Looking at Munich’s History Through Art and Architecture

 Munich
May 242022
 

May 2022

Munich is Germany’s third largest city and has a population of over 1.5 million people. It is also a very densely packed city making architectural photography a real challenge.

The city has a relatively short history, only first mentioned in the 12th century, however, it was an important power within the former Holy Roman Empire and also as the independent Kingdom of Bavaria.

St Peter’s Church

The back side of St Peters Church

As the Duchy of Bavaria solidified its power within the Holy Roman Empire, a small group of monks constructed a monastery near the banks of the Isar River, a tributary of the Danube. Historians aren’t really sure when the Benedictine Monastery was founded, but it is thought about 950-1050 CE.

The back portion of St Peter’s church sits on the foundation of the original monastery, built in the Romanesque style it dates from the 12th century and then again in the 14th century after a fire.

St Peters

A 299 foot bell tower was added to St. Peters in the 17th century in the Renaissance Style. The tower clocks are the oldest documented city clocks in Munich and have 8 dials.

Inside of St. Peters is the Jeweled Skeleton of Saint Munditia.  Pictures are difficult to take so this comes from Wikipedia.

Saint Munditia

Venerated as a Christian martyr, her relics consist of a gilt-covered and gem-studded skeleton. She is in a glass case, with false eyes in her skull, and wrapped in netting. Jewels cover the mouth of her rotten teeth.  I have seen relics all over the world, this one stands out as rather unique.

Sendlinger (Tor) Gate

The city was surrounded by a large stone wall built from 1285 to 1337 taking 52 years to complete. Most is gone with the exception of  the Sendlinger Tor, Karlstor, and Isartor.  The Sendlinger Tor was first mentioned in 1318 as a starting point for the road to Italy, but it probably existed earlier.

Old Town Hall

Munich’s Old Town Hall

In approximately 1392, construction began on the Old Town Hall. Although originally a Gothic style building but after considerable alterations it is now a smattering of mixed styles. It houses a toy museum today.

The Marienplatz has been the center of Munich and its main gathering place since the 12th century. In the center of Marienplatz is Mary’s Column erected in 1683.

Mary’s Column

 

The Cathedral of Our Lady

Cathedral of Our Lady

The Cathedral Church of Our Lady was built in 1488. Its interiors are elegant and majestic. The church serves as the seat of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and is the burial sites of King Ludwig III, the last Bavarian king, and Holy Roman Emperor Louis VI.

Interior of Cathedral of Our Lady

The Church is considered by many to be Munich’s most important church.  If nothing else the towers can be seen from everywhere and are a perfect landmark. Although those “catfish hoods” didn’t show up until 36 years after the church was built.

One of the main reason people come to visit is to view the foot of Satan.

The Devil’s Footprint

There are a myriad of stories regarding this footprint in the floor of the church, all with so many holes in them as to be full of hooey, but it brings tourists in, so there is that.

The Asam Brothers

Asam Church

As churches go, this one ranks right up there as one of my favorites. Built from 1733 to 1746 by a pair of brothers, sculptor Egid Quirin Asam and painter Cosmas Damian Asam, it served as their private church. It is considered to be one of the most important buildings of the southern German Late Baroque style.  Officially known as Church of Saint Johann Nepomuk it is called the Asam church in honor of the brothers.

The interior of Asam Church

*

The ceiling of Asam Church was done by Cosmas Damian Asam and depicts the Life of Saint Nepomuk

The pictures do not do it justice, it is over the top in its ornamentation, and just breathtaking.

Asam Church

One of the more intriguing figures was this sculpture near the entrance of the church itself.  It shows a skeletal image of death with scissors cutting through the  life-thread of a soul.

A memento mori

Egid Asam’s Home

The brothers had four homes, two of which they used for the church. This house, built in the 16th century belonged to Egid, who did the sculpture on the exterior.

