Munich

MUSEUMS

The Deutsches Museum, situated on an island in the Isar River, is the world’s biggest and one of the oldest scientific museums. The Verkehrsmuseum, which contains the Deutsches Museum’s land transport exhibits, was renovated from three disused display buildings that were under preservation order. The Luftwerft Schleissheim flight exhibition center is nearby, on the Schleissheim Special Landing Field. The increased state collections of palaeontology, geology, minerals, zoology, botany, and anthropology are shown at a number of non-centralized museums (many of which are public collections at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität).

The city features a number of notable art galleries, the most of which are located in the Kunstareal, including the Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek, Pinakothek der Moderne, and Museum Brandhorst. The monolithic edifice of the Alte Pinakothek houses a rich trove of works by European artists from the 14th to the 18th century. The collection, which spans two levels and shows the Wittelsbachs’ diverse tastes spanning four centuries, is organized by schools. Albrecht Dürer’s Christ-like Self-Portrait, his Four Apostles, Raphael’s works The Canigiani Holy Family and Madonna Tempi, and Peter Paul Rubens’ two-story-high Judgment Day are among the highlights. The gallery features one of the most extensive Rubens collections in the world. The Blaue Reiter group of painters worked in Munich before to World War I. The Lenbachhaus presently houses several of their works.

The Glyptothek and the Staatliche Antikensammlung have a significant collection of Greek and Roman art (State Antiquities Collection). For the Glyptothek, King Ludwig I was able to purchase notable items like as the Medusa Rondanini, the Barberini Faun, and figurines from the Temple of Aphaea on Aegina. The Egyptian Museum is another prominent museum in theKunstareal.

Erasmus Grasser’s famous gothic Morris dancers are on display at the Munich City Museum in the old gothic arsenal building in the city center.

The Lehel quarter, between the old town and the river Isar, is another arts district: the Museum Five Continents in Maximilianstraße houses Germany’s second largest collection of artifacts and objects from outside Europe, while the Bavarian National Museum and the adjoining Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Prinzregentenstrasse rank among Europe’s major art and cultural history museums. The neighboring Schackgalerie is a significant collection of German nineteenth-century paintings.

The old Dachau concentration camp lies 16 kilometers (10 miles) outside of town.

ARTS AND LITERATURE

Munich is a significant European cultural center that has hosted many notable composers such as Orlando di Lasso, W.A. Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Max Reger, and Carl Orff. The Munich Biennale, created by Hans Werner Henze, and the A*DEvantgarde event continue to contribute to current music theatre. Some of classical music’s most well-known works, such as Richard Strauss’s renowned tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, were composed in and around Munich by local composers.

The Bavarian State Opera and the Bavarian State Orchestra are based in the Nationaltheater, which hosted the debuts of numerous of Richard Wagner’s works under the patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The current Residenz Theatre was built next door in the structure that had formerly hosted the Cuvilliés Theatre before World War II. Many operas were presented there, including Mozart’s Idomeneo’s debut in 1781. The Gärtnerplatz Theatre is a ballet and musical state theatre, while the Prinzregententheater, another opera house, has become the home of the Bavarian Theatre Academy.

HOFBRÄUHAUS AND OKTOBERFEST

The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, possibly the most renowned beer hall in the world, is situated in the heart of the city. It also runs the second biggest tent during Munich’s Oktoberfest, one of the city’s most recognized attractions. For two weeks, millions of visitors go to the Oktoberfest to explore the beer tents (“Bierzelte”) and fairground activities. The first Oktoberfest was celebrated on October 12, 1810, to commemorate Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The celebrations concluded with a horse race, which was maintained in subsequent years and eventually evolved into what is today known as the Oktoberfest. Despite its name, the majority of Oktoberfest takes place in September. It always ends on the first Sunday in October, unless the German national holiday on October 3 (Tag der deutschen Einheit, i.e., “Day of German Unity”) falls on a Monday or Tuesday, in which case the Oktoberfest continues open.

Munich has a continental climate that is heavily influenced by the city’s height and closeness to the Alps’ northern border. This signifies that precipitation is abundant, and rainstorms might strike suddenly and forcefully.

The winter season lasts from December through March. Winters in Munich are chilly, although significant rain or snowfall is uncommon. January is the coldest month, with an average temperature of 2.2°C (28.0°F). During the winter, there is at least a couple of weeks of snow cover. Summers in Munich are warm and pleasant, with highs of 23.8°C (73.8°F) on average during the warmest months. Summer season lasts from May through September.

The föhn wind, a warm and dry down-slope breeze from the Alps that may boost temperatures considerably within a few hours, even in winter, and expands the range of sight to more than 100 km, is an anomaly of Munich (60 mi). These winds have been linked to a variety of ailments ranging from migraines to insanity. The first clinical evaluation of these effects was published in the nineteenth century by Austrian physician Anton Czermak. Munich residents sometimes use the Föhn as an excuse to be grumpy, which should not be taken too seriously.

Munich is located on the raised plains of Upper Bavaria, about 50 kilometers (31.07 miles) north of the northern border of the Alps, at an elevation of around 520 meters (1,706.04 feet) ASL. The Isar and Würm rivers run through the area. The city of Munich is located in the Northern Alpine Foreland. The northern portion of this sandy plateau has a particularly fertile flint region that has not been damaged by the folding processes observed in the Alps, while the southern section is covered with morainic hills. Between them are fluvio-glacial out-wash fields, such as those seen near Munich. Where these layers become thinner, ground water may reach the gravel surface and flood the region, resulting in marshes such as those seen to the north of Munich.

Munich has the best economy of any German city and the lowest unemployment rate (3.0% in June 2014) of any German city with a population of more than a million people (the others being Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne). In addition, the city serves as the economic hub of southern Germany. In June 2006, the initiative “Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM)” and the magazine “WirtschaftsWoche” (Business Weekly) gave Munich the highest score in their comparative study for the third time. In February 2005, Munich topped the magazine “Capital’s” survey of sixty German cities for economic prospects between 2002 and 2011. Munich is a global metropolis with the headquarters of Siemens AG (electronics), BMW (car), MAN AG (truck manufacturer, engineering), Linde (gases), Allianz (insurance), Munich Re (re-insurance), and Rohde & Schwarz (electronics). Munich has the greatest buying power among German cities with more than 500,000 people (26,648 euro per person in 2007). In 2006, blue-collar employees in Munich earned an hourly income of 18.62 euro (about $20).

In 2009, Munich was ranked eighth among Global 500 cities by city proper (as opposed to metropolitan regions). Munich is also a biotechnology, software, and other service industry hub. Many other large companies have their headquarters in Munich, including aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines, injection molding machine manufacturer Krauss-Maffei, camera and lighting manufacturer Arri, semiconductor firm Infineon Technologies (headquartered in the suburban town of Neubiberg), lighting giant Osram, and the German or European headquarters of many foreign companies such as McDonald’s and Microsoft.

Munich is an important financial center (second only to Frankfurt), since it is home to HypoVereinsbank and the Bayerische Landesbank. It does, however, outrank Frankfurt as the headquarters of insurance businesses like as Allianz and Munich Re.

Munich is Europe’s biggest publishing metropolis and home to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest daily newspaper. The programming offices of Germany’s biggest public broadcasting network, ARD, are also located in the city, while the largest commercial network, Pro7-Sat1 Media AG, is situated in the neighborhood of Unterföhring. The German headquarters of Random Firm, the world’s biggest publishing house, and the Burda publishing group are headquartered in Munich.

The Bavaria Film Studios are situated in the Grünwald neighborhood of Munich. They are one of Europe’s largest and most well-known film production companies.