Some worry that security will be compromised at Oktoberfest if police are tasked with tending to refugees, but officials are assuring visitors that 500 police officers -- the same number as in past years -- will be on hand at the festival.
For two weeks every fall, tourists and locals gather to bask in tradition and consume about 7.5 million liters of beer. Many arrive dressed in traditional lederhosen or dirndls.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann spoke of a situation in which war-weary refugees could be colliding in the streets of Munich with drunken revelers.
"Refugees from Muslim countries may not be used to seeing extremely drunk people in public," Herrmann said. "It might seem a bit odd to some of them, if I may say so, but this is the reality."