3 Days in Munich
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2005
1
4
14
Trip End
Sep 03, 2005
Munich,
Germany
Thursday, July 14, 2005
After my wonderful day in Landshut on Sunday, I decided to stay in Munich for a couple of days. During the weekend I had met a group leader with high schoolers from La Crescenta, California, here on the German American Partnership Program (GAPP). They had finished staying in homes and going to German school and were now sightseeing. On Monday I bade them farewell as they headed for Salzburg and I headed for the "Zentrum." The desk clerk had loaned me an umbrella for Sunday in Landshut, for which I was very thankful
01 Antiquarium at the Residenz
. Although there was a chance of rain on Monday, I decided not to take an umbrella. As it turned out, I didn't need one.First I headed for Bahnhofplatz and then walked the pedestrian street to Marienplatz, stopping at the Frauenkirche (St. Mary's Church, the Munich Cathedral) on the way. I arrived at Marienplatz just in time to catch the tail end of the Glockenspiel performance at the Neues Rathaus (New City Hall).
Then I headed for the Residenz, the former home of the Wittelsbach family when they were in town. The Wittelsbachs were the kings of Bavaria. The building is neo-classical, and I didn't think it was terribly attractive on the outside - just big. The inside is an entirely different matter. Among the rooms I visited were the Antiquarium, a renaissance room with "ancient busts" (about 2/3 are fakes) of Roman emperors and paintings of 120 Bavarian villages as they appeared in 1550 and the oldest extant part of the palace; the Gallery of the Wittelsbach Family containing the family tree and portraits of important Wittelsbachs, especially Ludwig IV who is shown beside Charlemagne and wearing the same crown since both were Holy Roman Emperors - the Wittelsbach claim to fame and power; the Precious Rooms, a string of ceremonial rooms including the official sleeping room (used only for the king to retire and arise publicly like Louis XIV) and the Red Room with a collection of miniatures of the most famous paintings of the day - the Wittelsbachs were trying to keep up with the Hapsburgs; the Charlotte Wing; the Porcelain Room, where the Wittelsbachs' Nymphenburg Porcelain is displayed; and the Hall of the Nibelungen with scenes from the German saga that inspired both Wagner and Ludwig II
02 St. George Reliquary
. (Maybe they first got their inspiration from this room, since they both hung out here and were friends.) I also visited the Schatzkammer (Treasury). One of the most outstanding pieces was a reliquary with St. George killing a dragon, containing over 2,000 precious stones. The face of St. George is the Wittelsbach duke (before the family became kings under Napoleon, they were Dukes and Electors of the Holy Roman Emperor), and the dragon represents the evil forces of Protestantism. (BTW: if the figure killing the dragon has wings, it's St. Michael - based on Revelation 12:7ff -; no wings and on horseback, it's St. George - whom Pope John Paul II declared nothing more than a legend.)Following my visit to the Residenz (and lunch) I spent the afternoon at the Deutsches Museum. This has to be one of the world's great museums. I didn't see nearly everything, and I made it through Mining (general, copper, iron, salt and coal), Metals, Motors (took pics of the first Diesel engine), Aeronautics, Physics, Music, Chemistry, Construction, Carriages and Bicycles. By this time it was close to closing, so I headed toward the exit. I sat down for a moment in Marine Navigation and heard a boy mention "die U-Boote." Since I teach a unit in German 2 using the movie "Das Boot," I hurried downstairs to take pictures and film of the U-1 and a depth charge. It was certainly serendipitous for me to be where I could overhear the comment; otherwise I would have missed out on a great opportunity. I had been planning to go to the Bavarian Film Studio to take pictures of the set from "Das Boot," but now I don't have to and can save the money.
From the Deutsches Museum I walked back across town, wandering through various side streets along the way, to the hotel
03 First Diesel Engine
. Thus ended Monday.
Tuesday was "Dachau Day." I didn't get there as early as I wanted because I just missed the S-Bahn that goes there and had to wait 45 minutes for another. At the train station, though, it was a short wait for the bus to the Concentration Camp Memorial. As one enters through the main gate of the camp, one reads "Arbeit macht frei" (Work makes you free). What irony! Dachau was officially a work and protective custody camp, but many prisoners died from overwork, starvation, disease, and medical experimentation. This was also where the majority of priests and pastors, including Martin Niemöller (from Berlin; famous for saying, "When they came for the Jews I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew; when they came for the Communists I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist; when they came for the Socialists I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Socialist; when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up") were interned. I tried to imagine the feeling of having the gate close behind me knowing I couldn't leave.
