Theresienwiese

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bavaria statue above Theresienwiese

Map of Munich and Sendling with Theresienwiese, 1812

Theresienwiese is the official ground of the Munich Oktoberfest - a space of 420,000^[1] square meters limited in the west by a statue of a woman named Bavaria, symbolizing the Bavarian state, and in the east by a square named after the international language Esperanto.

The name of the site is derived from the name of Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen ^[2], the wife of Crown Prince Ludwig I. Their wedding took place on Theresienwiese in 1810. Since then, the Oktoberfest is celebrated every year to commemorate this event. In addition to the Oktoberfest, a spring festival and a winter festival ("Winter Tollwood") take place there as well. Every year in April, one of Germany's largest flea markets is also held there.

The site is located towards the southwest of the city centre. It has its own station on the Munich U-Bahn system, along the U4 and U5 lines. The nearest Munich S-Bahn station is Hackerbrücke or München Hauptbahnhof (Munich central station).

On July 4, 2006, Theresienwiese was host to a public screening of the Semi-final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup match in Dortmund, in which Germany played Italy, with many of the latter's fans attending. Despite the fact that Germany lost, there was a good atmosphere and the event passed without aggressive incidents.^{[citation needed]}