MUNICH, Germany -- The Chicken Dance, floral arrangements and enormous pretzels, between skyscrapers and glass fa?ades - it's the spirit of Munich on the Ohio River.
Since 1976 the citizens of Cincinnati have crowded a two-block area downtown to celebrate the annual "Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati." More than half a million people take part each year in the festivities in Munich's sister city.
They drink Bavarian beer (last year there was Erdinger and Spatenbr?u on tap) and brass bands play traditional folk music.
"It's nice to see that my culture is so cherished," said Carolin Perger, a master's student at the University of Munich, who spent a semester abroad at the University of Cincinnati in 2007.
But what does it mean to be German in Cincinnati? In 1994, 48,000 convivial beer-drinkers took part in the world's largest organized Chicken Dance - with the help of the late Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig Karl Maria von Bayern.
"This 'Chicken Dance' is considered more German in Cincinnati than [the Germans] know - it is the symbol of Germany," Perger said.
Munich's ties to Cincinnati date back almost two hundred years, as King Ludwig I still reigned Bavaria. As Ohio's fourth largest city was founded in 1788, many of the newly immigrated citizens had Bavarian roots. They also belonged to a Catholic church that was heavily burdened with debt, according to Gabriele H?ber, the mayoral contact person in Munich for its sister city Cincinnati.
In 1828, the King called the "Ludwig-Missionsverein" to life to complete missionary work in North America. With the approval of the Bavarian monarch, the Catholics in Cincinnati received munificent financial support.
The German-rooted citizens in America did not forget the generosity of their overseas counterparts, and donated large sums of money after World War II for the reconstruction of Munich's two largest churches that had been destroyed - the Church of Our Lady and St. Peter's Church.
But it would still take nearly four decades and many failed attempts before an official sister city alliance was formed in 1989.
Today, both cities' mayors meet almost exclusively during festivities. Last summer, the mayor of Cincinnati, Mark Mallory, came to Germany to celebrate Munich's 850th birthday. Representatives from Munich's six other sister cities, Verona, Bordeaux, Harare, Sapporo, Kiev and Edinburgh, were also there.
But the two cities have developed a friendship on more than just a mayoral level - exchange programs have existed for students, teachers, and lawyers.
H?ber emphasized the importance of such relationships. "The provincial capital Munich sees city partnerships as a - perhaps small at first sight, yet still very important - contribution toward a larger, common goal: peace and friendship between all the peoples of the world."
Munich-Cincinnati. An ocean, more than five thousand miles and eight thousand kilometers lie between the Bavarian metropolis and the "King of the West," as the city of 300,000 inhabitants, whose name originates from a Roman military commander, is also known.
In Giesing, a district within Munich, there's a Cincinnati Street. Perger also discovered numerous Bavarian traditions upheld in Cincinnati: In addition to the Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati, she visited a veal sausage breakfast sponsored by the H?ndlmaier Mustard Club, and she even marched in a parade during the Starkbier (strong ale) season - a time when monks would brew their beers longer to maximize calories during their fasting for Lent.
"My host father dressed me up as the Münchner Kindl," Perger said, referencing a figure of a young monk that has developed over the years into Munich's mascot. "Then I marched with an oversized pretzel and posed for the Cincinnati press."
Typical Bavarian.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
