History UsefulNotes / Munich

** Adjacent to the Stachus runs the ''Sonnenstraße'', which has become Munich's nominal party mile with night clubs and bars. Right next to it lies the Central Train Station quarter (''Bahnhofsviertel''), colloquially known as ''Klein-Istanbul'' ('Little Istanbul') which provides a variety of both smutty strip clubs and really good Turkish restaurants in equal measures.

-->-- '''[[DichterAndDenker Heinrich Heine]]'''

-> ''"Amongst the art and beer, Munich is lodged among the hills like a village."''

-> ''"This people did not wash and did not bathe, and yet it was more artful than the clean humanity of the North."''
-->-- '''Theodor Lessing.'''[[note]]The Northern people in question are, [[AcceptableTargets of course]], [[{{Kaiserreich}} Prussians]].[[/note]]

-->-- '''Theodor Lessing.'''[[note]]The Northern people in question are, [[AcceptableTargets of course]], [[{{Fatherland}} Prussians]].[[/note]]

* The ''Hofbräuhaus'' ('Royal Brewery House') is a public beer hall and brewery owned by the Bavarian state. It's located at the ''Platzl'' ('Little Square') in one of the various little backstreets north of the ''Marienplatz''. It was opened in 1598 by ducal decree to enact the Bavarian crown's monopoly on brewing and selling beer, in accordance to, among other things, a tight quality control. It has always been very popular with locals and outsiders alike, and has been known to count Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart (who got inspired to write ''Idomeneo'' there), VladimirLenin (who lived across the street for a couple of years), Thomas Wolfe, AdolfHitler (pre-rise to power, mostly), Marcel Duchamp and JohnFKennedy among its regulars.

* The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), which lies at the ''Ludwigstraße'' royal avenue, is a renowned institution that split from the University of Ingolstadt in 1802, and has since become a major intellectual instituion with ''twenty'' faculties and multiple research centres. Prominent lecturers and alumni include Creator/BertoltBrecht, Thomas Mann, Werner [[BreakingBad Heisenberg]], Conrad Adenauer, Film/SophieScholl and all the other members of the ''Weiße Rose'', Conrad Wilhelm 'X-Ray' Röntgen, and Josef Ratzinger (later better known as [[ThePope Pope Benedikt XVI]]).
** Another prominent university is the Munich Technical University (TU), which, among other things, has its own ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forschungsreaktor_M%C3%BCnchen_II neutron research reactor]]''.

The Oktoberfest was, [[SmallReferencePools contrary to popular opinion]], not meant to be a celebration of Munich's beer heritage (at least, not ''just'' that), or even [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons October]], but marks the anniversary of the royal wedding between Prince (later King) Ludwig I and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 10th, 1810 on the same green. That said, the festivities were soon [[NonIndicativeName moved to September]], because nobody liked having snow in their beer. Once having acted as a showcase for Bavarian agricultural capacity, it has mostly been replaced by beer tents and joyrides, but the agricultural expo is still held next-door. The present-day Oktoberfest is, with almost 7 ''Million'' visitors attracted annually, by a large margin the world's biggest funfair.

* The Königsplatz ('King's Square'), a square built by Ludwig I entirely in a style heavily based of ancient Greco-Roman Architecture (Ludwig was quite an aficionado of AncientGrome, and his son Otto was the King of Greece for a while), including another triumphal arch, the ''Glyptotheqk'' and the State Museum Of Art, both museums built in the style of temples. The square also houses the Italian villa of the painter Franz von Lenbach, which has since been turned into a gallery.

* The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, which lies at the ''Ludwigstraße'' royal avenue, is a renowned institution that split from the University of Ingolstadt in 1802, and has since become a major intellectual instituion with ''twenty'' faculties and multiple research centres. Prominent lecturers and alumni include Creator/BertoltBrecht, Thomas Mann, Werner [[BreakingBad Heisenberg]], Conrad Adenauer, Film/SophieScholl and all the other members of the ''Weiße Rose'', Conrad Wilhelm 'X-Ray' Röntgen, and Josef Ratzinger (later better known as [[ThePope Pope Benedikt XVI]]).

[[{{Oktoberfest}} Oktoberfest and Weißbier and Pretzels and Lederhosen and Weißwurst and Fußball...]]

