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Munchen
Section
1
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Munchen, a brief history
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__________
Ulf
Hjorth-Moritzsen
The
settlement story of Munchen can be
traced back to Roman times.
The most solid evidence of a settlement dates back to the 5th
century, when the Romans were ejected from the area by a tribe
known as the Baiuvarii. Recent
excavations under Marienplatz and St Peter's Church has revealed
remnants of a village and a stone church that dates back to a
much earlier period. In
the suburb Gauting there has been found traces of a Roman army
post dating back to 17 AD.
The
name Munchen or Munichen, goes back to the Benedictine monks,
meaning “The monk Settlement”. The
town was established in the 9th century, built on the
banks of the river Isar, near the abbey.
Later Heinrich der Løwe (Henry the Lion), duke of
Saxony
and of
Bavaria
,
sanctioned the settlement in 1158.
In 1240 the settlement was passed to the House of Wittelsbach
and later, in 1255, became a ducal residence. The duke had a
royal residence built in the north east corner of the city,
which later came to be named the Alter Hof (
Old
Court
).
The Wittelsbachs, the dukes of
Bavaria
,
later made Munchen the capital of their dukedom and they
dominated the city up to the 20th century.
From
1255 Munchen expanded, a fortification was built and Ludwig the
Bavarian gave the city a salt-trading monopoly. The city
prospered during the next 200 years, and was made capital of
Bavaria
in 1503, at a time when the population had reached the high
number of 13.500.
The
Bavarian holds strong Catholic traditions and the Reformation
were not very well received by then Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm IV,
who resolutely proclaimed
Munich
a Catholic city. Munchen was regarded the German
Counter-Reformation capital, and it was during this period that
the first splendid buildings like the Bavarian State Library and
Michaelskirche was erected.
During
the Thirty Years War Munchen was occupied by the Swedish king
Gustav II and the Swedish refused to leave until the city bought
its freedom for 450,000 Guilders.
From
1705 to 1715 the city was under Habsburg rule.
A terrible massacre occurred in the first year of this
occupation when Bavarian peasants rose against the Habsburg army
at Sendlingen, a suburb south of Munchen. The peasants, armed
only with farm tools, were betrayed before they could attack,
and annihilated by Austrian soldiers. Paintings of the battle
can be seen in the Sendlingen church.
This
brief history will not deal with any of the numerous kings,
dukes, emperors or whatever nobility that ruled or claimed to
rule Munchen and
Bavaria
during the middle age. However Napoleon’s alteration of the
royal hierarchy of
Germany
elevated
Bavaria
to the rank of kingdom and doubled its size. In 1818
Bavaria
became the first German state to have a written constitution.
The
Oktoberfest was instituted by Maximilian Joseph who was the
first king of
Bavaria
.
He wanted to celebrate the wedding of his son, Ludwig 1, and
therefore organized a huge wedding party, which the Bavarians
has been trying to outdo ever since.
During
the 18-hundreds Munchen became a cultural and artistic centre,
playing a leading role in the development of 19th- and
20th-century German painting school. It was also during this
century that the
University
of
Munchen
was established and Munchen was connected to the first railroad
in
Germany
.
Bavaria
lost its independent status when Ludwig backed the losing side
in the Franco-Prussian war, forcing the state into the new
German Reich in 1871. The king was declared mentally unfit in a
dubious psychological exam in 1886; he was arrested and later
found drowned, apparently under mysterious circumstances.
At
the beginning of the 20th century more than half a
million people lived in Munchen. The city had electrical lights
and various artists like Ibsen, Mann, Marc, Klee and Strauss
lived here.
After
World War 1 the city was the scene of considerable political
unrest. The later economical collapse prepared the scene for
Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party. Hitler gave his first
political speech at a political meeting held at the Munchen beer hall Hofbrauhaus
in 1920, and the city was later to be considered the hub of the
Nazi party. The first concentration camp was set up in
Dachau
,
just north of Munchen.
Almost
half the city was crushed by the Allied bombing during the World
War II, and a massive reconstruction program was required to
rebuild the city, culminating with Munchen hosting the Olympic
Games in 1972.
Today Munchen is headquartering huge German companies like
Siemens, Linde, MAN and BMW. The city is a hub
for fashion, movies and publishing, and the standard of living
is amongst the highest in
Germany
.
~~~~~~
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The Wittlesbach dynasty flag 1398-1918
The Bavarian flag 1799-1820
The Bavarian flag 1820-1848
The Bavarian flag 1824
Bavarian flag 1862
The Bavarian flag 1878-1918
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