After entering, I visited the Appellplatz, a huge open space between the "Maintenance Building" and the barracks, where roll call was taken and where prisoners had to stand - sometimes for hours - until everyone was accounted for. In this area is the international memorial that contains the ashes of the "unknown prisoner." In several languages are the words "Never Again." Yet I wonder just how far we have come sometimes. With the recent bombings in London and Turkey and violence at places like Jefferson High in LA, it's obvious that racial and religious intolerance are still very much alive
04 Arbeit macht frei
.Then I went through the museum. At the entrance the size and extent of the camp system struck me. Each main camp had scores or hundreds of subcamps, reaching from France and Holland in the West to Austria and Poland in the East. Not only was Dachau the first concentration camp, it was also the training camp for the commandants of other camps. Eventually I was simply overwhelmed by it all. The exhibit raises a lot of issues about the responsibility of the individual to keep an eye on what the government is doing. A film about the camp pointed out that when local Germans visited the camp after the war they realized for the first time exactly what had happened. During the war they would have seen only the most robust prisoners outside in work gangs. Even then many Germans gave the men food and a kind word on the street. They just didn't inspect the camp itself.
Following the museum visit, I went to "The Bunker," where torture occurred and "special prisoners" were held. As punishment prisoners were hung from poles, beaten and whipped. They were also shot by firing squads. Inside the bunker some cells had been converted to "standing cells" with insufficient room to sit or lie down, and prisoners were left there for days at a time. The atmosphere was claustrophobic and depressing
05 Never Again
. I was glad to be able to walk out whenever I wanted.Next I went to the barracks area. There were 28 different barracks, plus medical barracks for the sick and where the "medical experiments" with malaria, lack of oxygen, hypothermia, etc. were carried out. It's hard to imagine the conditions: hundreds of men in an area designed for 50; hard wooden bunks; everything lined up with German military precision and sever punishment for anyone whose bedding wasn't perfect.
Then I visited the religious memorials: Catholic, Jewish, Russian Orthodox, and Protestant. The Protestant memorial was built last, and only after confession by the State Church of its sin of silence. Not all of the ministers were silent, though. Bonhoeffer, Niemöller and other spoke out and were punished. [When I lived in Stuttgart, Germany in the late 1970's, I lived with a family from a "Free Church" (i.e., non-State Church) background. The headquarters of the church were in Switzerland, and the grandfather of the family was a local minister who traveled to church meetings in Switzerland. Every time he came back, the Gestapo came by and took him to their headquarters for questioning. The family never knew if he would come back, but he always did - probably because of his ties with Switzerland.] Some people think that Nazism somehow was a "Christian" deviation
06 Schloss Nymphenberg
. It wasn't, but it was religious. Especially the top Nazis were interested in a blend of the occult, German myth and the cult of personality. In an exhibit I saw in Cologne two years ago, a Nazi document shows that the aim was to promote "religiosity" without content among the people. Catholics were suspect because they owed allegiance to someone outside of Germany: the Pope. Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted because they were known as "Bibelforscher," literally "Bible Researchers." The Protestant Church was split between the "confessing Church" and those who remained silent. Those from the confessing Church were persecuted. The Nazis didn't want people to know what the Bible says because so much of what they did was contrary to its teachings. I would hate to be persecuted simply because I choose to study the Bible!Finally I visited the crematorium. There were two: an old, single-oven crematorium that was soon overtaxed, and a new, four-oven crematorium known as Barrack X. Barrack X also housed a gas chamber. So far there are no records of mass exterminations here, although single and small-group gassings are documented. Like other gas chambers it was disguised as a mass shower room. The gas of choice was Zyklon B (prussic acid), originally a pesticide and also used to disinfect the clothing of those who had died.
07 Reception Hall at Nymphenberg
Dachau was not a pretty place, but I'm glad I went. I'm also glad that all German schoolchildren are required to visit a concentration camp. There were several groups there, and I listened in on a couple of lectures.
By the time I finished visiting Dachau, it was too late to go to another tourist site. Instead, I went to Hugendubel, a bookstore. There I bought some DVDs and books to use in my German classes. (I do a German movie series once a month after school, and I needed some new DVDs; there are a couple that I'm still looking for, but I think I have a good assortment.) Since I'm traveling so much still, I had them sent home. [Note to Mom: in a few weeks, start looking for a package from Hugendubel!]
Thus ended Tuesday.
