The Hofbräuhaus in Munich

The Hofbräuhaus in Munich, often spelled Hofbrauhaus in English, traces its history back to 1589. It began as the brewery of the Bavarian court, and for more than two centuries ordinary Munich residents could not drink there at all. Today it is a tavern with brass music, regulars' tables and a vault full of private beer steins. This guide covers the documented history, explains how the main hall works, and puts the Hofbräuhaus in the wider context of Munich beer halls.

Hofbräuhaus Munich: founded in 1589

According to the Hofbräuhaus, Duke Wilhelm V founded it on 27 September 1589, purely to keep the Bavarian court supplied with beer. The City of Munich explains the motive as a matter of cost: the court had been buying expensive beer from outside, including from Einbeck in Lower Saxony. Brewing started at the Alter Hof, the old ducal residence, and moved in 1607 to the plot the Hofbräuhaus occupies today.

Einbeck's strong beer found such favor at court that in 1612 one of the town's master brewers was recruited to Munich. In Munich dialect, the city notes, Ainpöck gradually became Bock, the name still used for strong beer today. More on that style in our guides to Doppelbock and German beer types.

The house likes to tell a story from the Thirty Years' War. When Swedish troops besieged Munich on 17 May 1632, the price the city paid to be spared included 23,168 liters of Hofbräu beer, about 6,100 US gallons.

1828: a tavern for everyone

The decisive step came under King Ludwig I, who in 1828 allowed the Hofbräuhaus to serve food and drink to the public. The house links this to the Oktoberfest, since the same Ludwig had married Therese in 1810, the wedding that started the festival; read the full story in our Oktoberfest guide. Since 1852 the Bavarian state has owned the house, which explains its official name, Staatliches Hofbräuhaus. Success brought imitators who put the letters HB on their own products, so in 1879 "HB" was registered as a trademark.

The 1896 to 1897 rebuild and the twentieth century

By the late nineteenth century the Platzl was too small for both brewery and guests. Beer was brewed there for the last time on 22 May 1896, and the brewery moved to Haidhausen, where the Hofbräukeller stands today. The architect Max Littmann designed the neo-Renaissance building that replaced the old brewhouse, and the new Schwemme, the main beer hall, opened on 9 February 1897, on the very spot where the beer had been brewed. Since 1988 Hofbräu has brewed in the Riem district; no beer is made at the Hofbräuhaus itself.

The building also has a dark chapter. On 24 February 1920, at a mass meeting attended by about 2,000 people, the German Workers' Party presented its program and took the new name National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). The German Historical Museum describes this as the party's first mass event, at a time when Bavaria was the center of far-right agitation against the Weimar Republic. According to the city, the Nazis used the Hofbräuhaus for their annual party founding celebrations from 1934. Air raids in 1945 destroyed the building except for the Schwemme, and reconstruction was completed in 1958, in time for Munich's 800th anniversary.

Inside the Hofbräuhaus: Schwemme, hall and garden

The heart of the house is the Schwemme on the ground floor. Under its vaulted ceilings there is room for up to 1,300 guests, according to the Hofbräuhaus. Some tables have stood there since 1897, as the carved initials and names show. In the middle is a stage where bands play traditional tavern music daily, from noon to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 11:30 p.m. Only on Good Friday and All Saints' Day, two quiet public holidays in Bavaria, does the music pause.

Upstairs, the city lists a festival hall for about 1,500 people beneath a vaulted ceiling nine meters (30 feet) high, plus smaller rooms such as the Bräustüberl. The Wirtsgarten in the inner courtyard, with its lion fountain, is open in summer.

How seating and reservations work

In the Schwemme and the courtyard garden, seating is open: you simply join a table where there is space. Only the Bräustüberl on the first floor (the second floor in American terms) accepts reservations. Bringing your own food into the garden is not allowed. The courtyard is a served tavern garden, not a traditional self-service beer garden, where a packed picnic is part of the custom. The Hofbräuhaus does not handle reservations for the Hofbräu tent at the Oktoberfest; see our reservations guide.

Group tours of the building are arranged by Munich Tourism, with booking at least 72 hours ahead, while brewery tours take place at the brewery in Riem. Access is step-free via Bräuhausstrasse, with an elevator and accessible restrooms.

Regulars' tables and the beer stein vault

For all its fame among visitors, the Hofbräuhaus is rooted in the city. By its own count, more than 125 Stammtische, regulars' groups, meet here, with about 3,500 regulars: craftsmen, police officers, taxi drivers, airline captains and traditional costume clubs. Their symbol is the stein vault with 616 lockable compartments where regulars keep their own mugs. The compartments are not for sale; only regulars get one. More about the vessel itself is in our guide to the beer stein.

The most famous regular is fictional. In Ludwig Thoma's 1911 story Ein Münchner im Himmel (A Munich Man in Heaven), the porter Alois Hingerl dies, becomes the angel Aloisius and is sent back to earth with divine advice for the Bavarian government. His first stop is the Hofbräuhaus, where he orders one beer after another and forgets his errand. The government, the story says, is still waiting.

Munich beer halls beyond the Platzl

A Munich beer hall is less a type of building than a way of sitting together: long shared tables, liter mugs, a band and regulars' tables. The city describes the Hofbräuhaus as perhaps the world's best-known tavern, and its fame has traveled: according to the city, a licensed building modeled on it opened in Las Vegas in 2004. Its well-known song, by the way, is not from Munich: according to the city, the Berlin composer Wiga Gabriel wrote the music in 1935.

The brewery behind the Hofbräuhaus is one of the six Munich breweries allowed to serve at the Oktoberfest, alongside Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten, according to the festival's official portal. Their beer is poured in the big tents covered in our guide to the Oktoberfest tents. For the culture of the Munich tavern in general, see the German page on Wirtshauskultur, and for the brewery's history the page on Hofbräu München. A liter of beer is a lot, so pace yourself and enjoy it in moderation.

The Glockenspiel on Marienplatz is only about 500 meters (a third of a mile) away; the house names Marienplatz and Isartor, both served by S-Bahn trains and the U3 and U6 subway lines, as the nearest stops.