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Munichcolspan="2" bgcolor="BBDDFF" | Munich
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Munich
Munich is Germany's third largest city and one of Europe's most prosperous and expensive. The city has a population of about 1.3 million and the Munich metropolitan area is home to around 2.7 million people. The city is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps.
The city's motto was " Die Weltstadt mit Herz" for a long time and has been recently replaced by " Mnchen mag dich" . The figure on Munich's coat-of-arms is a monk referred to as the Mnchner Kindl, the child of Munich.
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Timeline
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1328 Augustiner brew Munich.
1795 Failed harvest in Munich.
1810 First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1895 The first Boxer show was held at Munich, Germany.
1895 In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates
1919 May 1 — Weimar Republic troops and Freikorps take over Munich and crush the Soviet Republic of Bavaria
1920 Adolf Hitler presents his National Socialist program in Munich.
1921 Rising prices cause riots in Munich
1923 Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government. Police and troops crush the attempt the next day
1939 In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes an assassination attempt while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
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Encyclopedia
>! colspan="2" bgcolor="BBDDFF" | Munich
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Munich
Munich is Germany's third largest city and one of Europe's most prosperous and expensive. The city has a population of about 1.3 million and the Munich metropolitan area is home to around 2.7 million people. The city is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps.
The city's motto was "Die Weltstadt mit Herz" for a long time and has been recently replaced by "München mag dich" . The figure on Munich's coat-of-arms is a monk referred to as the Münchner Kindl, the child of Munich. Black and gold - the colours of the Holy Roman Empire - have been the city's official colours since the time of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
Geography
Setting
Munich lies on the elevated plains of Upper Bavaria, about 50 km north of the northern edge of the Alps, at an altitude of about 520 m.
Munich is situated in the Northern Alpine Foreland. The northern part of this sandy plateau includes a highly fertile flint area which is no longer affected by the folding processes found in the Alps, while the southern part is covered by morainic hills. In between there are fields of fluvio-glacial out-wash, like around Munich. Wherever these deposits get thinner, the ground water can permeate the gravel surface and flood the area, leading to marshes as in the north of Munich.
Climate
Because of the distance to the sea and the closeness to the northern edge of the Alps, precipitation is rather high. Rain storms often come violently and unexpectedly. The range of temperature between day and night or summer and winter can be extreme. A warm down wind from the Alps can change the temperatures completely within a few hours, even in the winter.
Winters last from December to March. Munich experiences rather cold winters, but heavy rainfall is rarely seen in the winter. The coldest month is January with an average temperature of 1° C . Snow cover is seen for at least a couple of weeks during winter. Summers in Munich city are fairly warm with average temperature of 19° C in the hottest month of July. The summers last from May till August. In the summer, there is frequent rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms.
History
OriginThe city was founded in 1158 by the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, next to a settlement of Benedictine monks, called Munichen . The monks' presence dated back to the 8th century, although settlement in the Munich area can be traced back to Roman times. The village then grew around St. Peter's church, next to the bridge that Henry built over the river Isar. To force traders to use his bridge he destroyed a nearby bridge owned by bishop Otto von Freising .
Subsequently the bishop and Henry quarreled about the city before Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa at an Imperial Diet held in Augsburg in 1158. This sanctioned Henry's spoliation, and awarded an annual compensation for the bishop, and also confirmed Munich's trading and currency rights.
Middle Ages
Almost two decades later in 1175 Munich was officially granted city status and fortified. In 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the bishop of Freising. Otto's heirs, the Wittelsbach dynasty would rule Bavaria until 1918. In 1240 Munich itself was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, when the dukedom of Bavaria was split in two, Munich became the ducal residence of Upper Bavaria.
Duke Louis IV was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the city's position by granting it the salt monopoly, thus assuring it of additional income. In 1327 most of the city was destroyed by a fire but was rebuilt, extended and protected with a new fortification some years later. Philosophers like Michael of Cesena, Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham supported Louis IV in his fight with the papacy and were protected at the emperor's court. Since the citizenry several times revolted against the dukes a new castle was built close to the fortification from 1385 onwards. A rising of the guilds in 1397 was thrown down the following year.
Another devastating fire destroyed parts of the city in 1429. In the late 15th century Munich underwent a revival of gothic arts - the Old Town Hall was enlarged and a new cathedral - the Frauenkirche - constructed within only twenty years from 1468 onwards. The cathedral has become a symbol for the city with its two brick towers and onion domes.
Capital of the reunited duchy of Bavaria
When Bavaria was reunited in 1506 Munich became capital of the whole of Bavaria. The arts and politics became increasingly influenced by the court. During the 16th century Munich was a center of the German counter reformation, and also of renaissance arts. Duke Wilhelm V commissioned the Jesuit Michaelskirche, which became a center for the counter-reformation, and also built the Hofbräuhaus for brewing brown beer in 1589.
