Students, faculty and community members spoke in English and German alike as they tried traditional sausages, soft pretzels and other snacks at the Oktoberfest gathering.
The German language department hosted its first Oktoberfest on Oct. 6, inviting guests to celebrate the German festival and eat different snacks.
Refika Sarıönder Kreinath, a Wichita State lecturer in German who organized the event, said that Oktoberfest is a regional festival in Munich, Germany, and started in celebration of a prince’s marriage in 1810. It later became a traditional festival and now features food, music and beer tents.
Oktoberfest is now celebrated at various dates in September and October; this year, it lasted from Sept. 6 to Oct. 3.
Kreinath hoped the event would enable German language students to explore the culture. She gave a brief overview of Oktoberfest and invited other German community members to share their experiences.
Christa Wallin, a Wichita community member originally from Nuremberg, Germany, said while Oktoberfest is local, each town celebrates on a smaller scale on their own day, featuring music and entertainment.
“It also depends on the area. The more north you go, you have like wine fests, and in the south, you have the beer fests,” Wallin said.
Instead of beer, the Wichita State event provided Apfelschorle, a German soft drink that mixes apple juice and carbonated water.
Holger Meyer, a Wichita State physics professor, said because he was from northern Germany, he doesn’t really celebrate Oktoberfest, but while in high school, his class visited Munich to join the festivities.
“I can’t imagine how my teachers decided to take a bunch of adolescents to Munich during Oktoberfest. But that’s what they did, and we had a blast, of course,” Meyer said.
Meyer said that while the beer at Oktoberfest isn’t “up to the usual standard” due to the increased amount made for the influx of tourists, the festival lets people meet others from around the globe.
“I think it’s neat that, you know, you can just meet people from different backgrounds, and everybody … just can very easily talk with somebody,” Meyer said.
Fluent in German, Kansas State graduate Elena Davidson is in the same German community group as Kreinath and was invited to come. She exchanged conversations in English and German with other attendees.
Davidson said Oktoberfest isn’t a cultural tradition for her family, who is from Berlin.
“So we celebrate it similarly to Americans, just enjoying the dressing up. I have a dirndl (traditional dress) I bought from a church rummage sale, and so I like wearing that,” Davidson said.
Kreinath said that after the Oktoberfest celebration, she plans to host monthly coffee sessions for German language students, another German cultural tradition, starting in December.
