Hofbräuhaus am Platzl

Platzl 9, 80331 München

Grade B · Building datedTrading · checked Sept 2026

Hofbräuhaus am Platzl claims 1589. The records say 1828.

Claimed: 1589
First record: 1828
Building: c.1896

The building. Present building by Max Littmann, completed 1897 (rebuilt after war damage, completed 1958).

Pub website Directions

Beer hall
Brewery tap
Food
Beer garden
Live music

How old is it, really?

How to read this ribbon

Hatched: 239 years the pub claims but no document confirms. Solid: 198 years on record. Diamond: the standing building, dated from its fabric to about 1896.

The claim

The world's best-known beer hall grew out of the Bavarian dukes' court brewery of 1589 and opened its doors to ordinary drinkers in 1828. Beneath painted vaults, brass bands play, litre mugs clatter and regulars still lock their personal steins in the famous mug safes. Touristy, certainly, but a genuine piece of Munich drinking history.

What the records show

The 1589 is the founding of the Bavarian dukes' court brewery, which Duke Wilhelm V set up at the Alter Hof because his household was spending too much on beer brought in from elsewhere; his successor Maximilian I moved the brewing to the Platzl in 1607. Neither was a house serving the public. The City of Munich's own account is plain that ordinary Munich citizens were admitted in 1828, when Ludwig I allowed the court's tap to serve the population at large, and that is where the public house's record begins — which is why the house sits outside the ranking of pubs pouring continuously from before 1750. Max Littmann rebuilt it as a neo-Renaissance beer palace, finished in 1897, the brewing having gone out to Haidhausen in 1896 and on to Munich-Riem in 1988; post-war restoration was completed with the reopening of the festival hall in 1958.

Dated evidence for Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, earliest first
Year	What	Source
1589	Claimed founding	The pub
c.1896	Present building	Building fabric
1828	First record of a drinking house here	The City of Munich's own account, on the public admitted in 1828

What to look for inside

Court brewery founded 1589
Opened to the public by Ludwig I in 1828
Regulars' locked stein cabinets (since 1972)
Nazi Party meeting of 24 February 1920 held here

Visiting

Hofbräuhaus am Platzl is in Munich, Germany, at Platzl 9, 80331 München. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

hofbraeuhaus.de Directions in your maps app

Sources

Horse-drawn cabs waiting under the arcades of the Hofbrauhaus, with its oriel window and stepped gables — Then and now
Photographed years apart. A Detroit Publishing photochrom print; the Library of Congress dates it between 1890 and 1900.
Every pub we have a pair for

Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026

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Above: the record · Below: what readers rememberThe record ends here

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The snug

What people remember about Hofbräuhaus am Platzl

Nobody has written about this pub yet. These are readers’ own recollections, not our records — we check documents, not memories, and a memory never moves a date or a grade.

Were you a regular here?

We are after the things a record cannot hold: the landlord’s name, what was behind the bar, the room that is not there any more, the year the fire was moved. One paragraph is plenty.

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