The Wittelsbacher Family is a dynasty that ruled Bavaria for 738 years, from 1180 until 1918, first as dukes and then, from 1806, as kings. The Wittelsbachs were, next to the Habsburgs of Austria, one of the most important dynasties in European history because their marriage policy throughout the centuries ensured that members of their family became part of the bloodlines of just about every ruling house of note in Europe. One Wittelsbach or another held, at various times, such titles as Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Palatine, King of Bohemia, King of Greece, King of Hungary, King of Sweden, and Emperor of Germany. Perhaps uniquely, however, the House of Wittelsbach played almost as great a role in the history of beer as it did in the history of Europe. The following are some of the milestones in the annals of the House of Wittelsbach and of beer: in 1269, the chronologically fourth Wittelsbach Duke of Bavaria, Ludwig “the Severe,” started Munich’s first brewery. In 1516, the Wittelsbach Duke Wilhelm IV proclaimed the “Bavarian Beer Purity Law” (Reinheitsgebot), which later evolved into a federal German law restricting beer ingredients to just water, yeast, malt, and hops. See reinheitsgebot. In 1553, Duke Albrecht V issued the Bavarian summer brewing prohibition for the period between April 23 and September 29—a regulation that remained in force until 1850 and laid the foundation for the Bavarian lager as well as the emergence of the märzen beer style. See bavaria and märzenbier. In 1602, Duke Maximilian I instituted a highly profitable weissbier (wheat beer) brewing monopoly for the Wittelsbach family and forced every innkeeper in his realm to pour the crown-brewed wheat ale. See weissbier. The monopoly lasted until 1798, by which time weissbier had fallen out of favor. Meanwhile, however, it had garnered substantial revenues for the ducal coffers. In 1810, the wedding celebrations of Crown Prince Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen became the first Munich Oktoberfest, the forerunner of what is today by far the world’s biggest beer fest, with 6 to 7 million visitors annually. See oktoberfest. And in 1868, King Ludwig II of Bavaria established a “Polytechnic School of Munich” at the old Benedictine Abbey of Weihenstephan outside Munich, which had received its brew right in 1040. This school was renamed the “Royal Bavarian Academy for Agriculture and Breweries” in 1895. Since then, it has evolved into one of the world’s foremost brew research and teaching institutions and is now part of the Technical University of Munich. Even today, a Wittelsbach, His Royal Highness Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, is in the brewing industry. He is the chief executive officer of his family’s Kaltenberg Brewery, now part of the Warsteiner group of breweries and one of Germany’s largest makers of dunkel. See dunkel, kaltenberg brewery, and luitpold, prince of bavaria.