In 1623 during the Thirty Years' War Munich became electoral residence when Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria was invested with the electoral dignity but in 1632 the city was occupied by Gustav II Adolph of Sweden. When the bubonic plague broke out in 1634 and 1635 about one third of the population died. After the war Munich quickly became a center of baroque life. Elector Ferdinand Maria’s consort Henriette Adelaide of Savoy invited numerous Italian architects and artists to the city, and built the Theatinerkirche and Nymphenburg palace on the occasion of the birth of their son and heir Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria in 1662.
Munich was under the control of the Habsburg family for some years after Maximilian II Emanuel made a pact with France in 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The occupation led to bloody uprisings against the Austrian imperial troops followed by a massacre while farmers were rioting . The coronation of Max Emanuel's son elector Charles Albert as Emperor Karl VII in 1742 led to another Habsburg occupation. The city's first academic institution, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1759 by Maximilian III Joseph, who abandoned his forefather's imperial ambitions and made peace. From 1789 onwards, when the old medieval fortification was demolished, the English Garden was laid out - it is one of the world's largest urban public parks. By that time, the city was growing very quickly and was one of the largest cities in continental Europe.
Capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria
In 1806, it became the capital of the new Kingdom of Bavaria, with the state's parliament and the new archdiocese of Munich and Freising being located in the city. Twenty years later Landshut University was moved to Munich.
Many of the city's finest buildings belong to this period and were built under the reign of King Ludwig I. These neoclassical buildings include the Ruhmeshalle with the "Bavaria" statue by Ludwig Michael von Schwanthaler and those on the magnificent Ludwigstraße and the Königsplatz, built by the architects Leo von Klenze and Friedrich von Gärtner. Under King Max II the Maximilianstraße was constructed in Perpendicular style.
The railways reached Munich in 1839, followed by trams in 1876 and electric lighting in 1882. The Technical University of Munich was founded in 1868. The city hosted Germany's first exhibition of electricity, and in 1930 the first ever television was showcased at the city's Deutsches Museum on the banks of the Isar. Numerous inventors and scientists worked in Munich, including Alois Senefelder, Joseph von Fraunhofer, Justus von Liebig, Georg Ohm, Carl von Linde, Rudolf Diesel, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Emil Kraepelin and Alois Alzheimer, and the young Albert Einstein attended the Luitpold Gymnasium. In 1901 the Hellabrunn Zoo opened in the city.
Munich also became a center of the arts and literature again, as Carl Rottmann, Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Carl Spitzweg, Franz von Lenbach, Franz von Stuck, Wilhelm Leibl, Paul Heyse, Henrik Ibsen, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and many others lived and worked there.
The period immediately before World War I saw particular economic and cultural prominence for the city. Munich, and especially its suburb of Schwabing, became the domicile of many artists and writers. Thomas Mann wrote about this period "Munich shone". Der Blaue Reiter , a group of expressionist artists, was established in Munich in 1911. The city was a home for painters like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc, August Macke and Alfred Kubin and for numerous writers like Rainer Maria Rilke and Frank Wedekind. In 1846 Munich's population was about 100,000, and by 1901 this had risen to about 500,000.
World War I and revolutionFollowing the outbreak of World War I in 1914, life in Munich became very difficult, as the Allied blockade of Germany led to food and fuel shortages. During French air raids in 1916 three bombs fell on Munich.
After World War I, the city was at the center of much political unrest. In November 1918 on the eve of revolution, Ludwig III and his family fled the city. After the murder of the first republican premier of Bavaria Kurt Eisner in February 1919 Communists took power establishing the Bavarian Soviet Republic and Vladimir Lenin, who had lived in Munich some years before, sent a congratulatory telegram, but the Soviet Republic was brutally put down on May 3, 1919 by the militarist Freikorps, many of whom were later drawn to Adolf Hitler and National Socialism.
Weimar Republic / Nazi Regime and World War IIIn 1923 Hitler and his supporters, who at that time were concentrated in Munich, staged the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic and seize power. The revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest and the temporary crippling of the Nazi Party, which was virtually unknown outside Munich.
Munich remained a center of cultural life during the Weimar period, as figures such as Lion Feuchtwanger, Bert Brecht and Oskar Maria Graf were active.
The city however would once again become a Nazi stronghold when they took power in Germany in 1933. Because of its importance to the rise of Nazism, the Nazis called it the Hauptstadt der Bewegung . The NSDAP headquarters were in Munich and many Führerbauten were built around the Königsplatz, some of which have survived to this day.
