Germany
Germany, facts and history in brief
Munich
Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Munich (German München) is the
state capital of the Bundesland
Bavaria in Germany and, behind
Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's third
largest city with a population
of about 1.26 million (as of 2001).
It is located on the river Isar.
The settlement was founded as
Munichen in 1158 by Henry the Lion,
Duke of Saxony, and half a century
later was granted city status and
fortified.
Initially, bishop Otto von Freising and Henry quarrelled
about the city before the emperor at a Reichstag at
Augsburg; in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion,
Otto of Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria, whose Wittelsbach
dynasty would rule Bavaria until 1918.
The city's first academic institution, the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences, was founded in the city in 1759.
The city was now growing at an alarmingly
fast rate and was one of the largest
cities in mainland Europe.
In 1806, it became the capital of
the Bavarian monarchical state,
with the state's parliament (the
Landtag) sitting in the city along
with the new archdiocese
of Munich and Freising.
The city was very heavily damaged
during World War II and, after American
occupation in 1945, was
rebuilt to a meticulous masterplan.
Munich is also the site of the
headquarters of German company
Allianz AG, the car manufacturer
BMW and the technology firm Siemens AG.
Its airport, named after Franz Josef Strauß, is
Franz Josef Strauß International Airport.
Sights
The city has several important
art museums, among them the
Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek,
and the Pinakothek der Moderne.
It was also the site of the Blaue
Reiter group of artists before World War I.
Other famous tourist attractions include
the English Garden, a formal garden park
roughly in the center of the city which
contains a nudist area, the Deutsches
Museum (Science Museum), and the
Rathau-Glockenspiel, an ornate clock
with moving figures atop the town hall.
Perhaps Munich's most famous attraction
is the Oktoberfest, a 2-week-long celebration
of beer running from late September
to early October each year.
Other famous buildings in Munich
include the Frauenkirche (Cathedral of
Our Lady) and the Olympiaturm (Olympic
Tower, a radio and TV broadcasting station).
The Olympiaturm recalls the Munich massacre, which occurred
at the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, during which
terrorist gunmen from the Palestinian "Black September"
group took hostage members of the Israeli Olympic team.
A rescue attempt by the West German
government was unsuccessful, and
resulted in the deaths of the Israeli
hostages, 5 of the terrorists, and
one German police officer.
The 1974 Soccer World Cup
was also held in the city.
External Links
the city's own website
information on the Oktoberfest with
information in both English and German.
For a more information about
Munich see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This page was retrieved and condensed from
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich) December 2005
All text is available under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License (see
Copyrights for details).
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
This information was correct in December 2005. E. & O.E.
After the brutal suppression of the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution, I escaped from Budapest to Austria.
After a relatively short time in Vienna, I was accepted
for resettlement as a refugee by the New Zealand
Government.
Our transportation was assisted by the U.S. Air Force.
Austria only recently regained her independence from
Soviet occupation and the Cold War going strong.
The Soviets threatened the Austrians with 'brim stones'
and all if U.S. Forces land on Austrian soil at the time.
We were bussed from Austria to Munich to be flown
to our new home, in New Zealand.
I was very pleased to visit the city again
with my daughter while travelling around
in Europe in 1978.
In 2003 Hui Chin and I
revisited Munich .
After asking a gentleman for
direction, the kind gentleman
offered to show us most of the
interesting places in
and near the city centre.
Many of the famous or
notable places have some
Nazi interest or story.
We enjoyed our stay in Munich and
thank you very much again if
you happen to read
this pages some time.
You can click on these photos for an enlargement.
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