Munich

Wow, what to say about Munich. The beer capital of the world.

So on our walking tour we had these two girls from Michigan. They were both chemical engineers in college, and just graduated. They, both being chemical engineers, and quite cute, I had to ask myself what alternate reality I had entered. One-- understandable. An anomaly. Two? Ridiculous. This is ridiculous.

Later in the evening we stopped to grab some food in the middle of a downpour. We went to this cafeteria style place. It was pretty cool, because I got the house dish of the evening: potatoes, cabbage, and a huge slab of meat. My buddy asked me how it was, and I said, "Typical German food." (Meaning, how I expected typical German food to taste). This lady then looks over at me and proceeds to tell me her life story. She's from Bastan (Boston, for the rest of us), and moved to Germany when she married an old boyfriend, after her husband died, and his wife died. She now has her grandchildren and his teenagers at the same time, Germany has labor equality issues with women, German healthcare and retirement benefits stink...and btw Germans can't cook. ha. (According to her. I, however like many German foods like Leberkäse)

Munich is an interesting town. Unlike Berlin, and Frankfurt which have been largely rebuilt anew, after the war is reconstructed from 1930's Munich. A large amount of catalogues, recorded before the war, contain information that have helped rebuild the city as it once was.

When we visited the Neuschwanstein Castle we had a tour guide named Herr Rauch Korinia. He sounded a little bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Actually, he sounded like someone making fun of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our tour group was huge inside the castle so he was shouting so everyone could hear. "It took 40 woodcarvers over 4 years to complete the king's bedchamber." When he started to give his spiel in the first room on the tour, this little old lady in front of me, not expecting him to shout so loudly jumped a full 2 inches in the air, it scared her so much.

We also visited the BMW headquarters, right next to the Olympic Park, and the displays in the main showroom. German engineering. Snap. In other news, we had a full room in our hostel. That hasn't happened to us often. There was this (I assume German) old dude in our room who snored louder than you can possibly imagine. Remember Grandpa Corbridge's imfamous snore? Amateur hour. Trust me, I was lucky enough to be in the bunk right above him. It was an unearthly, even inhuman sound. It was on a 7 tone reapeating scale of increasing volume. I can't even imitate it, at least without risk of monumental injury. Sweet fancy Moses, it was loud. I fell asleep with my index fingers plugged into my ears.

I'm going to jump into some history stuff that I found interesting. I am by no means a historian so you're going to have to brace yourselves. You're allowed to cringe as I give improper treatment to, and unintentionally butcher the facts.
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Some early... stuff.

The name Munich comes from the word 'monk' from when people used to live 'next to the monks.' The outline of a monk is one of the symbols you can find all around the city. The other symbol you can find is that of a lion. Bavarian land including Munich was granted to Henry the Lion knight.

He got the citizens of Munich in a bit of trouble when he burned down the town's toll bridge and built his own. As reparation the church determined the citizens would pay a 30% tax to the church for 150 years. However, the tax remained in place until 1934, when it was finally taken off of the books. Only 740 years too long.

The Frauenkirch, built from 1468-1488, is one of only a couple of buildings that lasted WWII bombings. The church is thought to have survived because its twin spires served as a landmark to bombers of the center of the city. Inside the church there is a little statue/plaque to Pope Benedikt XVL, who was from Munich. Over 3,000 Catholic priests were killed in WWII mainly for aiding Jews.

We visited St. Mary's square and the old town hall. In the middle of St. Mary's square there is a statue of a half chicken-half lizard which was thought to carry the plague. The plague was later attributed to cats. So they killed all of the cats. Woops. When the rat population exploded , they imported cats from outlying areas.


Oktoberfest

In 1871 Germany was formed out of three countries: Bavaria, Saxony, and Prussia. Otto von Bismark of Prussia was the driving force behind the union. Bavaria still remained a kingdom until after WWI in 1918. Bavarian kings came into power in 1806 when Napoleon reached Bavaria and installed Max Joseph Platz as king. The main stipulations were that Napoleon's daughter was to marry Max's son, and Bavaria was to give up 36,000 troops. In 1810, Joseph's son Ludwig I bought his bride to be a field, Teresa's meadow. In order to liven up the wedding gift they threw a huge wedding party there, with a horse race to commemorate the occasion. It was such a success that they did it again in 1811 and it became an annual tradition. By 1818, people began to sell beer at the race and Oktoberfest was born. Later instead of banning jockeys from drinking, they got rid of the horserace altogether. During Oktoberfest Munich's population swells fom 1.3 million to 6.5-7 million people in the 2 weeks of the festival. Local beer companies, make ~30% of their yearly profits in those 2 weeks. The Australian embassy, normally in Berlin, even rents out space in Britain's embassy for 2 weeks (supposedly to help all the Aussie partyers who have lost their passports after having one too many).


