Deutsche Eiche (Bar & Restaurant)

The Deutsche Eiche (German Oak) on Reichenbachstraße has been serving food and drink since 1864, making it one of Munich's oldest restaurants. From 1975, under new management, it became gay — first as a social meeting point, then as a guesthouse and sauna complex. Today it operates as a gay hotel, restaurant, bar, beer garden, and sauna — a complete LGBTQ+ institution in a single historic building. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the filmmaker and a Glockenbachviertel resident, drank here regularly in the 1970s; photographs of Fassbinder are on the walls. The restaurant serves Bavarian food prepared seriously — this is Munich, where food quality is a civic matter, and the Deutsche Eiche does not exempt itself from local standards because its clientele is gay. The beer garden at the back operates in summer as one of Munich's better outdoor dining and drinking spaces. The bar is a social hub for the Glockenbachviertel community throughout the day. The attached sauna complex operates independently (see separate listing). The guesthouse has 25 rooms. The Deutsche Eiche is what happens when a gay institution takes its historic building and its community seriously for 50 years.