I suppose at this juncture in my Germany experience, it is becoming necessary to think about what I still would like to do before leaving. I finally booked my return flight on Wednesday this week and I will officially be returning on the 25th of August. That is only 18 days… or two weeks and four days. Is the end really that close already?? The reality of that has not quite set in yet, but I will likely have further reflection on that soon enough.
This weekend I decided it would be prudent for finally have a closer look at Munich. I’ve been here a while now, but from a “tourist” standpoint, I have done little outside of my Beer Tour and my Third Reich Tour. Yesterday, I decided to do one of the general two hour city tours, and I did actually learned a few more interesting facts about some of the things, people, and places I’ve been seeing a lot of since being here.
We started our tour in the Marianplatz (city center of Munich) at 11:00 AM. After five months in this city I finally was able to see one of Europe’s most infamous tourist attractions- the Rathaus Glockenspiel. At exactly 11 AM, 12 PM, and 5 PM every day, the clock on the new Rathaus (city hall) chimes and sets in motion animated figures. For crazy king Ludwig II (the same one who built Neuschwanstein), this was state of the art technology of the day. Our tour guide jokingly compared it to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney world. What the animation depicts is more fun to understand though. When the clock strikes the hour, the Glockenspiel plays a number of songs. These change frequently and are sometimes dependent on the season. When the second song starts, the first set of animations occur. This is to depict a wedding feast in Munich. Figures dance around the couple and two knights representing Bavaria and Austria joust in a tournament. All the while, the new couple cheers on with drinks in hand. After this scene, another one starts just below depicting a traditional “Cooper Dance”. This is a ceremonial dance done by barrel makers in Germany. It originated in the cooper guilds and is still conducted by some of the major brewers on certain festival days and years.
After watching the stellar performance at the clock tower, we moved on to Old St. Peter’s Church. This is the same church I posted about way back in April. We learned a little bit about the town and church history at this location. As I have heard numerous times now, the two big factors in Munich’s stimulated development were the Catholic Church and the salt mines just south of the region (you’ll recall my post from Salzburg).
From there, our guide showed us the new Jewish museum and temple in downtown Munich. This was opened just a few years ago and is a very big testament to the remaining strength of the Jewish faith in Munich and Germany. Many of the site’s founders proudly proclaim that having such a temple and faith center in the former headquarters of Nazi Germany is a clear sign that Hitler lost in his original intents. In fact, Munich today officially has more Jews than pre-Nazi Munich. I think that is a wonderful show of survival and strength.
Following the Jewish temple, we moved on to Viktualienmarkt. As I have stated before, this is the largest market in Munich and takes place every day. Fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, and meat may be purchased around every corner. I did learn a few more interesting facts here though. The first one is that Munich’s city government actually subsidizes the market. If shop keepers had to actually pay the full rent value, they would go out of business very quickly and a high-rise would likely take their places. The support of the local government keeps this very old city tradition alive. I find this to be a very pleasant part of Munich’s make-up… along with the law that forbids buildings from being built taller than the Frauenkirche. These two support systems keep Munich cozy and inviting, yet still allow a thriving and growing economy. This is exactly why Munich is titled Europe’s largest village. If you want to sell in this market, however, don’t get your hopes up too high… there is a ten year waiting list just to be considered as a booth holder in the plaza.
Directly in the center of the market is the giant Maibaum (Maypole). You’ve seen these in numerous pictures I’ve taken, but the question is naturally, “What is it??” Well, to be honest, I’ve heard numerous stories about its origins, but one thing is certain… it is a proud German and Austrian tradition. Our guide explained the origin as follows…
Back in the day, when a young lad fancied a girl, he would go into the nearest woods, cut down a tall tree, strip it, sand it, and decorate it. The idea was that the man’s wood pole would demonstrate his love for the girl (and yes… this is how it was told to me). He would paint it and decorate it with figures and scenes that would lead the girl to him. Once complete, he would erect the pole in the front yard of the ladies house. Until this point, the young girl would not know the man’s identity. It became her job to figure out who had erected the pole within a week of seeing it in her yard. If for some reason she could not identify the man, she would leave a case of beer at her door step for the fellow as a consolation prize (supposedly so the man could drink away his sorrows). Our guide proceeded to tell us how some men still do this today when they want to proclaim their love, so if you see a giant maypole in a German’s front yard, you can grin knowing some guy is in love.
In today’s age, every city typically has its own maypole and it is decorated with scenes representing the city. Munich’s is in the Viktualienmarkt and among its other traditional scenes it contains a wagon with barrels from all six of its major beer brewers. There is a tradition that goes with these city poles too. If a city’s pole is stolen by another city, tradition says that in order to “recapture” their pole, the victim city would have to provide food and drink to the captors. In essence, the ransom was a party. Typical German sense, right?
I was at the Munich airport a couple months ago and I noticed that between its two terminals is a beer garden complete with a rather large maypole. Our guide told us that this pole was stolen from the airport just a few short years ago. Someone managed to haul a giant wooden pole out of an international airport!! To say the least, the airport staff was confused and very concerned. Big breach of airport security! They immediately called the police. The answer they got from the police was laughter. Apparently the police had stolen the pole the night before!! So… in order to get the pole back, the airport had to throw the police department a party. Did I already mention that the crime in Germany was low?
From the market we moved on to see the Hofbräuhaus. Just when I thought I knew everything, I learned a little more. Apparently back in the day, there were no restrooms in the hall. People instead had to leave the building to use the facilities. At some point in time, the city architects got smart and put grooves in the city streets so that men could simply take care of business in front of the restaurants. Well, the Hofbräuhaus got smart too. They installed these groves in the floor the brewery so that men could simply relieve their bladders right under the tables. All the grooves led right out of the building. Efficient, right? Well… some Germans got tired of wet ankles while drinking and they invented these walking sticks with grooves in them to help channel the stream under the table. As appealing as all this sounds, I think there is fair room to say that Germans can sometimes be too efficient. Luckily today this particular practice is frowned upon. Keep those flaps up on the lederhosen, boys!
We moved on from here to Maximilian Street (the richest street in Europe) and ended in Odeonsplatz. I have been here countless times by now, but I still learned something new. Four brass lions line the government building to the east of the Odeonsplatz and are supposedly lucky. If you rub the noses of these lions, they bring luck. The rule is that you should only rub three of the four though. If you rub four, you are being greedy and you will be robbed of all luck. The second cool thing I learned was about the stone lions on the Feldherrnhalle (directly in the center of Odeonsplatz). The two lions are identical with one exception… their mouths. The one on the right facing the church has its mouth closed. The one on the left facing the government building has its mouth open. The idea here was that the people could always speak out against their government, but should keep their mouths shut when it pertains to the rule of God. Cool symbolism, right?
So that ended the tour for the day. Since it was so incredibly nice out (low seventies and sunny) I decided to finally climb the tower of St. Peters and get a better view of the city. It was an amazing view! You’ll have to see if you can spot the BMW tower way in the distance of one of the pictures. My apartment is approximately in that region, so perhaps that will give you an idea of where I live in reference to the city center.
That was Saturday. Today (Sunday) I was supposed to meet up with Micah and my supervisor to visit one of the lakes south of Munich, but the weather turned back to pure rain. It has been raining here since 9:00 AM and shows no signs of stopping until… Monday. With that, our meeting plans will have to be postponed. Hopefully not for too long though… I’m quickly running out of weekends!
I hope you enjoyed the “cultural update”! Hopefully you are all enjoying a brighter Sunday back in the States!
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