Over centuries, it served as the capital city for the Electorate of Bavaria (one of the HRE's most influential - and almost consistently largest - territories), later to be made a Kingdom by NapoleonBonaparte. While it was the salt trade that once made the town big, it was its devotion to culture and science that made it world-famous. A cavalcade of rulers were patrons of the arts, who attracted artists and thinkers from all over the Western World, having them landscape palaces, parks and museums of all kind that still keep up Munich's reputation to this day.

On a less proud note, Munich was a very reactionary place after the Great War, who had not gotten over the forceful resignation of the Bavarian monarchy in 1918 and a shortlived Communist revolution (which lasted for a grand total of two weeks, but was bloody enough to kill 3000 people), and this is why it could act as a political launching pad for [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler a certain failed Austrian painter and war cripple]], being the HQ of what would later become the [[ThoseWackyNazis NSDAP]]. First, Munich was the scene of yet ''another'' failed revolution - the 1923 fascist Beerhall Putsch (which lasted for about a day and killed twenty), but later went on to become the place of Hitler's first electoral victories. The Nazis' first concentration camp also was built just outside the city gates, in Dachau.

* The ''Marienplatz'' is essentially the closest thing Munich has to a heart (as if you go North, you come to the the ''Odeonsplatz'', if you go east, you come to the Isar, if you south, you come to the ''Sendlinger Tor'', and if you go west, you will arrive at the ''Karlspatz''). It also was the medieval centre of Munich that houses the Old and the New Town Halls. One is a medieval building that nowadays holds a toy museum, and the second is an enormous gothic revival structure with countless courtyards and the home of the famed Munich ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbUwQctvbHg Carillon and Glockenspiel]]''.
* The ''Frauenkirche'' ('Lady's Church', full name 'Dome Of Our Lady') has perhaps the biggest EiffelTowerEffect of any structure in Munich's skyline, with its rather unique two 100 metre-tall red brick towers topped with verdigris onion domes. Comes with its own '[[DidYouJustScamCthulhu Did You Just Scam The Devil]]' myth. One other reason the ''Frauenkirche'' stands out is because very few other buildings in Munich centre are anywhere near as tall - the typical vertical limit is consistently five storeys.
* The ''Viktualienmarkt'' ('Victual Market') is Munich's main market square, lodged behind St Peter's church, where you can get excellent cutlery, dairy, fish or flowers. They even have a little beergarden.

* The ''Odeonsplatz'' ('Odeons' Square') is almost as iconic a place as the ''Marienplatz'' - on the south side stands the ''Feldherrnhalle'' ('Field Marshall's Hall') a Loggia war memorial. On the east side lies the entrace to the Royal Residence's ''Hofgarten'' ('Court Garden'), the Munich Egyptologist Collection the Bavarian Cabinet buildings. On it's west side is the strikingly yellow ''Theatinerkirche'' ('Theatiner Church'), and to its north begins the ''Ludwigstraße'' royal parade street leading into Schwabing. The ''Odeonsplatz'' has regularly been the place of public assembly - speeches, concerts and presentations have been held from or by the steps of the ''Feldherrnhalle''. It also is the place where the 1923 Beerhall Putsch was cut down by armed police.
** At the other end of the Ludwigstraße, these stands the Siegestor ('Victory Gate'), another arc of triumph, which bears probably the most iconic summation of German decorum in the last century: "Dem Sieg geweiht - Vom Krieg zerstört - Zum Frieden mahnend" ('Blessed With Victory - Destroyed By War - Urging For Peace').
* The ''Englische Garten'' ('English Garden') is Munich's big park, built in the style of an British garden green, designed by the American-born British physicist and architect Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. It's one of the largest municipal parks in the world (larger than New York's Central Park), and perhaps the most visually cosmopolitan place in the city - apart from the English flair, it also houses a chinese-style pagoda tower and the ancient greek ''Monopteros'' temple pavillon. It furthermore features wide open spaces, a lake, several beer gardens, a concert hall, an open-air theatre, a surfing spot (!), and its own nudist area.