A close up of the door way to Egid Asam’s house

The artistic work of the Asam home is called Lüftlmalerei.  It is an abstract of the paintings found on the outside walls of houses in Bavaria and Tyrol.

Two buildings decorated with the traditional Lüftlmalerei off of the Marienplatz.

 

Munich Residenz

The entry to the Residenz Museum on Max Joseph Square

The Residenz is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria and is the largest city palace in Germany.  During the 16th century, the Bavarian Dukes made huge changes to their royal residence, altering it into a palace and less of a fortress as it was previously. Multiple wings, courtyards, and grand halls were all constructed in a distinct renaissance style.

One of the more impressive of the rooms I saw was the Antiquarium.

The Antiquarium

While built between 1568 and 1571, the room went through many changes. In 1581 the hall was covered with a barrel vault ceiling that had 17 window lunettes.

The palace was severely damaged by bombing during World War II. Most of its rooms were reconstructed by the 1980s.

A restored exterior wall of the Residenz.

Immediately after the war, thanks in large part to the Marshall Plan, Munich went on a rebuilding and restoration project tear. This is why so many of the buildings in the city are so pristine today since they were heavily repaired in the last 70+ years. As shown in the photo above, many buildings were built in a simpler and cheaper fashion, lacking a lot of the ornate stonework and expensive materials that were around before WWII.

After the Unification of 1871

Rathaus and Marienplatz

The iconic building of Munich is the New Town Hall or Rathaus. The building looms over Marienplatz and is entirely too big to capture in one photograph.

Begun in the late 1800s, after the unification of Germany,  it took 40 years to complete.  It is 98,600 square feet and has over 400 rooms and was designed by Georg von Hauberrisser.

 

Rathaus Glockenspiel

One of the biggest tourist draws in Munich is the Glockenspiel on the Rathaus.  I was through here in 1976, and I do not remember much, but I do remember the Glockenspiel.

The Glockenspiel dates from 1908 and when chiming, re-enacts two stories from the 16th century. The top half tells the story of the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V to Renata of Lorraine. In honor of the marriage there is a joust with life-sized knights on horseback representing Bavaria (in white and blue) and Lothringen (in red and white). The Bavarian knight wins every time.

Jousters on the Glockenspiel

The bottom half is the coopers’ dance. According to legend, in 1517 a plague hit Munich. The coopers are said to have danced through the streets to “bring fresh vitality to fearful dispositions.” The coopers remained loyal to the duke, and their dance symbolizes perseverance and loyalty to authority in tough times (How German!)

 

Munich Rathaus

 

Wurmeck

On one corner of the Rathaus is Wurmeck, a metal dragon climbing up the “Serpent’s Corner”.  The dragon clings to a part of the building that was constructed in 1906. Above the beast, stone reliefs tell the story of its legendary arrival and defeat.

Legend has it that during the “black death”  a serpent with wings rose from the ground and started eating people. The residents fought with the creature and eventually killed it and with that, the Plague ended.

National Theater and King Maximilian I

The first National Theatre was commissioned in 1810 by King Maximilian I of Bavaria, whose statue graces the front.  The theater was designed by Karl von Fischer, with the 1782 Odéon in Paris as architectural precedent. Construction began in 1811, beset with problems it did not open until 1818.

Feldherrnhalle

The Feldherrnhalle is a monumental loggia overlooking the Odeonsplatz. Completed in 1841 in a Neo-renaissance style, is a nearly identical copy of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence.

Ruffinihaus

Ruffinihaus

I don’t know if Ruffinhaus is anything special, I simply really liked it. Ruffinihaus is actually three houses built by Gabriel von Seidl from 1903 to 1905.  It is named after the Ruffiniturm “Ruffini Tower”, which was demolished in 1808. The tower was in turn named after Johann Baptista Ruffini a Bavarian salt trader.

 

That was a lot of architecture, and that was only the highlights, a lifetime would not be enough to absorb the architecture of Munich.

