Today is the feast day of St Benno of Meissen, Patron saint of Munich. 10 facts about Munich.
Munich is located on the river Isar north of the Alps and is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria with a population of 1,604,384 in 2024. It’s the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg.
It began with a monastery in the 12th century and the settlement which grew up around it became known as zu den Munchen ("to the monks") which evolved into the modern German name for the city, München. That said, evidence has been discovered of settlements here dating back to the Bronze Age when the river Isar was an important trade route.
The town as we know it was founded by Henry the Lion, the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, in an attempt to gain a monopoly in the salt trade. He’d burned down a rival town and built a bridge. He granted the monks the right to establish a market in 1157, which was fortified.
Munich is famous for beer. The first king of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph, was instrumental in establishing Munich as a centre for Beer production. He granted a monopoly to the richest brewers, in exchange for them paying him taxes. He also did them the favour of removing a limit on the number of staff they could employ so that they could meet the beer requirements of a growing population. Munich's working and lower classes consumed beer as a staple of their diet. Since the Middle Ages beer had been regarded as nutritious liquid bread (fließendes Brot) in Bavaria. Not only that, but it wasn’t safe to drink the water.
Today, of course, it’s the venue for Oktoberfest (follow the link for more info on this) but not only that, there are over 60 beer gardens to have a beer or three in the summer; it’s home to 6 major breweries and the world’s only airport beer garden. There are also pools of beer underground beneath the city. These are not open to the public, but were built by breweries of old as a way to keep their product cool before fridges were invented. The pools are used for fermenting and storing beer, keeping it at the perfect temperature.
Also under the city are some artificial caves which Ludwig II, the "Swan King" had built under his palace. Given his penchant for fairytale castles, it will be no surprise to learn that these caves were fitted with waterfalls, coloured lights, and even a wave machine. It’s said he had a special shell-shaped boat and got some of his minions to push it around the underground lake while he listened to his favourite operas as a way to unwind from the pressures of royal life.
Talking of wave machines, one wouldn’t immediately flag Munich as a surfing destination, since it’s not by the sea. However, there’s a park in the city called The English Garden where there’s an urban surf centre, one of the very few in the world. The English Garden, btw, is huge, bigger than Hyde Park in London and Central Park in New York. It was designed by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell between 1789 and 1807.
Munich was the base of the Nazi party in the 1930s and was where the 1938 Munich Agreement was signed by Neville Chamberlain. Heinrich Himmler and Eva Braun were born in Munich. Hence the city was heavily bombed in the second world war although much of the architecture has since been restored. A hill in the city called the Olympiaberg, which has great views, as far as the Alps on a clear day, is actually not natural but was created from the rubble from the bombings. The city was also the base of a resistance movement called the White Rose. This group stencilled slogans like "Down with Hitler" and "Hitler the Mass Murderer" on public buildings in Munich, which got their leaders executed.
The first photo taken in Germany in 1839 by the scientists Carl August von Steinheil and Franz von Kobellwas of a church, the Frauenkirche. Another of Munich’s churches has a fresco which includes a saint holding a Pretzel. This isn’t a modern thing but dates back to the 14th century. There’s a local legend about a character known as the "Brezenreiter" or "Pretzel Rider," who would ride through the streets once a year handing out pretzels to the poor, and this is who the fresco is deemed to represent.
Munich is also home to Circus Krone. While you’d generally picture a circus as taking place in a big tent, Circus Krone has a building. It was the first circus to occupy its own building and is still one of very few European circuses to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment