Munich

Description of Munich

Munich is the capital of the Free State of Bavaria. It has approximately 1.5 million inhabitants the most populous city in Bavaria and (after Berlin and Hamburg) third largest in Germany and the fourth largest city in the German speaking and twelfth of the European Union.

Munich is counted among the world cities. The metropolis is one of the economically most successful and fastest growing in Europe. It is the seat of numerous groups, including four DAX companies (Allianz , BMW , Munich Re , Siemens ) as well as two others in the direct vicinity (Infineon and Wirecard ). Here is the only stock exchange in Bavaria. In the city placements of the consulting firm Mercer , Munich ranked third in the world in terms of quality of life in 2018 among 231 major cities worldwide. According to the magazine Monocle , in 2018 it was the most liveable city in the world. On the other hand, the quality of life is increasingly by agglomeration disadvantages such as traffic and environmental pollution as well as very high home ownership rates and Rent limited, why the living space per inhabitant is far below the national average. Munich is safest municipality among the major German cities over 200,000 population with regard to the crime of all crimes.

Munich was first mentioned in documents in 1158. The city was 1255 Bavarian duchy and was from 1314 royal since 1328-1347 imperial residence. In 1506 Munich became the sole capital of Bavaria. Munich is home to numerous national and international authorities as well as important universities and colleges, major museums and theaters . Through a large number of interesting buildings including protected monuments and ensembles, international sporting events, fairs and congresses as well as the world-famous Oktoberfest is Munich a magnet for international tourism.

History of Munchen

City foundation
Munich was first mentioned in 1158 as forum apud Munichen in Augsburg , after the Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, Henry the Lion, built a transition settlement of the salt road over the Isar approximately at the site of today's Ludwigsbrücke and founded a market.

With the Augsburg arbitration, however, the city of Munich was not founded; The already existing settlement was thereby granted by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa only the market, coin mintage and customs law. However, the bishops of Freising received a third of the resulting income.

It is not known when the settlement named from 1158 "Munich" was actually founded and what its name was when it was founded.

Middle Ages
When Henry the Lion was ostracized by the Emperor in 1180, Bavaria fell to the Wittelsbachs and Munich to the Bishop of Freising . In 1240, Munich also came into Wittelsbacher ownership and became ducal residence as early as 1255 after the first division of the Land.

Since 1314, Duke Ludwig IV was German king, since 1328 also Roman-German emperor, and Munich was considerably expanded as his residence by a new second wall ring. At that time, Munich adopted the colors of the old empire , black and gold, as city colors.

Since the end of the 14th century, there were repeated uprisings of the citizens against the Dukes, who then moved their seat of government from the Old Court to the new residence on the outskirts. Because of the threat of the Hussites in 1429 the city fortification was reinforced by an outer wall ring.

In 1442, the Jewish citizens were expelled from the city. Thereupon no Jews lived in Munich until the second half of the 18th century.

In 1468, the foundation stone for the new St. Mary's Church " Frauenkirche " was laid, the construction of which lasted only twenty years.

Capital and residence of Bavaria
After the city had experienced a new cultural heyday in late Gothic , Munich became capital of the whole of Upper and Lower Bavaria in 1506 with the reunification of the duchies by Albrecht IV (1465-1508). In the following years, the influence of the citizenship went back further and the Wittelsbach determined from then on the development of the city. Munich was under the rule of William IV (1508-1550) and Albrecht V (1550-1579) a center of the Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation . In 1589 the Hofbräuhaus was founded by Wilhelm V. (1579-1597). Two early city ​​viewsare pictured with Georg Braun , Franz Hogenberg : "Civitates orbis terrarum" from 1572.

Under Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria (1597-1651) Munich 1628 electoral residence city of the very old Bavarians and in 1632 had to endure the occupation of Swedish troops. Munich had to pay a high ransom and put hostages in order to avoid its destruction. A little later, the plague broke out and killed a third of the population. After the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648, the city quickly recovered and opened under the Elector Ferdinand Maria (1651-1679) the Italian Baroque .