Confronting the Past With Art and Architecture

 Munich
May 242022
 

Dealing with Difficult Times

I often find it unsettling to be in Germany.  The people are absolutely wonderful, and the beer is grand, but their history weighs heavy.  That being said, I feel that the Germans are far better than many societies at confronting the horrors of the past and honoring those that suffered.

World War II

Feldherrnhalle

The Beer Hall Putsch saw the deaths of four Bavarian policemen and 16 Nazi marchers in front of the Feldherrnhalle. This confrontation led to the arrest of Adolf Hitler for treason. Once the Nazi party came into power, Hitler declared the site a national landmark, and required that all that pass by perform the Nazi Salute. Officers were stationed at the site to ensure this happened.

Just behind the Feldherrnhalle is the street, Viscardigasse.

Golden Footsteps in Viscardigasse

As an act of passive resistance those opposed to giving the salute would take an alternate route around the monument using the Viscardigasse. Originally named after a Swiss architect, the alley eventually became known as the “Drueckebergergasse,” roughly translated as “Shirker’s Alley” or “Deserter’s Alley.”  The line was painted some time after the war but I have not been able to find out by whom or exactly when.

The fact that there was a “Shirker’s Alley” also points to the fact that not all Germans bought into the Hitler regime.

Wounds of Memory at the Ludwig Maximilian University

“Wounds of Memory” was installed in 1993 It was part of a European wide project where artists were finding ways to confront the horrors of WWII. The artists used mass produced panes of glass to transform bullet holes and other ‘injuries’ left by bomb fragments and grenades into visible scars.

The White Rose Memorial at the University

White Rose was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany led by five students and one professor from the University of Munich. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in June 1942, and ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo in February of 1943. They and other supporters faced show trials by the Nazi People’s Court with many of them sentenced to death or imprisonment.

Hans and Sophie Scholl, as well as Christoph Probst (three of the core members)  were executed by guillotine four days after their arrest on February 22, 1943.

The Jewish Ohel Jakob Synogogue

In countries all over Europe Jews were heavily persecuted under the Nazi Regime, and today the construction of the Ohel Jakob Synagogue and the Jewish Museum behind it is a step towards commemorating the horror of the Holocaust.

An earlier time

I almost walked right over this, as do so many others I am sure, but it caught my eye instantly.

Kurt Eisner Memorial

Kurt Eisner was the first Bavarian Prime Minister and he was murdered on February 21, 1919 in Munich.  The Minister had lost the state elections in January and intended to announce his resignation to the State Parliament. Shortly after informing officials of his resignation, Eisner was shot and killed by Anton Graf Arco-Valley, an officer close to conservative right-wing circles and  died on the spot

The memorial was designed by Erika Maria Lankes and dedicated in 1989 on the 70th anniversary of Eisner’s death. The memorial sits where the officer put two bullets in the back of the Prime Minister’s head at close range.

The memorial consists of outlines on a steel plate, as if  they were marked with chalk by the police.

Modern Day Tragedies

Octoberfest Bomb Attack Documentation

On September 26, 1980 a bomb exploded at the entrance to the Oktoberfest. The bombing was attributed to the right-wing extremist and geology student Gundolf Köhler, who was instantly killed in the attack as the bomb exploded prematurely.

The Documentation Project is interactive, one walks around and reads in German and English. These are just a few of the signs that struck me.


*
 *

One of the reasons that the cases were closed is that much of the evidence has since been destroyed. In 2020 a 1.2 million euro ($1.4 million) fund was set up to aid victims.

At the entrance to the Oktoberfest grounds is a memorial.

Oktoberfest Bombing Memorial

The bronze stele was created by Friedrich Koller in 1981. It extends onto the ground in the shape of a cross. The names of those who died were added to the stele in 1987.

The large piece behind was done by the artist in 2007.  The semi-circular steel wall has openings as if pierced by an explosion.  On the ground are splinters set in the concrete representing the twelve victims killed.

