Almost all the great classics of German cooking contain wheat: pretzels, Spätzle, breaded schnitzel, bread dumplings, cakes and beer. Yet Germany is one of the best-equipped countries for coeliacs, with a high proportion of fully gluten-free businesses. Here, dish by dish, is what causes problems, what Oktoberfest 2026 offers, and where to eat the classics gluten free. For the trip in general, our guide to gluten-free travel in Germany covers the essentials.

Often possible, check first

What can work

  • Bratwurst without the roll, grill not shared, ingredients checked
  • Roast chicken, plain boiled potatoes
  • Currywurst if sauce and sausage are checked, no roll
  • Chips, only from a dedicated fryer
  • Wine, water, juice, drinks labelled gluten free

Contains gluten

The wheat classics

  • Pretzels, bread rolls, rye bread
  • Spätzle and Maultaschen
  • Breaded schnitzel, bread dumplings
  • Cakes, Stollen, Lebkuchen
  • Ordinary beer and malt beer

Bratwurst and currywurst

The grilled sausage is Germany’s street food par excellence. The recipe doesn’t necessarily contain cereal, but it varies from butcher to butcher, and the danger lies mostly in what surrounds it. DZG, the German coeliac society, lists what to check at a grill stall: what else cooks on the same grill (marinated sausages and vegetarian products can bring gluten), the roll that is often toasted or sliced over the meat, the sauces and, if you order chips, the fryer.

Currywurst, sliced sausage in a curried ketchup sauce, adds one more question: the sauce. For a home-made sauce, the vendor must be able to show you the ingredient list on request; for a factory-made sauce, the label decides. Order the sausage without the roll, or bring your own. Our article on gluten in sausages and cured meats explains where it hides.

Pretzels and bread

The German Brezel is a wheat dough dipped in a lye solution before baking, so it is never gluten free in an ordinary bakery. The same goes for bread rolls and rye bread, pillars of German baking.

Two 100% gluten-free bakeries in our database specialise in them:

  • grünesKorn, in Ravensburg. grünesKorn is a master baker who switched his entire production to gluten free in 2019, after coeliac disease affected his family, without wheat starch. Bread, pretzels, baguettes and pastries are sold at his stall every Saturday morning at the Marienplatz market.
  • Guni’s Panificio, in Scheidegg. Guni’s Panificio in the Allgäu opened in April 2025; master baker Günter Nowak specialises in gluten-free bread, rolls and pretzels, and runs workshops.

In the big cities there are plenty of dedicated bakeries: Berlin and Munich each have several.

Spätzle, dumplings, schnitzel

The side dishes of southern Germany are nearly all wheat-based. Spätzle are fresh egg noodles made with flour; Swabian Maultaschen are wheat-dough parcels; Semmelknödel are dumplings made from stale bread rolls. Schnitzel is breaded. For Kartoffelknödel (potato dumplings) and potato salad, it depends on the recipe: ask.

The place that solves the problem is in Regensburg. Alte Kuchl describes itself as the world’s first fully gluten-free and dairy-free Bavarian inn: traditional Bavarian cooking, meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan dishes, and a beer garden. Its website claims no cross-contamination for its dishes (4.6 from 599 reviews). One caveat is on our listing: not every beer served is gluten free.

In Allensbach, on Lake Constance, the restaurant and beer garden Hof Höfen says it now makes all its dishes gluten free. We have cautiously classed it as “gluten-free menu”: no independent source backs up the announcement, and the beer isn’t covered.

Oktoberfest 2026 and beer

This year’s Oktoberfest runs from 19 September to 4 October 2026 on the Theresienwiese in Munich. The official website is clear on three points: no gluten-free beer is served anywhere at the festival; most tents offer other gluten-free drinks, alcoholic or not; and several tents serve gluten-free food.

The South Bavarian coeliac self-help group (Zöliakie Selbsthilfegruppe Südbayern), linked to DZG, updates the Wiesn’s gluten-free offer every year, with a downloadable site map on its website. In the tents, the easiest thing is to ask for the allergen menu.

No gluten-free beer at the Wiesn. The official website says so explicitly: no gluten-free beer is served at the festival. If you want to raise a glass of beer, do it before or after, somewhere that serves a beer labelled gluten free. And don’t confuse gluten-free beer with gluten-removed beer: our article on gluten-free versus gluten-removed beer explains the difference, and our round-up of gluten-free beer brands helps you choose.

Bringing your own food is limited: bags larger than 20 × 15 × 10 cm are not allowed on site. Better to eat beforehand at a dedicated place. Our Munich guide describes seven places, six of them fully gluten free, including the Italian restaurant Mixto Verde, the Isabella pâtisserie near the Viktualienmarkt and the Tante Lilibeth stall at the Elisabethmarkt.

Cakes, Stollen, Lebkuchen: the dedicated cafés

Afternoon “Kaffee und Kuchen” (coffee and cake) is an institution, and the cakes are made with wheat flour. The good news: this is exactly where Germany has the most dedicated places.

Nutrixe's 90 places in Germany, by type
Restaurants34
Cafés23
Bakeries21
Grocery shops6
Pâtisseries4
Gelato shops2

Of these 90 places, 83 are fully gluten free. The Isabella Glutenfreie Pâtisserie chain, founded in Düsseldorf, has 100% gluten-free branches in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Aachen. In Bamberg, Café Marle makes everything in-house; in Essen and Düsseldorf, the organic Backbrüder bakeries are fully gluten free. For Stollen and Lebkuchen at the end of the year, see our guide to gluten-free Christmas markets.

Döner and snacks

Döner kebab is as common a street food in Germany as currywurst, and its bread is made from wheat. In Freiburg im Breisgau, M&K Döner is a 100% gluten-free takeaway, started because the founder’s daughter is coeliac: döner, pizza, nuggets and chips are all gluten free; only the beer contains gluten (4.6 from 77 reviews). Our article on kebab and falafel covers the pitfalls elsewhere.

Useful phrases

  • “Ich habe Zöliakie.” — I have coeliac disease.
  • “Ist das glutenfrei?” — Is this gluten free?
  • “Kann ich die Zutatenliste sehen?” — Can I see the ingredient list?
  • “Ohne Brötchen, bitte.” — Without the roll, please.
  • “Ist die Fritteuse nur für Pommes?” — Is the fryer only used for chips?

In short

  • Pretzels, Spätzle, Maultaschen, schnitzel, bread dumplings, cakes and ordinary beer contain gluten.
  • Bratwurst and currywurst: possible without the roll, once grill, sauce and fryer are checked.
  • Oktoberfest 2026: no gluten-free beer, but gluten-free drinks and food in several tents.
  • Alte Kuchl in Regensburg serves Bavarian food entirely gluten free.
  • 90 verified places in Germany, 83 of them fully gluten free.

All our German places are on the Nutrixe map. Missing one? Suggest it.

Figures at the time of publication. The database grows every week: today's exact count is always on the map.