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Last Updated: 04. Mai 2000
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Germany
Munich: The Festive Bavarian City
Glockenspiel am Rathaus
"Der Teufelstritt" im Frauenkirche
Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology
Hofbräuhaus
Other Museums
Shopping
Englischer Garten
Glockenspiel am Rathaus
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At the famous Marienplatz in Munich, there is the famous Glockenspiel. It is located in the Neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus, which dominates Marienplatz. Though the Neues Rathaus was built in the late 19th Century, the Glockenspiel was added in 1904. It plays twice or three times a day. As the chimes ring out, doors flip open and brightly colored dancers and jousting knights act out two events from Munich's past. One is a tournament held on Marienplatz in 1568 and the Schaefflertanz or Dance of the Coppers which commemorates the end of the plague in 1517.
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"Der Teufelstritt" im Frauenkirche
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Also near the Marienplatz, Frauenkirche is located. It is a late Gothic brick structure with two soaring towers topped with onion shaped domes. This church is known for the Teufelstritt (Devil's footprint) located just inside the church. There are many explanations for this.
One is that the architect did not have enough money to pay for the construction of the church. So he made a pact with the devil for the money and his soul. He had to make a nave without windows. So he built a church that is flooded with light from 183-meter tall windows that are completely invisible from the Teufelstritt.
Another legend has it that before the building of the church was finished, but not yet consecrated, the devil sneaked through the big gate, curious and angry watching the building; suddenly he started to laugh very loud and said, a building without any windows is not very useful. At that moment he was standing exactly at the point where you still can see the black footprint today! So he could not see any windows; and in triumphal happiness he stamped into the floor, where he left this footprint in the ground. As he made one step further, suddenly there were lots of windows to be seen. Then he saw that he was the loser. Out of anger he changed himself into a great wind and hoped he could blow the building down. But he failed; and since that time there is always a wind blowing around the towers.
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Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology
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The largest Science and Technology museum in the world is located in Munich. It's definitely too large to see everything (55,000 square meters) and expansion is being planned. It is so big that it would require a couple of days of investigating even seeing a limited number of exhibits. We spent 1.5 days in the museum and we still did not see everything. We explored the exhibits about water and bridges. There were numerous interactive exhibits in the water area. You can learn about tides and erosion as well as the structural engineering of bridges. We saw some old planes and old ships. We also saw an anatomy exhibit that showed 3-D models of the human body, a baby in a mother's womb and farm animals such as pigs and chickens. The next day we discovered the craft or industrial area with exhibits about glass blowing, ceramic, papermaking, weaving and fabric dyeing and printing. We also spent time in the interactive physics area and the music rooms. There were a few sound rooms set up to hear the acoustics of the most famous European Concert halls.
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Hofbräuhaus
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After the Deutsches Museum, we had dinner at the Hofbrauhaus, the world famous Munich beer hall. It was just to hear a typical ompah band, but of course we had to eat schnitzel dinner and, well, just had to drink Munich beer.
In Munchen steht ein Hofbräuhaus
Eins - zwei - gsuffa
Da läuft so manches fässchen aus
Eins - zwei - gsuffa
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Other Museums
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In Munich we saw the Neue Pinakothek and the Haus der Kunst. At the Neue Pinakothek we obtained a guidebook with photos of some of the paintings in the museum. We entertained Erika by asking her to find the painting in each room or period that was represented in the museum guidebook. Erika has become a great museum visitor. She will quickly walk around the gallery and look at each painting with a studied gaze and then announce that she has seen everything and be ready to go to the next room. Unfortunately, this process may take only five minutes. Which is why we started to play games about looking for a specific painting or a specific artist. The museum guidebook became the basis for a scavenger hunt that we invented at the Neue Pinakothek.
At the Neue Pinakothek we saw mostly 19th Century paintings from German, Scandinavian, and French artists. The highlights of their collection are the French Impressionists including paintings from Monet, Degas, and Manet. Also, we saw a few Gustav Klimt, from the Art Nouveau period. Many of Klimt's works are found in museums in Vienna and we did see many of his paintings while visiting Vienna at the Belvedere Palace.
While we were in Munich we also saw the Haus der Kunst. This is Munich's collection of 20th Century artists that were outlawed by Hitler. An interesting historical tidbit is that this building was erected by Hitler to showcase the "Nazi" art but now it is showcasing the art that he banished. So we saw Kirchner, Klee, Beckman, and many others. Our scavenger hunt for Erika involved finding a painting of a fish, or a landscape, or other objects. She enjoyed each clue we gave her. Although Paris and London are known for the great museums and collections of art, Germany also has a number of great collections in Munich, Berlin and Köln.
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Shopping
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Towards the end of our visit, we decided to purchase some traditional German clothing. On our trip through southern Germany and Austria we looked for clothing. While we were in Munich, we went to Hertie's department store. We read in our tour books that Hertie's is a good place for traditional German clothing. We were surprised about the prices, so we did not buy any clothes in Munich. That, for us was unfortunate. The selection was great and very varied. After travelling through Austria, we decided that the prices at Hertiešs were as expensive (or as inexpensive) as any other place. Unfortunately, we could not get back to Munich easily on that trip so we missed out on the great varity of choices. Well there will always be more opportunities to get back.
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Englischer Garten
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Finally, we had to walk around the Englischer Garten. It is five kilometers long by 1.5 kilometers wide. It's Germany's largest city park. It was designed by Count Rumford an English refugee from the American Revolution War. It is a very informal park with a boating lake, four beer gardens, and a series of decorative and monumental constructions including a Greek Temple, which was built on an artificial hill. We saw the Chinese Pagoda and Erika found many other playgrounds.
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Die Fotogalerie von die Deutschland
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See you all later.
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