Fort Wayne’s first Germanfest, which happened in 1981, was surely an attempt to educate people with no naturally occurring German heritage about German culture.

That was 36 years ago. Germanfest long ago outgrew its humble origins and Hoosiers long ago outgrew their humble ignorance of German culture.

The 2017 edition of the festival starts June 4.

German culture is now such an ingrained part of Indiana culture that most Hoosiers probably don’t even realize what’s German and what isn’t, according to Germanfest’s treasurer and marketing director Bob Anweiler.

The unpretentious entrée most closely associated with the state, the pork tenderloin, is merely the German schnitzel or Wienerschnitzel in Midwestern disguise, he said. And many roast pork recipes owe a debt to German Schweinebraten.

Most Hoosiers grill “brats” all summer without once acknowledging their German origin, Anweiler said. Bratwurst is just one of about 1500 different types of German sausage. And there are more than 40 bratwurst recipes unique to more than 40 German regions.

As if this all weren’t surprising enough to some people, none of those aforementioned German regions is named “Stadium,” despite what it says on your package of supermarket brats.

It might be that 2017 is the perfect year for some more education.

A good way to expand your brat palate (one of the most important of all the palates) is to attend Köstritzer Night at Club Soda on June 5.

The Köstritzer of the title refers to Köstritzer Schwarzbier, a black lager produced by the Köstritzer Brewery near our sister city, Gera.

The oldest American breweries brag about having been founded in the mid-19th century.

That’s impressive until you find out that the Köstritzer Brewery is one year away from turning 475.

Köstritzer Schwarzbier confuses folks who are used to (and are used to avoiding) Irish stout. Yes, it is dark, but its taste is relatively light and clean.

It is a beer that is well paired with the Thüringer Rostbratwurst. The oldest known written reference to the recipe for this sausage was made in 1404, 139 years before the founding of the Köstritzer Brewery.

In other words, this is no fly-by-night nosh.

Believe it or not, Anweiler had to be kind of sneaky about getting out of Germany with the recipe. A police captain was recruited for the mission.

The whole story would make a great spy novel: “The Bourne Rostbratwurst.”

Food and drink has always been and will always be a huge part of Germanfest, of course.

Hundreds of gallons of homemade German potato salad and sauerkraut will be served during the festival, according to Germanfest president Ken Scheibenberger.

Massive quantities of kraut balls, kuchen (cake), handcrafted brats and currywurst (sausage with curry ketchup) will be sold.

Hundreds of kegs of Köstritzer and Hofbräu Original (a blond lager) will be quaffed, Anweiler said.

Yuengling beer will make its debut at Germanfest this year as well, he said.

Because there are many components to the festival in addition to the Headwaters Park component, there is always some confusion.

While Germanfest events begin to happen around the city on June 4, the opening of the Headwaters Park festival “tent” doesn’t happen until June 7.

This is the way things have been done for decades. That hasn’t prevented people from showing up at Headwaters Park on any of the four days before the opening of the festival tent or on the Sunday after its closing, Anweiler said.

“The main festival tent downtown is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” he said. “Sunday is kind of the recovery day when you go to church and ask for forgiveness.

“Invariably, on that second Sunday, we have people showing up as we’re cleaning up,” Anweiler said. “And invariably, on that first Sunday, we have people coming down.”

The events that happen outside Headwaters Park are always well attended but Anweiler would still like to see more people at those.

“Especially the club night events,” he said, referring to Köstritzer Night at Club Soda and Hofbräu Night at the Fort Wayne Sports Club.

Schedules and information about such events as a wiener dog race, a sausage-stuffing contest, a beer-based test of strength, a polka lesson, a grape stomp, a beer and wine tasting, a choral concert, a German dinner and a beauty-in-lederhosen pageant can be found at Germanfest.org.

There was a time when there were only three summer festivals of consequence in Fort Wayne: Germanfest, the Greek Festival (aka Greekfest) and the Three Rivers Festival.

Nowadays, major and soon-to-be-major events happen on both sides of Headwaters Park through the end of September.

But Germanfest is first and will likely always be first. It launches a season of summer fun in Fort Wayne.

“We just have this really good environment for people to come down,” Anweiler said. “We always hope we have nice weather. It’s probably the first nice weather that people are able to enjoy where they aren’t worrying about it getting cold out.

“It’s a great way to start the season off,” he said.