The stone (as in bone) of contention here actually is a stein this time. You know, those one-liter beer steins they use down there at the Oktoberfest? And the party must really be hopping this year. Attacks with beer steins are way up.
There have been 32 injuries so far, but it looks like the party just got started.
And it’s like sooo international. A Frenchman threw his stein into a group of Italians. The Italians then took their steins and charged the French and one of them ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull. In an unrelated incident, another Frenchmen took out an Austrian. A Serb tossed his beer stein behind him and conked his neighbor in the head. A Canadian got slammed in the head with a stein and the stein actually broke (the Canadian survived). And I guess they don’t even bother to report about all the German stein attack incidents.
Damn. This gives “getting mugged” a whole new meaning.
The large turnout at this year’s festival, brought on by warm weather and the commemoration of its 200th anniversary, could be responsible for the increase in beer stein attacks (of course the large turnout of beer might be responsible too).
There has been a sharp increase in beer bottle related attacks on the Reeperbahn in the past few years.
What’s the world coming to when millions can’t drink themselves comatose dressed like the Sound of Music in peace? Maybe they need to loosen up like the Netherlands and start offering a serving of Cannabis with Fritzle’s Schnitzel?
Observing Hermann 
Hasn’t anyone yet made the connection between the violence and the Oktoberfest ban on smoking this year?
Or is this not the first year of a smoking ban? Frankly, couldn’t be bothered to look.
There has been a sharp increase in beer bottle related attacks on the Reeperbahn in the past few years.
What’s the world coming to when millions can’t drink themselves comatose dressed like the Sound of Music in peace? Maybe they need to loosen up like the Netherlands and start offering a serving of Cannabis with Fritzle’s Schnitzel?