On Wednesday I visited Nymphenburg Palace. It was the Wittelsbachs' Munich summer residence. (They had other palaces further away as well.) It was impressive, although there isn't very much open to the public. I toured the main building and looked over the gardens. I learned that Elector Karl Theodor of Pfalz (the Palatinate) inherited Bavaria in 1777 when the Bavarian branch of the Wittelsbach family died out
08 Boy picking fleas off his dog
. He hated the place and wanted to trade it for the Austrian Netherlands. Had he been successful, Munich might today still be Austrian, and German history could have been very different. Also, King Ludwig I (grandfather of Ludwig II) loved female beauty. He invited ladies from all levels of society to the palace to have their portraits made. He also had affairs with several of them, including Lola Montez - which contributed to the revolution of 1848. [In 1848 revolutions swept through Europe, shaking the rulers to the core; by 1850 everything was back to the way it was before 1848.]Following my visit to Nymphenburg, I went to the Alte Pinakothek, Munich's Art Gallery that houses the "Old Masters." I left the Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne for another time. This was originally the private collection of the Wittelsbachs and includes many works by recognized masters from the 14th to 19th centuries. I saw works by van der Weyden, Memling, Dürer, Holbein the Elder, Botticelli, Titian, Rubens, ter Borch, Zurbaran, and El Greco. It's laid out very well, and they let you take pictures (without flash) - so I did.
In the afternoon, I went to Marienplatz for Radius Tours' "Third Reich Tour." Our guide was a Glaswegian who teaches English here in Munich. He boasted that there are now a number of Munich businessmen who speak English with a Scottish accent. The guide's name was Joseph, and the tour was excellent. I recommend it, if you come to Munich. I learned a lot about the Munich connections with the Nazi party. We walked all over the inner city, and I learned about places I either would have overlooked or never gotten to on my own. I won't bore everyone with everything I learned, but just a couple of items.
09 Feldherrnhalle
We went to the Hofbräuhaus, a famous Munich beer hall. This was where the German Worker Party changed its name to the National Socialist German Worker Party, the 25-point plan was unveiled (Hitler's master plan from 1920 to 1945), the Brown Shirts were created, and Hitler was elected party Führer with absolute power, a position he held to the very end. Incidentally, the owner of the Hofbräuhaus wasn't a Nazi and didn't have any particular sympathies. Just a few weeks before he started renting the Festsaal (festival hall) to the Nazis, he rented it to the Communists who declared a short-lived socialist republic following the death of Kurt Eisner. When the Nazis came to power, they painted swastikas on the roof of the ground floor hall. After the war they covered them up with the blue-and-white Bavarian flag; if you know what you're looking at, it explains the strange positioning of the flag.
Later in the tour we came to Odeonsplatz and the Feldherrnhalle, an open loggia commemorating the German generals of WWI. This was where the Munich Putsch ended. During a speech at the Bürgerbräukeller, Hitler took the mayor of Munich hostage in preparation for a march on Berlin. While he stepped out for a moment, the mayor persuaded General von Luddendorf to let him go home and tell his wife so she wouldn't worry. Instead, he called out the police, who met the Putschists at Odeonsplatz
10 Hofbräuhaus
. In the skirmish, 4 policemen were killed (a plaque commemorates them) as well as 16 Nazis. The latter became the party's "martyrs" and part of the quasi-religious ceremonial trappings of Hitler's cult of self.Our last stop was at Königsplatz and Hitler's Munich Headquarters. This was the "Brown House" that overlooked the square where mass assemblies and parades were held. Hitler watched from the balcony. Today the House is a "Hochschule" for Music and Theater. Hitler's former office is a music practice room - no one wanted to use it as an office, not even the janitor.
Following the tour I went to the Hard Rock Café, across from the Hofbräuhaus, for dinner. I also got my obligatory polo shirt.
Thus ended Wednesday.
I promise the next installment won't be nearly as depressing! I'll include my medieval outings to Kaltenberg in it.
Comments
Dachau
I, too, have spent several days wandering around Dachau and trying to imagine the horror that so many men and women inflicted on their fellow human beings. I realized that in order for the Nazis to inflict so much pain and suffering, they must have de-humanized their victims. We must all consider one another human beings and not fall into the trap of hating someone because of race, creed or color or any other characteristic that is different from what we consider 'normal' or 'acceptable.'
Flo
Dachau
As a child and teenager I remember my mother speaking of the camps they visited while my father was stationed in Germany in the late 50's. My mother used to say no matter how much time passes the horrors of what happened will always remain fresh. Thank you for having the courage to share.