History Main / Oktoberfest

* A scene in ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' caused unintended hilarity in German cinemas, when it showed a tiny South German village[[note]]Specifically, they used Gengenbach, in Baden-Württemberg[[/note]] fitting the trope and subtitled it "Düsseldorf, Germany" - the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, a completely different region, which is known for its huge urban sprawl.

** The subtitle in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' says "Düssel''heim''". Nevertheless, the town has a distinct Bavarian look. Which is ironic, since most of the movie (including all city scenes) were shot in and around UsefulNotes/Munich, essentially making all locations a subtle case of this.

** The subtitle in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' says "Düssel''heim''". Nevertheless, the town has a distinct Bavarian look. Which is ironic, since most of the movie (including all city scenes) were shot in and around Munich, essentially making all locations a subtle case of this.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Tovar Colonia Tovar]] is a quintessential German alpine village, with timbered homes high-topped roofs... in the middle of Venezuela.

* At a cruder level, there are interminable German student songs, invariably about imbibing huge quantities of beer (''Im Schwarzen Walfisch'', ''Krambambuli'' et al), generally sung at the Kneipe, which is a sort of Oktoberfest organised by ultra-conservative German student fencing (Mensur, a crude summary would be fencing standing still, with sharp sabres, and no head protection beyond goggles. The aim is to take hits silently) Corps.

This has partly to do with the fact that many American units were assigned the southern part of Germany as their occupation zone at the end of WW II and as such most of their military personnel took their experiences of bucolic Bavaria as the archetype of all things German back home. Hollywood and TV then ran with this selective memory. [[note]] A British joke about post-[=WW2=] occupation is "The French got the wine. The Russians got the women. The Americans got the scenery. '''We''' got the rubble.[[/note]] Another contributing factor is that a significant portion of the German immigrants to America came from the rural regions of Southern and Eastern Germany - notably Bavaria. To this day one will find German Americans proudly operating [[TheGoodOldDays traditional]] Biergartens and breaking out the Lederhosen, steins, sausage, polka, and sauerkraut at any opportunity, much to the chagrin of any modern Germans trying to shed exactly this folksy image. While the intention is an honest celebration of their heritage, it can reach a point of MisaimedFandom and SelfParody at times, similar to the enthusiasm of those of [[{{Oireland}} Oirish]] [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora descent]].

If you're in a modern nightclub, expect to it to be a strange one involving a lot of [[BondageIsBad leather]]. [[GermanicDepressives And possibly nihilism]].[[note]][[Film/TheBigLebowski We believe in nothing]]![[/note]]

* The Berlin level of ''Tony Hawk's Underground 2'' is styled in this way, featuring a bombed out wall section and drunk men in lederhosen.

* German StreetFighter character Hugo has a stage in ''SF 3: 2nd Impact'' that sums this up perfectly.

* ''Unborn Tomorrow'', a short story by Creator/MackReynolds. An EccentricMillionaire wants a private eye to locate a time traveler from the future and get the secret of eternal life. He believes such time travelers would go to the {{Oktoberfest}}, where everyone would be too drunk to notice anything strange about them. The private eye's secretary is surprised when her boss curtly turns down this chance to get drunk on someone else's money. The private eye explains that he's already taken the assignment three times, and each time the time travelers sent him back to this point in the time line, with a massive hangover from drinking too much German beer. There's no way he's getting another hangover piled on top of the previous three, not for any amount of money!

* In ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Heffer joins a cult that is all about schnitzel. (To the point where they consider any other foodstuff, including pizza ''with sausage on it'' to be an abomination.) They all wear lederhosen, and the women wear their hair in braids.

* Well... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest the Oktoberfest]], [[CaptainObvious rea]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin lly]]. And '''''no''''', [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness it neither celebrates beer nor does it celebrate the fact that it's October as modern days knew]]. It celebrates the jubilee of the 1810 wedding of the Bavarian Prince Ludwig I (later King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the grandfather of UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria) and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on the same spot, just outside the city limits of UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} (in 1810, that was, as the city engulfed it. Nowadays, it's in the city centre). Not that it would be an easy task to find any German who knows this.

* Well... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest the Oktoberfest]], [[CaptainObvious rea]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin lly]]. And '''''no''''', it neither celebrates beer nor does it celebrate the fact that it's October. It celebrates the jubilee of the 1810 wedding of the Bavarian Prince Ludwig I (later King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the grandfather of UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria) and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on the same spot, just outside the city limits of UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} (in 1810, that was, as the city engulfed it. Nowadays, it's in the city centre). Not that it would be an easy task to find any German who knows this.

* ''Unborn Tomorrow'' by Creator/MackReynolds. An EccentricMillionaire hires a PrivateEye to look for time travelers at the Oktoberfest, figuring that they'd be less conspicuous in a place where everyone was a stranger and drunk. To his secretary's surprise, the private eye abruptly turns down the job, revealing afterwards that he's already taken the job, got stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop thanks to the time travelers and is therefore suffering the cumulative affects of several hangovers.

