Happy Birthday!
The festival management, medical service, police, safe space for girls and women, lost property office, consumer protection, Stadtwerke München, Oktoberfest press office, breastfeeding room, disabled toilet and a few more services have been located in the Servicezentrum Theresienwiese (SZT).
Control centre for the largest and safest folk festival in the world
With a main usable area of 1982 square metres, it has been too small for the more than 400 people who work here during the Oktoberfest for years. In addition, there are thousands of guests, stand owners, carousel operators, publicans and journalists who come here looking for information, help and support.
"At the SZT, we have to work very closely together, but the atmosphere is still great. Everything has to go hand in hand here to organise the biggest and safest folk festival in the world," says Wiesn boss Clemens Baumgärtner, Head of Labour and Economic Affairs.
The SZT is a very special place at the western end of Matthias-Pschorr-Straße and is often underestimated. Apart from the many offices and the associated staff that are housed inside, it is an object of art. Berlin architect Volker Staab describes his building as a copper ingot that rests on the ground and patinates over time to visually blend in with the gravel and meadow areas of the Theresienwiese.
Photo gallery: The service centre on the Theresienwiese
Honoured with the German Façade Award in 2004
After just one year of construction, the building was inaugurated in summer 2004, replacing the 108 containers in which the employees were previously housed. The service centre is 84 metres long, 4 metres high and 25 metres wide. In 2004, the City of Munich received the German Façade Award for this functional and unconventional building. Around 20 employees from the Department of Labour and Economic Affairs and Stadtwerke München work in a small part of the building all year round.