 

I have studied public art for many years, and have been impressed with the attitude the Germans have taken in teaching the dark side of history in hopes these things never happen again.

 

Fun Findings of Munich

 Munich, Uncategorized
May 242022
 

May 2022

Little Red Riding Hood

The wealthy power couple Adolph and Apollonia Wolf were generous benefactors of the Munich art scene during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the early 1900s, the Wolfs commissioned local sculptors Heinrich Düll and George Pezold to create a piece of public art that would memorialize the family name.  This Art Nouveau sculpture which sits above a fountain with four wolf-headed spouts was dedicated in 1904.

Juliet

The bronze statue of Shakespeare’s Juliet from Romeo and Juliet was a gift from the city of Verona and sits behind the New Town Hall. Apparently you are supposed to touch Juliet’s breasts for a chance at undying love.

Chimes at the Toy Museum

While everyone gathers around to watch the Glockenspiel show in Marienplatz there are a few other places to enjoy hourly chimes.  This one spins and spins while the bells chime and the cymbals clang.

Chimes on the hour

I was particularly charmed by the chimes and dance from this one on a street corner in town.

Maximilian von Montgelas

I had no idea who this fellow was, I just fascinated with the sculpting technique it is so unique.  The whole scene is somewhat poignant with the detritus of a nearby flower bed at his feet. Maximilian von Montgelas was a nobleman and statesman. The statue is aluminum, and was done by Karen Sander in 2005.

Gargoyle

The word gargoyle comes from the French gargouiller.  It is also the root for gargle.  I often think people do not understand that these are placed on buildings as a way of evacuating water, but in this guy someone has done a masterful job of showing the spout and making his purpose quite obvious.

If it isn’t a gargoyle it is a grotesque, and I have a rather obsessive love for them.  Here are some of the ones that caught my eye around Munich.

A braying harp playing donkey was a new one to me.

On the same building was this half unicorn half fish, another design I have never seen

On the side of the Rathaus

Atlas figures another passion of mine.  Women are Caryatids and men are Atlas’s.  I have never seen one of each sex on a building before.

A crochet bicycle in the park

At first I wondered if this was a Munich take on the “ghost bikes” you find around the world, but later I saw “ghost bikes”, that were the universally accepted, actual bikes painted white.  I read that these were a fundraising concept to aid Belarus, but was unable to substantiate that comment.

Umschreibung

This sculpture at Ganghoferstraße 29A  is titled Umschreibung.  According to the artist, Olafur Eliasson, it is supposed to create “movement without destination, a space defined by motion rather than walls”.  It was created in 2004.

Hand painted theater sign

This sign is at the Sendlinger Tor Theater and it is hand painted.   The theater opened in October 1913 with a showing of the Italian silent film Marcantonio e Cleopatra (Cleopatra, die Herrin des Nils; Antony and Cleopatra). Over 25 million visitors have entered the theater.

For the past 25 years the posters at the theater have been painted by René Birkner, and are often completed in less than a night. Birkner is one of the few remaining film poster painters in Germany.

A sewer cover in Munich

The Munich Coat of Arms has a boy monk cloaked in black with gold trim, wearing red shoes, and holding a red book on a white/silver background. München, the German word for Munich, basically means “of monks”. It is thought that the monks image on the coat of arms is possibly a play on the city’s heritage.

Bavaria

This 59 foot tall statue of Bavaria is the earliest bronze statue of the Germany’s modern era. It was commissioned by King Ludwig I in 1837 to crown the Bavarian hall of fame.

The statue took 13 years to complete, with the project outliving the architect and the reign of the king. This was due in large part to techniques not used since ancient times. King Ludwig was even recorded saying, “Only Nero and I have produced such giant statues – no-one has done it since Nero’s time.”

It also took many years to install, the first portion went up in 1844, it was completed 6 years later.