* The ''Hofbräuhaus'' ('Royal Brewery') is a public beer hall and brewery owned by the Bavarian state. It's located at the ''Platzl'' ('Little Square') in one of the various little backstreets north of the ''Marienplatz''. It was opened in 1598 by ducal decree to enact the Bavarian crown's monopoly on brewing and selling beer, in accordance to, among other things, a tight quality control. It has always been very popular with locals and outsiders alike, and has been known to count Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart (who got inspired to write ''Idomeneo'' there), VladimirLenin (who lived across the street for a couple of years), Thomas Wolfe, AdolfHitler (pre-rise to power, mostly), Marcel Duchamp and JohnFKennedy among its regulars.
* There is the ''Deutsches Museum'' ('German Museum'), which houses the world's possibly largest exposition on technology and science, held by three museums city-wide (the Museum Island, The ''Schrannenhallen'' and Airfield Oberschleißheim). It covers a wide span of topics including architecture, shipbuilding, hydraulics, aeronautics, locomotion, nanotechnology, mining, astronomy and industrial engineering, all of the past, present and future.
** The bridges traversing the Isar and Museum Island also are steeped in history, being one of the few bridged places which let salt merchants pass, thus forcing them to pass by Munich and pay bridge toll to the city. At one point, this enterprise became so vital and lucrative that Munich's founder, Duke Henry the Lion, even had the bridge of his archrival, the Bishop of the North-of-Munich see of Freising, burned down, causing a Empire-wide scandal.

* The Königsplatz ('King's Square'), a square built by Ludwig I entirely in a style heavily based of ancient Greco-Roman Architecture (Ludwig was quite an aficionado of AncientGrome, and his son Otto was the King of Greece for a while), including a triumphal arch, the Glyptotheque and the State Museum Of Art, both are museums built in the style of temples. The square also houses the Italian villa of the painter Franz von Lenbach, which has since been turned into a gallery.
** It's almost a given that Hitler wanted to give the Greco-Roman architecture a try, and had several villas torn down to accomodate giant Nazi-esque party palaces and memorials. Many were in return blown up after liberation, but some still stand.
* The ''Mariahilfkirche'' (roughly translated as 'Mary's Help Church'), situated in the ''Au'' ('valley') district, is known for hosting Europe's largest crockery market, the Catholic festive ''Auer Dult'' fair, thrice a year. Considered to be Munich's very own [[Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks Portobello Road]], the traditions still stems from the time where the ''Au'' was the closest thing Munich had to poverty-stricken [[TheCityNarrows City Narrows]]. The ''Dult'' is famous for selling antiquities, porcelain, housewares, records and cassettes, and comes with a humble funfair and beer tents.

Believe it or not, the prevalence of those things in Munich's culture is ''hardly'' exaggerated. Beer had been a vital export of the region, which, just like Munich, has its roots in the Catholic monasteries that started it all. The Bavarian Dukes were also the patrons of beer (case in point: the Hofbräuhaus, or 'Royal Brewery House', ''was'' in fact a brewery of the Bavarian Crown - and nowadays, the Free State - and it was far from the only one) - not only made sure that beer stayed cheap and popular among the people, but also set purity laws and quality controls that have been adapted by most of the beer-brewing world. The Cloister of Weihenstephan, slightly north of the city, is the oldest brewery still in existence, and ''the'' international school on the fine art of brewing beer.

Weißwurst is revered as the most delicate sausage (with extra emphasis on ''delicate'' - it used to spoil mere hours after being made, and you cannot just throw that sausage into cold water and boil it into submission like most others) in the region, and the original Munich variation still knows no worthy substitutes.

* Shown very shortly in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' as one of the places Stewie and Brian tour on their way to Britain. It's laughably inaccurate, not only in its depiction of Munich as some kind of medieval Franconian town, but also as depiciting [[AllGermansAreNazis the locals as Nazis]]. [[note]]RealLife present-day Munich is, to put it mildly, a ''rabidly'' anti-fascist place, as exemplified by the sheer number of commemorative memorials, murals and museums.[[/note]]

** [[VoiceOfTheResistance Radio Free Europe]] used to have its headquarters next-door during the ColdWar.

The story of the city started fairly late into the history of Germany, being first mentioned in 1158, when it still was a Benedictine monastery (the chapel house of which actually ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church_%28Munich%29 still stands]]'') with a little settlement (thus the name 'München' - a bastardisation of the old German "Ze den Munichen" - "Were The Monks Are"). There might have been countless Celts living on that spot for centuries beforehand, but apart from a few Roman ruins, hardly anything reminds of that era.

* The ''Hofbräuhaus'' ('Royal Brewery') is a public beer hall and brewery owned by the Bavarian state. It's located at the ''Platzl'' ('Little Square') in one of the various little backstreets north of the ''Marienplatz''. It was opened in 1598 by ducal decree to enact the Bavarian crown's monopoly on brewing and selling beer, in accordance to, among other things, a tight quality control. It has always been very popular with locals and outsiders alike, and has been known to count Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart (who got inspired to write ''Idomeneo'' there), VladimirLenin (who lived across the street for a couple of years), Thomas Wolfe, AdolfHitler (pre-rise to power, mostly), Marcel Duchamp and JohnFKennedy.

