I am assured by my girlfriend that this song is always, always sung at Oktoberfest and that everyone stops and links arms and sways and belts it out (at least the chorus) so that it’s not only a popular song at Oktoberfest but possibly the most popular anthem sung there.
Is there some specific historical reason WHY? It doesn’t seem to be associated with a general reverence for John Denver songs or West Virginiana or a teutonic love for mountain mamas or anything.
There is a whole lot of beer drinkin’ at Oktoberfest.
Because John Denver’s birth name was Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.? (Probably not the real reason, but that sounds like a good German surname. 
)
It’s a song they can count on a bunch of drunks all knowing the words to? 
If you ever stay at a holiday resort that is frequented by Germans, you will know not to overestimate German taste in music. Somehow this same country also produced Bach, Brahms, and Wagner.
Sometimes a song will catch on with a foreign audience.
I’ve read the “Sixteen Tons” is a popular song in Russia.
They also love Amerikan Bie.
Moved to Cafe Society.
We also had an awful dance beat cover version in Germany that really cemented the song in the minds of the crowd that you would typically find at Oktoberfest.
It’s a song that is easy to manage the basics of when enormously drunk. I’ve been at a few weddings in Scotland where that song has been played - and sung along to - at the end of the night.
Because they can’t be arsed to learn an entire evening’s worth of German drinking songs.
I’ve heard it’s a very popular song in many languages, like Chinese, for instance. The idea of going back to your hometown is kind of universal, I guess.
Do they substitute some appropriately low-key mountainous region of Germany for “West Virginia” in the song?
Let’s see…“Emmendingen” would work the meter, and it’s a district in the hilly Black Forest…
I believe it’s big in Japan too…
A former coworker of mine is from West Virginia, and she once told me that when she visited China she expected that no one she met there would have any idea where that was. To her surprise, the first time she mentioned it her new acquaintance said “Oh, ‘Take Me Home, Country Road’!” and everyone present started singing the song.
You couldn’t be more wrong. It turns out that every song ever written is a German drinking song. I went to the Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas and the band was playing songs from The Blues Brothers. Minnie the Moocher is a German drinking song. I’ve even been to the Oktoberfest once. I found out that La Bamba is a German drinking song.
Eh, who knew?
Wow. I was at the Haufbrau Haus in Munich shortly after John Denver died and the band played Country Roads. At the time we thought it was a little random but nice for them to acknowledge his passing but I had no idea it was a tradition!
The soccer/football chant “Ole, Ole, Ole” which started in Spain in 1982, has expanded around the world and can be heard at Montreal Canadien hockey games. or could, if the NHL wasn’t having yet
another contract dispute/lockout.
I always appreciated John Denver testifying against the PMRC along with Frank Zappa and Dee Snider but would never think of listening to, let alone buying on of his albums. But let’s face it, “TMHCR” is a catchy, singable tune, especially if you are three sheets to the wind. Better to have the Germans sing this instead of “Horst Wessel Lied”.
I can provide personal anecdotal evidence that this isn’t true. My pissed is my cite But yeah, better than Horst “Nuclear” Wessel as a drinking song. But much, much, worse than Piano Man.