Post-KTMB Deutsches Haus

Festivals and annual events define time in New Orleans. The most obvious ones are the Sugar Bowl, Mardi Gras, French Quarter Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazzfest) but there are others that New Orleanians set our watches to. The last week of September and most of October brings the annual Deutsches Haus Oktoberfest which I usually attend at least two or three times each year. Founded in 1928, the Deutsches Haus is the local German-American club located on South Galvez Street in a section of New Orleans which received five-plus feet of water--placing two or three feet in the raised parts of the main building. I drove by the Haus early on post-KTMB but haven't been by recently, but I'm happy to say that photos on their website reveal gutting and cleaning are underway--and they are looking for volunteers to help. The "Berlin Bear" who greets you as you enter Oktoberfest each year remains and the water mark on his base indicates the depth of the flooding. Our family tradition is to take a family photo standing next to the bear each year. There was no 2005 photo but I sense we will have a chance to take one in Fall 2006.