downtown thoroughfare where nine festival tents, beer gardens and numerous food stands transform the area for three days into a little Bavaria.
Organizers say this is the second-largest Oktoberfest outside of Munich, even though cities in Brazil and China also claim this title.
Visitors are expected to guzzle down some 2,000 barrels of beer, eat more than 23,000 pretzels, and devour more than 100,000 sausages.
But certain features could raise a few eyebrows among guests from the Old Continent, such as deep fried sauerkraut and a culinary creation named German nachos.
“That’s the American spin on it,” Sheeran said. “We call ourselves America’s Oktoberfest. And we do unusual things.”
A race of dachshunds outfitted in a hot dog bun costume, for example.
Many Americans associate the short-legged, long-bodied dogs with Germany, and their sausage-like shape inspired the nickname “wieners.”
The dachshunds run down a racetrack in downtown Cincinnati while their owners try to lure them to the finish line.
“My wife Jodi and I have German heritage and we love Oktoberfest,” Cincinnati resident Henry Stacey said, proudly holding the winning wiener Max in his arms.
US census figures show that more than 46 million Americans trace their roots back to German families, making German-Americans the largest ethnic group by national ancestry in the United States.
Immigrants from German-speaking states ventured across the Atlantic mostly in the 19th and early 20th century, seeking political freedom and economic opportunities, and many settled in Midwestern cities like Milwaukee, St Louis and Cincinnati.
“Probably half of the population of the Cincinnati area has German ancestry,” Tolzmann said.
“And in the 19th century, they were concentrating in Over-the-Rhine.”
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