Bavaria in front of the Bavaria Hall of Fame. Inside the colonnade of the Hall of Fame are over 90 busts of Bavaria’s most celebrated people including artists, politicians, and scientists.

Every town has its own off the beaten tracks fun curiosities, these are just a few that I found in Munich

Nymphenburg Palace

 Germany, Munich
May 242022
 

May 2022

The Nymphenburg Palace and Park served as the main summer residence for the former rulers of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach.

The front or entry of the Nymphenburg palace

Commissioned by the electoral couple Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, it was designed by Italian architect Agostino Barelli in 1664 following the  birth of the electoral couple’s son Maximilian II Emanuel. The central pavilion was completed in 1675 and the palace has been added onto and transformed over many years.

The prince-electors, or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Looking back at the Nymphenburg Castle from the gardens

The facades are baroque as are many of the interior rooms, while others are done in either rococo or neoclassical styles.

In the main room of the castle is this stunning plaster work and painted ceiling

Plaster Work in the castle

A very content lion peeks out from the plaster work in the cove molding

I loved the billygoat playing the woodwind

A little whimsey on one of the multitude of chandeliers

The ceiling in the main room of the castle

A lantern on the porch with lions feet

Inside the park are several pavilions or what I took to calling outcastles.  They are spectacular in their own right, and frankly more intriguing than the palace itself.

They are:

The Pagodenburg (1716–1719), an octagonal, two-story pavilion with Delft tile decoration downstairs and Chinoiserie upstairs. It was built by Joseph Effner as “maison de plaisance” and tea house.

One of the delightful wall paintings in the Pogodenburg

A ceiling in the Pogodenburg

The Badenburg (1719–1721) is a Baroque pavilion also by Joseph Effner. It served for the private bathing with its very large tiled bath, or what most today would consider a pool. The dressing room is decorated with various Chinese printed wallpapers.

The bath at Badenburg

Chinese Wallpaper at the Badenburg

Chinese Wallpaper at the Badenburg

Whimsical women/griffons over the door in the plaster work at the Badenburg

The Magdalenenklause is a faux ruin meant for retreat and meditation, erected between 1725 and 1728. The highlight for me was the grotto, but the rest was a stark series of rooms covered in dour ecclesiastical black and white drawings meant to truly make you want to do penance, even if you hadn’t committed any sin.

The grotto / chapel at Magdalenenklause

The grotto at the Magdalenenklause

The Amalienburg, is a seriously over the top Rococo hunting lodge constructed in 1734–1739 by François de Cuvilliés for Charles Albert and his wife, Maria Amalia of Austria.  The most spectacular portion being the hall of mirrors designed by Johann Baptist Zimmermann and Joachim Dietrich.

The Amalienburg

The Amalienburg

The Amalienburg

Tiles in the kitchen of the The Amalienburg

Paintings in the kitchen of the The Amalienburg

The Apollotemple is a neoclassical monopteros by Leo von Klenze, erected in 1862–1865.

The Apollotemple

The day had turned 85 degrees, an unexpectedly hot day, so a trip out to a garden with 2 lakes, many streams and lots of trees was the perfect decision.

Pan presiding over one of the many water features in the park

There are several museums on the site, including one dedicated to sleighs and carriages. The carriages were so obscene in their luxury I preferred this sweet simple sleigh

The ducks, swans and other avian life were rife, enough that one would assume they were in a bird sanctuary

Spring time and baby geese

A diving swan

Munich is a spectacular town for architecture, art and history, but every once in a while one needs a break from the city, especially when the weather turns unseasonably hot. The Nymphenburg Palace and Park is the perfect escape.

Ulm, Germany

 Ulm
May 242022
 

May 2022

The city of Ulm was founded in 850, it is a small city with a population of just 126,000, and is the home of Ulm University.

In the wars following the French Revolution, the city was alternately occupied by French and Austrian forces, with the former ones destroying the city fortifications.

