What Oktoberfest teaches us: nobody binge-drinks with more discipline than the Germans.
The Germans are famous for precision: trains that arrive to the minute, cars engineered to survive the apocalypse, and grammar that requires three nouns and a forklift to move around. And yet their most beloved cultural export — Oktoberfest — was born out of something wildly un-German: a party that got out of hand.
In 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese. The city of Munich, desperate to prove it could throw a wedding reception better than Aunt Gertrude, invited the entire population to a five-day celebration. There were horse races, music, and beer flowing like a busted fire hydrant. The people enjoyed it so much that they said, “Let’s do it again next year!” And thus, Oktoberfest began
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