1704 Munich came in the War of Spanish Succession for several years under Habsburg occupation , since Elector Maximilian II Emanuel (1679-1726) had allied with France. An uprising of the citizens and peasants was ended bloody in the Sendlinger Mordweihnacht.

After the imperial coronation of Elector Karl Albrecht (1726-1745) Habsburg troops occupied Munich in 1742 for two years again. Maximilian III Joseph (1745-1777) gave up the great power politics of his predecessors and devoted himself to internal reforms, so the Bavarian Academy of Sciences was founded in 1759 in Munich. In 1789, on the order of Elector Karl Theodor (1777-1799), the layout of the English Garden in the Isar meadows and a little later, the medieval city fortifications were demolished.

Although Munich was already in 1328 imperial residence city, the rise to the big city began only 450 years later. Towards the end of the 18th century Munich grew rapidly, which was accelerated in 1806, when Bavaria was raised by Napoleon to the Kingdom of Bavaria and Munich became the capital of a twice larger country. If Munich had just 24,000 inhabitants in 1700, the number of inhabitants soon doubled all about thirty years, so that in 1871 170,000 people lived in Munich and in 1933 840,000. Under King Max I Joseph (1799-1825) began the planned expansion of the city, 1818 Munich was given a self-government with two mayors and two council colleges.

Under the reign of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1825-1848), Munich became a well-known city of art. The classics Leo von Klenze and Friedrich von Gärtner designed the Ludwigstraße , the Königsplatz and the extension of the Munich Residenz .

Ludwig's son Max II (1848-1864) particularly promoted the humanities and gathered a circle of writers around (" The Crocodiles "). Max II emerged as his father as a builder. In the new " Maximilianstil " reminiscent of the English Gothic , among other things, the buildings on the Maximilianstraße, today one of the most exclusive and expensive shopping streets of the continent.

Under King Ludwig II (1864-1886), musical life experienced a new boom with several stays of Richard Wagner . In the 19th century, when Munich was repeatedly plagued by the plague, Max von Pettenkofer introduced the sewage system . As early as the end of the 19th century, Munich was considered one of the cleanest cities in Europe.

In the time Prinzregent Luitpolds (1886-1912) experienced Munich then a tremendous economic and cultural boom. Among others, the Prinzregentenstraße and the Prinzregententheater were built . At the turn of the century, Schwabing flourished as a bohemian district, with many important literary figures and painters of the time. In 1896, the Munich cultural magazine Die Jugend was published for the first time, which gave its name to the Art Nouveau style . In 1911, the artist association Der Blaue Reiter was founded.

Revolution, Weimar Republic and National Socialism
In 1916, during the First World War , Munich was hit in three French air raids by bombs that did no major damage. The worsening supply situation, on the other hand, posed a major problem for the population.

In 1935, Hitler awarded Munich the city ​​honorary title of the Nazi era: capital of the movement. In 1938, the Munich Agreement was concluded, which determined the connection of the Sudetenland to the German Reich.

On 1 December 1937, the race organization Lebensborn moved into the house of Thomas Mann , which was located at the corner of the former Föhringer Allee (since 1955: Thomas-Mann-Allee) and the Poschingerstraße. The headquarters of the SS organization remained in the building until 31 December 1939.

Like all major German cities, Munich was hit hard by Allied air raids during the Second World War (air raids on Munich). By the end of the war, the historic old town was destroyed to ninety percent and the city as a whole to fifty percent. It is estimated that about 6,000 people died and about 15,000 were injured.

Two days before the occupation of Munich by the Allies, called the resistance organization freedom action Bavaria , which consisted of military and civilian persons, on local broadcasting stations to rise against the National Socialist rule. The rebellion of the freedom action was ended on the same day by an SS formation. On April 30, 1945, ultimately occupied the US Army, without much resistance, the city of Munich. Elsewhere in Germany, the war continued until the beginning of May. He finally ended on 8 May with the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht.

Numerous memorial sites are reminiscent of the victims of National Socialism.

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