Teufelsrad separates from announcer after racist incident

The Devil's Wheel ride has parted ways with one of its new announcers. The background is an incident at the Oktoberfest on the second weekend of the folk festival, about which a visitor to the ride complained, according to the “Abendzeitung München”.

“The announcer called the girls between 13 and 17 to the target. A young man ran along,” the newspaper quotes from the woman’s complaint email. "The announcer then shouted: Abdul, no and Abdul, stop. He called him by a name that was supposed to match his appearance." The announcer then said: “This is what will happen if we continue with immigration like this.” And: “We have to be careful that he doesn’t bring his family with him next time.”

Jan Polaczy, husband of the operator Elisabeth Polaczy, spoke to the “Abendzeitung” about a “verbal derailment on the part of the commander.” Next year the speaker will no longer work for the Teufelsrad. Polaczy said they regretted the “irritation that this caused.” “We tested two new speakers because our veteran speaker Horst Herrmann unfortunately passed away.”

Even before this year's Oktoberfest began, the Devil's Wheel had caused a stir. On the one hand, the depictions of the figures above the entrance were criticized as sexist. As a result, three of the four characters were redesigned.

With around 7.4 million visitors, the Munich Oktoberfest set a new record this year. According to initial estimates, more guests than ever before were drawn to the world's largest folk festival on Theresienwiese on all 16 days up to and including Sunday, as the city of Munich announced. Last year there were a total of around 6.5 million.