MUNICH — The operator of the Teufelsrad, a historic amusement ride at Munich’s Oktoberfest, has distributed more than 100 pairs of free cycling shorts to female festivalgoers to protect them from unauthorized video recording, following investigations that uncovered tens of thousands of voyeuristic clips circulating online.
The Teufelsrad, or “Devil’s Wheel,” is one of the festival’s oldest attractions, featuring a rapidly spinning wooden platform where participants attempt to stay seated. Investigations by German news outlets revealed that many videos uploaded online specifically focused on women whose traditional dirndl dresses had ridden up while on the ride.
According to research by the Munich daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, more than 32,000 videos linked to the Teufelsrad were located on Meta platforms alone, with some accumulating millions of views. Local broadcaster BR reported that a group of professional YouTubers from Ukraine alongside individuals from Bavaria were behind several recordings. BR found that one video generated €9,000 (£7,650) for its creator, and noted that some images were digitally altered to depict victims naked.
Elisabeth Polaczy, the 80-year-old operator of the attraction, confirmed she has been handing out the shorts to women and girls wearing dresses to prevent attendees from filming under their clothes.
“I want to do everything I can to make people feel secure,” Polaczy said, noting that while funding the shorts herself is costly, it provides peace of mind. Several waitresses working at this year’s 16-day beer festival reported that they have also begun wearing cycling shorts under their dirndls.
Secretly filming or taking photos under a person’s skirt without consent has been illegal in Germany since 2020, carrying penalties of a fine or up to two years in prison. Signs and police posters in both German and English are installed around the Teufelsrad tent warning against the practice. However, Polaczy stated that controlling crowd behavior remains difficult due to the widespread use of smartphones.
A spokesperson for the Bavarian police confirmed that warning posters have been placed at Oktoberfest since 2025. Police records show seven arrests for upskirting at the festival in 2024 and ten in 2025. During this year’s festival, police arrested a 45-year-old Swiss national for allegedly using his phone to film under a German woman’s dress. Women’s rights advocates maintain that existing criminal laws have not proven sufficient to halt the abuse.
Analysis: Operational and Technological Challenges in Event Security
The situation at the Teufelsrad underscores the systemic challenge of enforcing privacy laws within high-density public venues. Although statutory penalties exist under German law, the monetization features of online digital platforms continue to create financial incentives for non-consensual content creation. Because venue operators and law enforcement face practical limits in monitoring thousands of individual smartphone users in real time, practical measures—such as physical protective clothing—are increasingly being deployed alongside legal warnings to mitigate risks to public safety and privacy.
Sources
[The Guardian World](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/03/women-given-free-cycling-shorts-prevent-upskirting-oktoberfest-amusement-ride-teufelsrad-germany)
[BBC News World](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjwyzyqvx1zxo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss)
Source: The Guardian World
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Story synopsis gathered from: The Guardian World — source