* The ''Hofbräuhaus'' ('Royal Brewery') is a public beer hall and brewery owned by the Bavarian state. It's located at the ''Platzl'' ('Little Square') in one of the various little backstreets north of the ''Marienplatz''. It was opened in 1598 by ducal decree to enact the Bavarian crown's monopoly on brewing and selling beer, in accordance to, among other things, a tight quality control. It has always been very popular with locals and outsiders alike, and has been known to count Music/WolfgangAmaedusMozart (who got inspired to write ''Idomeneo'' there), VladimirLenin (who lived across the street for a couple of years), Thomas Wolfe, AdolfHitler (pre-rise to power, mostly), Marcel Duchamp and JohnFKennedy.

* The ''Hofbräuhaus'' ('Royal Brewery') is a public beer hall and brewery owned by the Bavarian state. It's located at the ''Platzl'' ('Little Square') in one of the various little backstreets north of the ''Marienplatz''. It was opened in 1598 by ducal decree to enact the Bavarian crown's monopoly on brewing and selling beer, in accordance to, among other things, a tight quality control. It has always been very popular with locals and outsiders alike, and has been known to count WolfgangAmaedusMozart (who got inspired to write ''Idomeneo'' there), VladimirLenin (who lived across the street for a couple of years), ThomasWolfe, AdolfHitler (pre-rise to power, mostly), MarcelDuchamp and JohnFKennedy.

** At the other end of the Ludwigstraße, these stands the Siegestor ('Victory Gate'), another arc of triumph, which bears probably the most iconic summation of German decorum in the last century: "Dem Sieg geweiht - Vom Krieg zerstört - Zum Frieden mahnend" ('Blessed with victory - Destroyed by war - Urging for peace')

** [[VOiceOfTheResistance Radio Free Europe]] used to have its headquarters next-door during the ColdWar.

Believe it or not, the prevalence of those things in Munich's culture is ''hardly'' exaggerated. Beer had been a vital export of the region, which, just like Munich, has its roots in the Catholic monasteries that started it all. The Bavarian Dukes were also the patrons of beer (case in point: the Hofbräuhaus, or 'Royal Brewery House', ''was'' in fact a brewery of the Bavarian Crown - and nowadays, the Free State - and it was far from the only one) - not only made sure that beer stayed cheap and popular among the people, but also set purity laws and quality controls that have been adapted by most of the beer-brewing world. The Cloister of Weihenstephan, slightly north of the city, is the oldest brewery still in existence, and ''the'' international school on the fine art brewing beer.

* There is the ''Deutsches Museum'' ('German Museum'), which houses perhaps probably the world's largest exposition on technology and science, held by three museums city-wide (the Museum Island, The ''Schrannenhallen'' and Airfield Oberschleißheim). It covers a wide span of topics including architecture, shipbuilding, hydraulics, aeronautics, locomotion, nanotechnology, mining, astronomy and industrial engineering, all of the past, present and future.

* Shown very shortly in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' as one of the places Stewie and Brian tour on their way to Britain. It's laughably inaccurate, not only in its depiction of Munich as some kind of medieval Franconian town, but also as depiciting [[AllGermansAreNazis the locals as Nazis]]. RealLife presen-day Munich is, to put it mildly, a ''rabidly'' anti-fascist place.

Up until the advent of WW1, Munich was known as a huge exporter of its own culture. The fact that the cosmopolitan city itself took hints from France, Italy, Austria, Bohemia, Britain and many German states helped Bavaria to manifest itself as the quintessential posterchild for German culture. Plus, Munich always had the honour of being essentially [[TheManBehindTheMan a capital right behind the capital]] for about any larger nation whose sphere of influence Bavaria found itself in - be it Vienna, Paris or Berlin. [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Prussians loved Bavarian culture]], even though the feeling never was mutual.

Of course, it also still houses powerhouse football club FC München, the winner of 24 national and 5 UEFA titles.

** At the other end of the Ludwigstraße, these stands the Siegestor ('Victory Gate'), another arc of triumph, which bears probably the most iconic description of German decorum of the last century: "Dem Sieg geweiht - Vom Krieg zerstört - Zum Frieden mahnend" ('Blessed with victory - Destroyed by war - Urging for peace')

* [[VOiceOfTheResistance Radio Free Europe]] used to have its headquarters next-door during the ColdWar.