Bavaria's Michael Jackson

After the Franco-Prussian war, Germany signed its constitution in 1871 in the hall of mirrors in the palace at Versaille. Ironically, there they would sign the treaty of Versaille there years later. Around this time the state of Bavaria had a king named Ludwig II. He inherited the throne at age 18, passed down from when his great grandfather was installed as king by Napoleon in 1806. He had a love for the composer Richard Wagner, and brought him to Bavaria to work. Ludwig II never married, and was said to have sought escape in his castles. His third castle, which was never completed, sits about two hours outside of Munich by train. It is called the Neushwanstein Castle and is said to be the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Ludwig would only spend 172 days there. After Ludwig spent his family fortune in his building projects, he was overthrown in a plot where he was declared insane by a doctor he'd never met. He was taken prisoner and exported to another castle. He disappeared with one of the doctors during an evening stroll the day after he was taken prisoner. Both his, and the body of the doctor were found underwater. Ludwig's watch had stopped at 6:54pm and the doctor's read 8pm. Years later notes from a fisherman, and friend of Ludwig, commented that he had plans to help Ludwig escape that night, but when he heard shots, he left. Ludwig's death remains a mystery.

The Hofbräuhaus and Odeonsplatz

It is very interesting to see how Germany chooses to commemorate its past. There is an inconspicuous line of gold colored bricks in the middle of the road that serve as a WWII memorial and the march of the beer hall putsch. After the events, Göring publicized that 20 Nazis had been honorably killed during the event (even though 5 of them weren't Nazis). They had placards placed at Odeonsplatz with the names of those who had died for the Nazi cause, guarded by Nazi soldiers. Each passerby was required to give the Nazi salute as they passed. It became known as 'dodger's alley.' Names were taken of passersby on nearby streets, and if anyone was suspected of avoiding the obligatory Nazi salute they could be sent to Dachau. You can still see dark square discolored blotches on the wall nearby, where the placards hung.
Odeonsplatz has a large building with two lion statues that line the steps in front. One has its mouth open, and the other has its closed. They symbolize silence before God, and an open mouth towards government. Hitler gave many speeches between these two lions. Ironic.
You can go have a drink in the visit the Hofbräuhaus at the center of town. The world famous beer hall was founded in 1589 by Wilhelm V, and is still state owned. It started as the royal brewery. It was here that many events occured that shaped the Third Reich. Hitler held many propaganda events that promoted the Nazi party at the Munich Hofbrahaus. It was there that he was elected head of the Nazis in 1921. In a nearby beer hall called the Bürgerbräukeller, Hitler staged the famous Beer Hall Putsch on 9 Nov 1923. Hitler had planned to overthrow the government and loaded a gun with a bullet intended for three leaders: the Bavarian Commissioner, the cheif of police, the cheif of the army, and one for himself in case the plan failed. He and his associates marched to the Bürgerbräukeller where the Bavarian Commissioner was giving a speech.
They fired a shot into the air and yelled that the national revolution had begun. At this point the three leaders were captured and taken into a sideroom while Hitler and his associates tried to win them to their point of view.
In the meantime Göring was giving a speach to the audience who were not allowed to leave the beer hall. Hitler grew annoyed with the Bavarian Commissioner and returned to the main hall to give a speech. With his public speaking skills Hitler won over the hostile crowd to loud applause. Eventually the crowd was allowed to leave, and Hitler left to deal with a crisis elsewhere. Shortly thereafter Hitlers associate, Ludendorff released the Bavarian officials. The rest of the night went on in confusion and not knowing what to do, around midmorning Luendorff shouted "We will march," and they began to march with their approximately 2000 supporters to Odeonsplatz. They met with a group of about 100 soldiers, and began to retreat. Shots were fired killing 15 Nazis, 4 police, and a bystander, a waiter from a nearby restaurant. Hitler's bodyguard took 11 bullets. He fled the scene, which caused a rift between him and Luendorff and they rarely spoke after that. Hitler then began a myth that only he could take his life.
Each year, at the Bürgerbräukeller, the Nazis commemorated the beer hall putsch. On the fifth aniversary, they received word that a young Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, living in France had shot and killed a German diplomat. He did this because of persecution Jews had been facing, and since his parents, living in Germany were deported back to Poland even though they were no longer considered Polish citizens. Thus they were refugees at the border, and wrote to their son for help. When the Nazis received word of the assasination, Joseph Goebbels is reported to have announced, 'We now have the answer to the Jewish question.' A night of persecution began known as the 'night of broken glass.'

We also visited the New Synagogue. It opened in 9 Nov 2006, the 68th aniversary of the beer hall putsch. The synagogue has been a gathering point of Neo-Nazi attention. However, when the Neo-Nazis stage protests, other protesters stage their own protest in protest of the protest. They have been known to make it so loud nearby that nothing can be heard where the Neo-Nazi event is taking place. On at least one occassion, on the day of a Neo-Nazi gathering, churchbells throughout the city rang for 45 minutes, drowning out any message to be heard.