The Oktoberfest pouring Sunday afternoon on West Kemper Road helped pay for the clubhouse behind it.
Different institutions built Cincinnati’s other Oktoberfests.
Each major Cincinnati Oktoberfest runs on a different model, and that model determines who bears the losses. The Exchange traced who operates each festival, what their records show, and where the public record goes silent. This city’s cultural institutions reward that kind of tracing.
Four Families Signed for the Land
The Germania Society of Cincinnati officially formed on May 16, 1964, with August Schneider as its first president. In 1969, according to the Society’s account, four member families guaranteed the loan that financed the purchase of nearly 22 acres on West Kemper Road.
In 1971, the club held what it says was the first Cincinnati Oktoberfest on grounds that were still mostly unimproved. Proceeds from those first festivals financed the Klubhaus, completed in 1977. The Society’s history states that sequence plainly: families signed, the festival ran, the festival paid for the building.
Fifty-five years after that first festival, the model still works. The Society’s 2024 federal tax filing reports $1,298,468 in revenue and $954,210 in expenses, resulting in a $344,258 surplus. The same filing reports zero dollars in salaries, wages, and executive compensation. Net assets reached $2,399,584, up roughly 63 percent since 2012, according to the Exchange’s calculation based on the filings. The grounds now cover 30.5 acres…