* ''Unborn Tomorrow'' by Creator/MackReynolds. An EccentricBillionaire hires a PrivateEye to look for time travelers at the Oktoberfest, figuring that they'd be less conspicuous in a place where everyone was a stranger and drunk. To his secretary's surprise, the private eye abruptly turns down the job, revealing afterwards that he's already taken the job, got stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop thanks to the time travelers and is therefore suffering the cumulative affects of several hangovers.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the human population of {{Uberwald}} is pretty much this trope. ''Quaffing''[[note]]spilling whilst swinging the mug woidly[[/note]] of beer from ornate ceramic mugs with badly secured lids, whilst singing jolly songs like ''Ich bin ein Rattedarschedschwein'', is a RunningGag

* In the ''Series/StarTrek:DeepSpaceNine'' episode ''The Maquis, Part 1'', Benjamin Sisko is visited by his old friend Calvin Hudson. They reminisce about the time when they were stationed together in the New Berlin colony, and comment about how they looked like in lederhosen. Lederhosen in the New Berlin colony make about as much sense as ten-gallon Stetsons in the New Boston colony, but never mind.

This has partly to do with the fact that many American units were assigned the southern part of Germany as their occupation zone at the end of WW II and as such most of their military personnel took their experiences of bucolic Bavaria as the archetype of all things German back home. Hollywood and TV then ran with this selective memory. [[note]] A British joke about post-[=WW2=] occupation is "The French got the wine. The Russians got the women. the Americans got the scenery. '''We''' got the rubble.[[/note]] Another contributing factor is that a significant portion of the German immigrants to America came from the rural regions of Southern and Eastern Germany - notably Bavaria. To this day one will find German Americans proudly operating [[TheGoodOldDays traditional]] Biergartens and breaking out the Lederhosen, steins, sausage, polka, and sauerkraut at any opportunity, much to the chagrin of any modern Germans trying to shed exactly this folksy image. While the intention is an honest celebration of their heritage, it can reach a point of MisaimedFandom and SelfParody at times, similar to the enthusiasm of those of [[{{Oireland}} Oirish]] [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora descent]].

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Nine}}'', though set in Italy, provides a taste of this flavor with the number "The Germans At The Spa."

* The Griswalds from ''NationalLampoon's European Vacation'' go to Germany to meet their German relatives, [[spoiler:except they weren't]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3c85f2a6a4c1c666ceffc676881cb2f4.png]]]]

Of course, many foreign authors discover there is more than one region of Germany. Sadly these "discoveries" tend to include regions like the [[TheLostWoods Black Forest]] where they grow cuckoo clocks, [[Creator/TheBrothersGrimm fairy tales]], and gingerbread houses. In UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}, of course, the men are all {{Badass Longcoat}}s who have [[PuttingOnTheReich crew cuts, monocles, duelling scars and interrogation sessions that start with "Vays off makink you talk"]], while of course, their DistaffCounterpart TheBaroness is happy to assist. Oddly, while the stigmatic association with swastikas and blitzkrieg is fading as time progresses, this archetype seems to be [[MemeticMutation morphing]] into an image of [[GermanicEfficiency tight-laced]] [[GermanicDepressives basketcases]], {{Goth}}s, and fascistic {{Dominatrix}}es who frequent badly lit discotheques blaring ElectronicMusic, and their ways of making you talk consists of [[MostCommonSuperpower the baroness]] enacting unspeakable bondage, domination and sadomasochism. But [[CulturedWarrior be prepared to listen to a detailed history]] of UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany before ''[[ThoseWackyNazis they]]'' went and ruined it for everyone.

In Germany, everyone is fat, constantly [[GermanPeculiarities drunk on beer]], dressed in lederhosen suspenders, eats nothing but sausages and pretzels, and gets totally ticked off [[Series/FawltyTowers whenever somebody mentions]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII The War]]. If you're lucky, you might get a mention of more recent events - such as the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff David Hasselhoff]].

* Despite being Japanese, ''Manga/{{Monster}}'' complete averts it and is actually one of the most realistic portrayals of the UsefulNotes/{{Bonn}} and UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic in non-German fiction. It even deals with the difficulties of [[EastGermany east German]] officials integrating into a new society that [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell regards their former government as criminals]], which is quite difficult to explain to outsiders.

* Despite being Japanese, ''Manga/{{Monster}}'' complete averts it and is actually one of the most realistic portrayals of the [[WestGermany Bonn]] and UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic in non-German fiction. It even deals with the difficulties of [[EastGermany east German]] officals integrating into a new society that [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell regards their former government as criminals]], which is quite difficult to explain to outsiders.

** The subtitle in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' says "Düssel''heim''". Nevertheless, the town has a distinct Bavarian look. Which is ironic, since the entire movie (including all city scenes) was shot in and around Munich, essentially making all locations a subtle case of this.

** The subtitle in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' says "Düssel''heim''". Nevertheless, the town has a distinct Bavarian look.