Day 10: Munich

The weather held out for us in Munich today. There were a few spritzes and sprinkles, and even some very heavy thunder, but it was mostly warm and sunny. There was a very nice breeze blowing through the city that killed the heat. This was absolutely perfect Munich weather.

Today I decided to take a different path than the rest of the group. After seeing the group off on their guided bus tour of Munich and Nymphenburg palace, the summer home of the Wittelsbach dukes and kings of Bavaria, I led a very small, private tour of central Munich and the Residenz, the winter palace. The first stop was the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) to exchange some money. Our short trip on the S-Bahn made some of the differences between the French and the Bavarians very clear. The S-Bahn is very clean compared to the Paris Metro (The Metro always makes me want to take a shower upon exiting). The Parisians will tolerate a little delay, as long as they make it to their destination. The German love for precision and efficiency is also apparent in Munich's public transit systems. The countdown until the next train on display on the platform is exact down to the second. Both systems are very good, it's just curious how national character can be on display in the strangest ways.

Here lies Ludwig II

After exchanging some money, we worked our way south, into the center of town. We walked past the Palace of Justice, through Karlsplatz (Stachus to the locals), under Karlstor, and into the huge pedestrian zone that cuts through the middle of Munich. Most cities in Europe have these large pedestrian zones, free from cars. This is something we could learn. About halfway to Marienplatz, Munich's main square, we turned off into the Michaelskirche (St. Michaels Church) to pay a visit to Ludwig II and the rest of the Wittelsbachs and Leuchtenbergs down in the royal crypt. There is even one of Napoleon Bonaparte's step sons (the son of Josephine) burried with the family. At Napoleon's insistence, he married into the Leuchtenbergs family in order to legitimize Napoleon's rule as Emperor of France, and those of the puppet states controlled by the Bonaparte family. The biggest coffin, however, belongs to Ludwig. 130 years after his death, he still holds a very special place with the Bavarian people, a reminder that Bavaria was a kingdom and is still the only state that calls itself Freistaat, free state.

The ballroom of the Residenz

A quick swing through the Frauenkirche, the former seat of Cardinal Ratzinger, and Dallmayr (chocolate!) we made our way to the Residenz. The Residenz was heavily damaged during the Second World War, and was almost not rebuilt. I'm very glad that the people of Munich decided to rebuild this palace. For only 7€, you get to stroll through 60 rooms! Six months from now an additional 60 will be reopened to the public after a complete restoration. This is more than any other palace I have visited. The ballroom of the Residenz is lined with busts of the Ceasars imported from Rome, an effort to connect the Wittelsbach family directly to the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire (propaganda). One room of the palace, in an attempt to out do thier Austrian neighbors, is completely covered in miniature versions of the most famous paintings of the renaissance and baroque periods. Keeping up with the Habsburgs is much more difficult than keeping up with the Joneses. Many of the paintings in the palace bear knife marks around the edges, evidence of the hasty removal of the canvases from thier frames in order to save them from the Allies' bombs during the war.

We reunited with the rest of the group after lunch in the Viktualienmarkt for a trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Opened in March of 1933 (only a few weeks after Hitler became Chancelor of Germany), Dachau served as the prototype and model for all other concentration camps in the Third Reich. This camp served as the training ground for the SS, teaching them how to act with cruelty and hatred. Between 1933 and 1945, over 200,000 prisoners died from starvation, torture, disease, and horrific medical experiments at Dachau. They were Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, political prisoners, foreign prisoners, Catholic clergy, German dissidents, anybody that fell outside of what the Nazis saw as "acceptable." There is no estimate of the number of Soviet prisoners who were brought to Dachau to be executed by SS firing squads. A visit to one of the concentration camp memorials is something that everyone should do at least once. When faced with the overwhelming evidence, it is impossible to see those who deny the exsitence of the Holocaust as anything but complete fools.

 

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