Why do you “Servus” me?

JS Kongress Munich
4 min readJul 14, 2020

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Bavaria statue saying "Servus"

Editing this week’s newsletter issue — by the way, subscribe here to get the updates first — I wonder if our Bavarian greeting leaves you wondering. So I decided to write this entry.

1. Servus? Servus! 👋

pronounced /ˈsɛrvus/ or /ˈzɛɐ̯vus/

Like the Italian “Ciao”, Servus can be used for “Hello” as well as for “Good bye” and is the ellipsis for “servus humillimus (Domine spectabilis)” or short “At your service”. And it’s used in many other places than only in Bavaria and Austria.

We Bavarians — I grew up in a small Bavarian town 100 km from Munich. Even rather a village with a population of 400. Please forgive me for not including all Southern-Germans as well as Austrians in each sentence, I am thinking of them as well … We Bavarians might not know the long form of the complete servus-term, but we are very aware that it’s more formal and friendly than saying “Hello”. And it’s suitable for everyone, a person older than you as well as someone you are connecting with in business relations. As well “Servus” is the perfect greeting for best friends, it suits everyone. Servus is honest, it’s warm and it’s inclusive — directly from the heart. 💙

So next time you meet someone, greet them with a warm Servus 🙂

Another greeting you might notice around here is “Gruess Gott!” (salute god). This is suitable for everyone as well and very respectful. Most young people wouldn’t greet their close friends like this, but I have been raised greeting all the people I meet in the street like this.

2. The statue in our design: the Bavaria

JSKongress Scaling JS – Pushing the limits, Bavaria statue in background

The Bavaria, or “Mama Bavaria” as we call her intimately, is situated right next to the Alte Kongresshalle, where JSKongress takes place in Munich. Find her placement on Google Maps. The Bavaria is the embodiment of our homeland Bavaria. She watches closely over us — as well as she does watch closely over the Oktoberfest, which takes place directly at her feet.

The JSKongress takes place in the “Alte Kongresshalle”, a landmark of Munich culture and a unique venue, which is why we chose it. This unique and spacious location, together with its inspiring surroundings, contribute to a pleasant atmosphere during the conference each and every year. See more of the venue itself on our website.

As such an iconic symbol, we included her in our design to transport the atmosphere of the location and venue of JSKongress. On a sunny day — and not just then, but then in particular — it’s awesome to visit Mama Bavaria and stroll through the Theresienwiese and Bavariapark.

Frog Kermit wears a red and white checkered shirt and leather pants, laptop on the lap with pear symbol

3. JSKongress Munich

The conference grew out of MunichJS, one of the largest JavaScript user groups in Germany, also attended by people from Austria and Switzerland. Also JSKongress is located in an ICT hub: Munich is one of the most important ICT cities in Europe.

And Munich is as well known as “world city with heart”, or as it has been stated a couple of times: “Laptop and Lederhosen”. 😄

What did you think when receiving your first newsletter issue? Amazed by all this Bavaria cult? Or have you actually been a member of the MunichJS meetup before? Since when do you receive your newsletter? Do you remember your favorite issue? As well we are interested: Did you nearly un-subscribe some time? Would you like to read more about other stuff, which kind of?

Question after question.

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Please let us know! ✉️ We’d like the bi-weekly JSKongress newsletter to be a fun couple of minutes of your day. So we want to design it for YOU!

Yours truly, Kerstin

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JS Kongress Munich

…is the conference about JavaScript. Handcrafted with 💙 for the JS community — from the JS community! postponed, see you 2021 in Munich, Germany