In 1938, the Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain's famous act of appeasement to Hitler, was signed in the city by representatives of Germany, Italy, France and Britain. It ceded the mostly German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia called Sudetenland to Germany. One year later Georg Elser failed with his attempt to assassinate Hitler during his annual speech to commemorate the Beer Hall Putsch in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich.
Munich was the base of the White Rose , a group of students that formed a resistance movement from June 1942 to February 1943. The core members were arrested and executed following a distribution of leaflets in Munich University by Hans and Sophie Scholl.
The city was very heavily damaged by allied bombing during World War II - the city was hit by 71 air raids over a period of five years.
Postwar MunichAfter American occupation in 1945, Munich was completely rebuilt following a meticulous and - by comparison to other war-ravaged German cities - rather conservative plan which preserved its pre-war street grid.
In 1957 Munich's population passed the 1 million mark.
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Munich was the site of the 1972 Summer Olympics, during which Israeli athletes were assassinated by Palestinian terrorists , when terrorist gunmen from the Palestinian "Black September" group took hostage members of the Israeli Olympic team. A rescue attempt by the West German government was unsuccessful and resulted in the deaths of the Israeli hostages, five of the terrorists, and one German police officer.
Several games of the 1974 World Cup were also held in the city, including the German triumph against the Netherlands in a legendary final.
In 1992 Munich’s new airport was inaugurated and the inauguration of the Neue Messe, the new exhibition centre on the site of the former airport of Riem, took place in 1998.
The current Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising on June 29, 1951. Ratzinger served as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
PoliticsMunich's current mayor is Christian Ude of the SPD . Munich has a nearly unbroken history of SPD governments since World War II, which is remarkable because the rest of Bavaria is a conservative stronghold, with the CSU winning absolute majorities among the Bavarian electorate in nearly all elections at the communal, state, and federal levels.
As capital of Bavaria, Munich is an important political center in Germany and the seat of the Bavarian Landtag , the Staatskanzlei and of all state departments.
Several national and international authorities are located in Munich, including the Bundesfinanzhof and the European Patent Office.
Subdivisions
Main article: Boroughs of Munich
Munich is subdivided into 25 boroughs .
Allach-Untermenzing , Altstadt-Lehel , Aubing-Lochhausen-Langwied , Au-Haidhausen , Berg am Laim , Bogenhausen , Feldmoching-Hasenbergl , Hadern , Laim , Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt , Maxvorstadt , Milbertshofen-Am Hart , Moosach , Neuhausen-Nymphenburg , Obergiesing , Pasing-Obermenzing , Ramersdorf-Perlach , Schwabing-Freimann , Schwabing-West , Schwanthalerhöhe , Sendling , Sendling-Westpark , Thalkirchen-Obersendling-Forstenried-Fürstenried-Solln , Trudering-Riem and Untergiesing-Harlaching .
Main sights and culture
Munich is a popular tourist destination and has been described as Germany's "secret capital".
Marienplatz and StachusAt the center of the city is the Marienplatz - a large open square named after the Mariensäule, a Marian column in its centre - with the Old and the New Town Hall. Its tower contains the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, an ornate clock with almost life-sized moving figures that show scenes from a medieval jousting tournament as well as a performance of the famous "Schäfflertanz" . Three gates of the demolished medieval fortification have survived to this day - the Isartor in the east, the Sendlinger Tor in the south and the Karlstor in the west of the inner city. The Karlstor is the oldest building at Stachus, a grand square dominated by the Justizpalast .
The most remarkable churchesThe Peterskirche close to Marienplatz is the oldest church of the inner city. It was first built during the romanesque period, and was the focus of the early monastic settlement in Munich before the city's official foundation in 1158. Nearby the gothic hall-church Heiliggeistkirche was converted to baroque style from 1724 onwards and looks down upon the Viktualienmarkt, the most popular market of Munich.
The Frauenkirche is the most famous building in the city center and serves as cathedral for the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. It is particularly famous for the brass onion domes that top the twin towers. The domes were added in the 16th century, in a style that contrasted with the gothic style of the rest of the building. The original design called for pointed towers like Cologne Cathedral but they were never completed due to lack of money. At first glance the two towers appear to be the same height but in fact one is slightly taller than the other. Unlike most buildings in Munich's old town, the towers of the Frauenkirche survived WW2 intact, making them more than 500 years old. The Frauenkirche's towers are also the measurement for a new rule which limits the height of new buildings to the same height in the city. This rule was passed in November 2004 by the people of Munich in a referendum organized by Georg Kronawitter, a former SPD mayor, despite opposition from the political parties in the city's parliament who feared that it would harm the city's attractiveness to investors. Other gothic churches are the former graveyard chapels of St. Peter, the Kreuzkirche, and of the Frauenkirche, St Salvator but also the former Augustinerkirche which serves today as German Hunting and Fishing Museum.
