Here are 7 stories we bet you've never heard about Evansville's Volksfest

Aimee Blume, Evansville Courier & Press
Updated ·3 min read

EVANSVILLE − The 61st annual Germania Maennerchor Volksfest, Evansville’s longest running bit of Gemütlichkeit, happens this year from Thursday, Aug. 3- Saturday, Aug. 5, and we found two fröhlich fellows who have attended every Volksfest since its post-World War II reactivation in 1962.

Tom Memmer III, left, and Paul Bockstege chat about the old days while showing off a Volksfest poster from 1962 at Germania Maennerchor’s Rathskeller Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Tom Memmer III, left, and Paul Bockstege chat about the old days while showing off a Volksfest poster from 1962 at Germania Maennerchor’s Rathskeller Thursday, July 27, 2023.

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Tom Memmer III and Paul Bockstege grew up with fathers who were in the Maennerchor and spent their childhood in the blocky building on Fulton Street. They arrived at our meeting with a fat satchel of newspaper clippings about the Volksfest dating all the way back to the 1960s, many with pictures of the two of them (both cooking sausages, incidentally) and their family members.

And they were full of stories, most of which happened around the 1970s. Give or take. Here are a few laughs from the past, as the legends were recounted by Memmer and Bockstege.

1. In 1962, the first rebooted Volksfest meal was served with real silverware on white linen tablecloths, as the organizers had no idea how busy it would become. After Bockstege finished riding in a new Volkswagon convertible in the Evansville Sesquicentennial parade, his job was to dig through the trash cans at the Volksfest recovering all the silverware that the diners threw away.

2. At one Volksfest, when the dancing of a bunny hop was underway upstairs, the chandeliers in the Rathskeller began swinging quite worrisomely. A building safety expert was called in to check the situation and he said that it was fine, it was when they didn’t move you had to worry about the walls giving out.

Tom Memmer III flips through old newspaper clippings about Volkfest over the years at Germania Maennerchor’s Rathskeller Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Tom Memmer III flips through old newspaper clippings about Volkfest over the years at Germania Maennerchor’s Rathskeller Thursday, July 27, 2023.

3. The famous Germania Maennerchor bratwurst recipe was brought by German butcher Butch Sunkel and prepared in his butcher shop down the street. Bockstege was helping him make it by the age of 10. Sunkel apparently was a clean freak. He’d wipe a hand across the grill after Bockstege had cleaned it and say “not clean enough, do it again!” Now it’s made by Farm Boy Meats, but it’s still the same recipe.

4. Falstaff was the first beer to come to the Volksfest with taps right on the side of the truck. One year Sterling beer, which was brewed up the street, wasn’t invited to attend and the powers that be at the brewery were not happy. They brought a trailer, blocked the alley, and removed a portion of the fence to serve on Thursday. On Friday, a portion of the fence was removed, tables shifted and reset so the truck could be added to the official lineup.

5. Another year the Volksfest, which went much later in the night than it does now, ran out of beer late on a Saturday and the Sterling brewery was called but wouldn’t open to resupply. One Germania member was a brewery union employee, and he called his union rep, and the rep called the boss to complain he was keeping the employees from working. So, the brewery was opened and brought a truck that parked in the alley, and the folks at Germania knocked a hole in the clapboard fence to roll in the kegs.

Courtesy of Paul Bockstege Paul Bockstege, right, and Tom Memmer prepare food in this 1975 image. (Credit: Archives / Courier & Press)
Courtesy of Paul Bockstege Paul Bockstege, right, and Tom Memmer prepare food in this 1975 image. (Credit: Archives / Courier & Press)

6. Once, a couple of groups got rowdy and started fighting in the upstairs bar room, and Memmer’s father, Tom Memmer II, got on stage and announced that nobody at all would be served any alcohol until the groups started behaving responsibly. They began behaving responsibly very quickly.

7. One dire year, the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission refused to grant the three-day special liquor license for Germania to serve beer in the outdoor space next to the building due to recent changes in the laws pertaining only to Evansville. Mayor Frank McDonald was enlisted to help and argued to the commission that Evansville should be treated equally with other Indiana cities and secured the permit.

If you go

  • What: The 61st Annual Germania Maennerchor Volksfest

  • When: Thursday, Aug. 3 - Saturday, Aug. 5, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

  • Where: Germania Maennerchor, 916 N. Fulton Ave.; 812-422-1915

  • Website: https://www.evvgermanclub.com

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Here are 7 stories we bet you've never heard about Volksfest