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For King Ludwig I of Bavaria, she was "The fairest in my realm": the young Auguste Strobl from Munich. She was the favourite among all the beauties from all walks of life whose charms inspired Ludwig's poetic outpourings. Lovingly she looks at her admirer - then, and still today. Now her portrait adorns the pewter-lid edition of this year's Oktoberfest beer mug created by Rastal, to the delight of collectors throughout the world - thus further increasing the number of Augustes admirers. Hold on tight. Slowly the car is pulled upwards, into the deep blue night, past stars and comets. At the highest point , the car pauses for a moment. Then suddenly, almost in free fall, it drops into the depths, down into a colourful sea of lights and shoots again upwards, like a flash of lightning through two spirals. Close your eyes and don't look down, when you are upside down in an exhilarating loop. No words can really describe the feeling of weightlessness, so breathtaking is looping. The roller coaster guarantees that ultimate dizzying kick. What makes one shudder is another's cloud nine. Up and down at high speed - for some of us, love is a roller coaster feeling. That's why the young Munich designer Jochen Steglich (born 1979) decided on the double bow as the motif for this year's Oktoberfest poster - and won the poster competition with it. His design does not only adorn the Oktoberfest poster, it is also the decoration motif on the official Oktoberfest collectors' beer mug for the year 2005 created by Rastal. With waving hair and racing pulse two pairs whizz through the spirals of the roller coaster, tracing a colourful heart in a night sky. The roller coaster is truly one of the most exciting fairground rides at the Oktoberfest. Although amusement parks all over the world strive to out-do each other with more and more spectacular roller coasters, one record held by the Munich Oktoberfest is indisputable: in 1909 the showman Max Stehbeck presented the world's first transportable "Figure-of-8" roller coaster at the Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest collectors' beer mug is produced as always by Rastal with great skill and care. Rastal's own tradition is commitment. The clay for the "Keferloher" comes from "Country of the Pot Bakers" in the Westerwald region, where Rastal is based.
The "Keferloher" is still produced today in the Westerwald, athough its name refers to a small village near Munich called Keferloh which itself was never the production site of the mugs. But in Keferloh a famous cattle market used to take place, where as long ago as the early 19th century many thirsty people gathered who drank their beer from cylindrical mugs without lids. Ergo "Keferloher". The clay for the Keferloher was discovered however in the "Country of the Pot Bakers" in the Rhineland, which is why today Rastal is the leading producer of these beer mugs in Germany.
Those who take home the Oktoberfest collectors' beer mug as souvenir will be pleased to know that this mug with its simple shape has remained unchanged for over one hundred years and is formed with dedication and care. After all, it has to go through many hands before it is perfectly finished. Each handle, made of mouldable clay, is attached to the body of the mug by hand. This process is called "handleing" in the language of the makers. After the "handleing" the joins are in their turn cleaned and smoothed by hand with a sponge. Well-dried, the "blank" receives its ceramic glazing in a dip tank. In a so-called "muffle oven" it is then baked at around 1,100 ° Celsius, becoming as hard as stone and absolutely impermeable. The baking process gives the collectors' mug at the same time its typical silky shine. In the next step in the work the decoration is applied by hand. In this stage a very accurate eye and high degree of skill are demanded, as is also in "lining" when the painter applies by hand the blue line around the base of the mug: the decoration and the line must be exactly placed . The mug is then slid into the oven for the last time and baked so that the decoration and mug become inseparably combined. The much sought-after Oktoberfest collectors' beer mug is available in two versions: with and without pewter lid. The pewter-lid edition of the Oktoberfest mug offered by Rastal this year bears the portrait of a "Munich Beauty" from the constellation of the connoisseur King Ludwig I of Bavaria: the choice was Auguste Strobl, daughter of the Royal Bavarian Accountant General Strobl, whose portrait painting was commissioned by the Bavarian king for his gallery of beauties in 1827. Beer lovers, Munich fans and dedicated guardians of tradition can purchase the Oktoberfest collectors' beer mug for 11 euros - with pewter lid it costs 25 euros - during the Oktoberfest in the festival tents and from the souvenir sellers. |
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