There is a legend about Frauenkirche that the builder of the church didnt have enough money to finish the church, so he made a pact with satan. Satan said "okay" but on the condition that the church had no windows. when the church was completed satan walked in, he saw the church was very dark, he stepped forward to the alter only to see that there were windows as the light shone upon him. he was so enraged that he went back and stomped his foot into the pavement. leaving a size 9 shoe print with a tail extending from the back. That footprint is still there today and it is said that if your foot fits bad luck will follow you through your days.
The reason the devil did not see the light is because the windows are angled so when you enter it looks dark. but as you progress you see that there are windows and the light shines on you.
The nearby Michaelskirche is the largest renaissance church north of the Alps, while the Theatinerkirche is a basilica in Italianate high baroque which had a major influence on Southern German baroque architecture. Its dome dominates the Odeonsplatz. Other baroque churches in the inner city which are worth a detour are the Bürgersaalkirche, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche, the St. Anna Damenstiftskirche and St. Anna im Lehel, the first rococo church in Bavaria. The Asamkirche was endowed and built by the Brothers Asam, pioneering artists of the rococo period. St Michael in Berg am Laim was built almost simultaneously by Johann Michael Fischer and might be the most remarkable church out of the inner city.
The palaces, royal avenues and theatresThe Alte Hof, a medieval castle and first residence of the Wittelsbach dukes in Munich still exists in the inner city close to Marienplatz. The Renaissance Mint Yard with its neoclassical façade is situated between the old castle and the Residenz.
The large Residenz palace complex on the edge of Munich's Old Town ranks among Europe's most significant museums of interior decoration. Having undergone several extensions, it contains also the treasury and the splendid rococo Cuvilliés Theatre. Many operas were staged here, including the premiere of Mozart's "Idomeneo" in 1781.
Munich is home to a neo-classical opera house of international renown, the Nationaltheater where several of Richard Wagner's operas had their premieres under the patronage of Ludwig II of Bavaria. Today it is the home of the Bavarian State Opera and the Bavarian State Orchestra. Next door the modern Residenz Theatre was erected in the building that had housed the Cuvilliés Theatre before World War II. The Gärtnerplatz Theatre is a ballet and musical state theatre on the left bank of the Isar in the south of the inner city. The modern Gasteig center on the opposite bank houses the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The third orchestra in Munich with international importance is the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Close to the Gasteig on the bank of the Isar is the Volksbad, a large public bath built in the art nouveau style.
Among the baroque and neoclassical mansions which still exist in Munich are the Palais Törring-Jettenbach with its loggia, the Palais Preysing, the Palais Holnstein , the Palais Leuchtenberg and the Prinz-Carl-Palais, the official residence of Bavaria's state premier . All mansions are situated close to the Residenz.
Four grand royal avenues of the 19th century with magnificent official buildings are reminders of the kingdom of Bavaria:
Brienner Strasse, starting at Odeonsplatz on the northern fringe of the Old Town close to the Residenz, runs from east to west and opens into the impressive Königsplatz, designed with the "Doric" Propyläen, the "Ionic" Glyptothek and the "Corinthian" State Museum of Classical Art, on its back side St. Boniface's Abbey was erected. The area around Königsplatz is home to the Kunstareal, Munich's gallery and museum quarter .
The neoclassical Ludwigstrasse also begins at Odeonsplatz and runs from south to north, skirting the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, the St. Louis church, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and numerous state ministries and palaces.
Maximilianstrasse starts at Max-Joseph-Platz, where the Residenz and the National Theatre are situated, and runs from west to east. The avenue is framed by neogothic palaces which house, among others, the Schauspielhaus , the district government of Upper Bavaria and the Völkerkundemuseum . After crossing the river Isar, the avenue circles the Maximilianeum, home of the Bavarian Landtag . The western portion of Maximilianstrasse is known for its designer shops, luxury boutiques, jewellery stores, and one of Munich's foremost five-star hotels, the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten .
Prinzregentenstrasse runs parallel to Maximilianstrasse and begins at Prinz-Carl-Palais, in the northeastern part of the Old Town. Many museums can be found along the avenue, such as the internationally renowned Haus der Kunst , the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum , the Schackgalerie and the Villa Stuck on the eastern side of the river. The avenue crosses the river and circles the Friedensengel , a monument commemorating the 25 years of peace following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. The Prinzregententheater, another important theatre, is at Prinzregentenplatz further to the east.
Two large baroque palaces are reminders of Bavaria's royal past. Schloss Nymphenburg , some 6 km north west of the city centre, is surrounded by an impressive park and is considered to be one of Europe's most beautiful royal residences. Schloss Schleißheim , located in the suburb of Oberschleissheim is a palace complex encompassing three separate residences: Al |