Traces of the fortification walls

There was only one RAF strategic bombing during World War II against Ulm in December 1944.  The aim was two truck factories and other strategic sites. The raid left 80% of the medieval city center in ruins.

An example of the older architecture

Wooden Framed Building

Kaiser-Friedrich-Haus built in 1897/8

Most of the city was rebuilt in the a more plain and simple style of the older houses in the 1950s and 1960s.

The primary reason for visiting is the Lutheran church, Ulm Minster. It is currently the tallest church in the world and will likely remain so until the eventual completion of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The church is the fifth-tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a steeple measuring 530 feet.

Figures from Genesis above the main portal

Ulm Minster Interior

Ulm Minster was begun in the Gothic architecture period of the Late Middle Ages but the building was not completed until the late 19th century after periods of no construction that lasted centuries.  The church was barely damaged during the WWII bombing.

It is said the organ was played by Johann Sebastian Bach

I was enamored with the newel posts in the choir chairs in the nave of the church

Dating back to the early 14th century, is the Zeughaus (Arsenal), tucked into a small corner of town. It underwent significant expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries, what drew me to the site was the Renaissance and baroque motifs on the portals.  It was damaged during WWII.

One of the portals of the Zeughaus

The Zeughaus

The Einstein Fountain

Einstein was born in Ulm in 1879, although he left when he was one.  This Einstein fountain, found right next to the arsenal is by Jürgen Goertz and it was erected in 1984. The story goes that the rocket represents technology, particularly the scientist’s legacies involving spacetime and atomic theory. The snail shell symbolizes nature and wisdom. And Einsteins silly expression shows his whimsical side.

Ulm has a fascinating history and a deep dive would reveal so much more than I was able to see on the short 3 hours I had the pleasure of spending there.

 

 

Tübingen, Germany

 Germany, Tubingen
Dec 042021
 

December 2021

I am in Tübingen to visit an old friend.  What a delightful little diversion to my hectic schedule.  The town is around four hours from Paris on the TGV.

It is the quintessential fairy tale town with castle and all. Tübingen first appears in official records in 1191. And the Hohentübingen Castle, has records going back to 1078, when it was besieged by Henry IV, king of Germany.

Courtyard of the Hohentübingen Castle now part of the University of Tübingen. Towards the end of the 15th century Count Eberhard im Barte founded the university with the slogan “attempto” (I will attempt it).

The Second World War left Tübingen largely unscathed, with the exception of the burning of the Synagogue on Kristallnact, November 9, 1938. I did read that one bomb was dropped on the town and destroyed the building where either Shiller or Goethe stayed, the story well could be apocryphal as I have been unable to substantiate it.

City hall on Marktplatz

When Germany was divided amongst the allies, Tübingen became part of the French zone of occupation and remained so from 1946 to 1952. French troops had a garrison stationed in the south of the city until the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.

Tubingen is divided by the Neckar River

Neckar Island sits in the middle of the Neckar River in the heart of the town and is lined with 200 year old London Plane Trees.

Some random shots of the beautiful town of Tübingen

Tübingen’s is a fairly liberal town with a population around 85,000.  The town is a mixture of students, researchers and academics, medical specialists and “Gorgen” (the people whose families have been here since the beginning of time, they once grew grape vines on the hills around the town. “gorge” ~ cork).
*

A fun gargoyle on the Castle walls

*

An antique store with a window full of apothecary jars

A lovely painted entryway

*******

Johann Friedrich Cotta of Tübingen first published the works of Goethe. It is said that Goethe conducted detailed research on Tübingen’s pubs during his week-long stay in 1797. To commemorate Goethe’s partying ways is this interesting sign ‘Hier kotzte Goethe’ (Goethe puked here).

A sign of the times

My dear friend lives in the town of Reutlingen, which is a mere 10 minute train ride from Tübingen.  Its claim to fame is the fact that it is the home to the most narrow street in the world.

*

The World’s narrowest street

*