Munich

• 1. Foundations And Medieval Origins

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  The first record of Munich dates to 1158. A tiny monastic settlement named zu den Munchen sat on the river Isar north of the Alps. Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, founded the town in his territory to control the salt trade. He burned down the town of Föhring and its bridges over the Isar before building a new toll bridge. Historians date this event at about 1158. The Augsburg Arbitration mentions the name of the location in dispute as forum apud Munichen. On the 14th of June 1158, in Augsburg, the conflict was settled in favor of Duke Henry. Archaeological excavations at Marienhof Square discovered shards of vessels from the 11th century. These finds prove that the settlement of Munich must be older than the Augsburg Arbitration of 1158. In 1175, Munich received city status and fortification. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach. In 1255, when the Duchy of Bavaria was split in two, Munich became the ducal residence of Upper Bavaria. A large fire broke out in Munich on the 13th of February 1327 that lasted two days and destroyed about a third of the town. In 1349, the Black Death ravaged Munich and Bavaria.

• 2. Wittelsbach Rule And Cultural Renaissance

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  When Bavaria was reunited in 1506 after a brief war against the Duchy of Landshut, Munich became its capital. Albrecht V built the Antiquarium to house the Wittelsbach collection of Greek and Roman antiquities in the Munich Residenz in 1568. He appointed the composer Orlando di Lasso as director of the court orchestra. William V had the Hofbräuhaus built in 1589. It would become the prototype for beer halls across Munich. The Catholic League was founded in Munich in 1609. During the Thirty Years War from 1618 to 1648, Munich became an electoral residence. King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden occupied the city in 1632. The bubonic plague ravaged Munich and the surrounding countryside in 1634 and 1635. Elector Maximilian III Joseph died in 1745. In 1777 Bavarian lands were inherited by Karl Theodor. In 1785 Karl Theodor invited Count Rumford Benjamin Thompson to take up residency in Munich. The poor were forced to live in newly built workhouses. In 1791 Karl Theodor and Count Rumford started to demolish Munich's fortifications. After making an alliance with Napoleonic France, the city became the capital of the new Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806. In October 1810 a beer festival was held on the meadows just outside Munich to commemorate the wedding of the crown prince and princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Ludwig I had the Königsplatz built in neoclassicism as a matter of ideological choice. Leo von Klenze supervised the construction of a Propylaea between 1854 and 1862.

• 3. Nazi Era And World War II Devastation

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  In 1923 Adolf Hitler and his supporters staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. The revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest and the temporary crippling of the Nazi Party. Because of its importance to the rise of National Socialism, Munich was referred to as the Hauptstadt der Bewegung. Construction work for the Führerbau and the party headquarters known as the Brown House started in September 1933. The Haus der Kunst was the first building commissioned by Hitler. On the 8th of November 1939 Georg Elser planted a bomb in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. Hitler left the building minutes before the bomb went off. By mid 1942 the majority of Jews living in Munich and the suburbs had been deported. During the war Munich was the location of multiple forced labour camps including two Polenlager camps for Polish youth. With up to 17,000 prisoners in 1945 the largest subcamp of Dachau was the Munich-Allach concentration camp. The city was heavily damaged by the bombing of Munich in World War II with 71 air raids over five years. US troops captured Munich on the 30th of April 1945.

• 4. Postwar Reconstruction And Olympic Legacy

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  In October 1946 Munich operated over a thousand refugee camps for 151,113 people. In 1957 Munich's population surpassed one million. The Free State of Bavaria used the arms industry as kernel for its high tech development policy since 1963. Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics after winning the bid in 1966. Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel accelerated the construction of the U-Bahn subway and the S-Bahn metropolitan commuter railway. Construction work began for a new U-Bahn line connecting the city with the Olympic Park in May 1967. The Olympic Park subway station was built near the BMW Headquarters and the line was completed in May 1972. During the 1972 Summer Olympics 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the Munich massacre. The most deadly militant attack the Federal Republic of Germany has ever witnessed was the Oktoberfest bombing. The attack was eventually blamed on militant Neo-Nazism. The Munich Airport commenced operations in 1992 and was named in honor of Franz Josef Strauss.

• 5. Modern Economy And Technological Hub Status

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  Munich emerged as the leading German high tech region during the 1980s and 1990s. The urban economy became characterized by a dynamic labour market and low unemployment. Munich is home to multinational companies such as BMW, Siemens, Allianz SE, and Munich Re. In 2007 the ecological restoration of the river Isar in the urban area of Munich was awarded the Water Development Prize. About 20% of buildings in Munich now have a green roof. Munich city council has been encouraging better stormwater management since the 1990s. As of the 30th of November 2024 its population was 1,604,384 making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. It ranks as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The metropolitan area has around 3 million inhabitants. The broader Munich Metropolitan Region is home to about 6.2 million people. It is the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. With 4,500 people per km2 Munich is Germany's most densely populated municipality.

• 6. Demographic Shifts And Urban Planning

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  From only 24,000 inhabitants in 1700 the city population doubled about every 30 years. It was 100,000 in 1852 and 250,000 in 1883. Since then Munich has become Germany's third-largest city. In December 2023 Munich had 1.58 million inhabitants with 477,855 foreign nationals residing in the city. Along with the Turks the Croats are one of the two largest foreign minorities in the city. About 45% of Munich's residents are not affiliated with any religious group. This ratio represents the fastest growing segment of the population. As of the 31st of December 2017 31.8% of the city's inhabitants were Catholic and 11.4% Protestant. Munich has the largest Uyghur population with about 800 whole Germany about 1,600 people with Uyghur diaspora. The LaSie plan passed in 2011 defined three priorities for the construction of residential housing in Munich. Existing housing estates post-war low-density developments and the suburban area are subject to densification.