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.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1589 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1896 | Present building | Building fabric |
| 1828 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
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.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofbräuhaus_am_Platzl
- www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/
- www.muenchen.de/sehenswuerdigkeiten/bauwerke-und-denkmaeler/hofbraeuhaus
Then and now
Photographed years apart. A Detroit Publishing photochrom print; the Library of Congress dates it between 1890 and 1900.
Photo: Detroit Publishing Company (Photochrom Print Collection, Library of Congress) · public domain
Photo: Kiban · public domainKnow something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
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