Sophisticated Traveller - City Guide Munich

Entering Munich one could be left with the impression of just another large European city of non specific appeal. However, persevere inwards and you will be suitably rewarded, many of the city’s delights falling within the various ring roads that circumvent the historical town centre. This is a city which does not openly proclaim its appeal; rather it is necessary to search out the many cultural treasures that lay interspersed throughout its grand streets, walkways, gardens and squares.

To the misinformed, it can be surprisingly easy to bypass much of Munich’s resplendent culture, its fine restaurants and exceptional shopping.

Focus too closely on the principal tourist activities that one seems expected to partake and you will miss much of the city’s charm. Indeed, limiting one’s area of exploration to that purely attuned to your sophisticated and discerning needs, it is almost possible to bypass one half of the city. Stay close to Theatinerstraße, Residenzstraße and Maximilianstraße which runs adjacent and you will find the surrounds adequately appeasing.

Munich today benefits from a thriving economy that seems to exist independently from the rest of Germany. Throughout the years it has developed into a major centre for trade between northern and southern Europe and is home to some of the finest automobile manufacturers, publishing ventures, fashion houses, movie studios, and technology companies.

The city thrives from a population that comprises tens of thousands of expatriates and immigrants, with more than two-thirds of the German citizens living in Munich having come from other parts of the country. Residents enjoy a favorable quality of life, Munich consistently ranking amongst top 10 cities with highest quality of living.

Pleasantly diverse climatic extremes provide for magical winters when the city becomes cloaked in virgin snow, and whilst the temperature plummets below freezing, it is surprisingly never uncomfortable. Summer has its own appeal, not least for the spectacle of youth indulging carefree in the warmth. Long days and a society that willingly embraces an outdoor lifestyle offer much to the experience. However, as an historical city whose streets and passages seems to wrap around themselves trapping the high heat of summer, the environment can be stifling at times. Throughout June to September one must ensure accommodation is specified with air-conditioning.

Clean, unpolluted, efficient, safe and comfortable - Munich society and culture continues to be underlined by a sense of religious and political conservatism, a strong foundation for a city which exhibits considerable appeal for those fortunate to discover its charms.

A Brief History:

Munich claimed status as a city 1158 but settlement of the area pre-dates the 8th-century. Much of the cities grand architecture is attributable to the period of the late 15th century, a period of gothic art revival. It was at this time that the Old Town Hall was enlarged and a new Frauenkirche constructed, the cathedral to become a symbol for the city with its prominent two brick onion topped towers.

In the decades prior to World War I Munich enjoyed a period of significant economic and cultural development. It is renowned as a center for the arts and literature, including amongst its many famous residents Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. The fact that Wagner was reputedly an absolute vile man, referring to himself in the third person and maintaining a staggeringly large ego, should bare little reflection upon the nature of the city and one should naturally conclude that his many operatic compositions, frighteningly distressful as they can be, were not inspired by his immediate surrounds.

In 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, Munich fell into a period of rapid decline resultant from the Allied blockade on fuel and food supplies. By 1918 the city was at the center of great civil unrest, leading to the revolution of November 1918, the abdication of Ludwig III and the murder of the first republican premier of Bavaria Kurt Eisner.

In 1919 the Communists briefly took power but were subsequently suppressed brutally by the militarist Freikorps, many of whom were later to be drawn to Adolf Hitler and National Socialism.

Following a minor setback in 1923 when Hitler staged the Beer Hall Putsch, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic and seize power, resulting in his arrest and the temporary crippling of the Nazi Party, he eventually came to power in 1933 with Munich a political representative Nazi stronghold.

Due to its importance in the rise of Nazism, Munich was referred to at the time as the ‘Hauptstadt der Bewegung’ (Capital of the Movement). The National Socialist German Workers Party’s headquarters were based in Munich and many Führerbauten ("Führer-buildings") were built around the Königsplatz, some of which survive to this day.

In 1938, the Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain's famous and farcical act of appeasement to Hitler, was signed in the city. The destruction that followed is sufficiently documented elsewhere, Munich heavily damaged by allied bombing, the subject of 71 major air raids over a period of five years.

Post World War II and following the American occupation of 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 and ensured reinstatement of its many historical buildings to there former glory.