Munich Weekend

Friday, June 29 to Sunday, July 1.

Happy July!

Friday: Left at 5:30am for our train to Munich.  The ride was long, but you do what you gotta do.  As soon as we got to Munich, you could tell it was a lot ritzier than Berlin.  We were in a downtown area when we got there, and you could just see the streets lined with designer stores.  We split for lunch, and met up again afterwards.  I can say that Munich is definitely more expensive than Berlin.  After reconvening we took a walking tour, first looking inside an old Catholic church.  It was absolutely stunning. I love the architectural details of old churches.

 We also saw the small “memorial” spot where German socialist writer, Kurt Eisner, was murdered.  This memorial is interesting, because most people, even residents of Munich, walk over it every day without even knowing what it is.  This inconspicuous memorial provides interesting questions.  Should memorials be obvious, like the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, or is it okay for them to be inconspicuous, making people seek them out instead, much like this one, or the book burning memorial at Humboldt University.

Beautiful Munich.

 Next, we stopped by a park area where Hitler spent much time, including a café.  We had to go through security to get into the park because their were anti-war demonstrators protesting the military memorial that was taking place in this area later.  More memorials and then we took some time to decompress in a nice park.  German ducks are strange!

More walking than Hofbrauhaus for dinner.  It was a crazy mess of tourists in there, I much prefer quieter local places.  The evening was fun, despite a mix up with our bill.  Luckily Pizzo was there to save the day.

Mmm Bavarian pretzel.

Saturday: Today’s morning and early afternoon was spent at the Dachau Concentration Camp museum and memorial.  The first place we walked through was the museum, which chronicled the history of the Holocaust and World War II and more specifically, the history of Dachau itself.  Again, much like at Sachsenhausen, I really appreciate the individualized stories that the museum portrays.  The viewer is lead through a series which included every type of prisoner in Dachau- political, Soviet, Jewish, homosexual, etc., but included stories and photographs of individual people as well.  These added details are always touching and sobering, giving actual stories and faces to the masses that were imprisoned at these camps.

A Ukrainian prisoner who escaped and was brought back multiple times.

The number of memorials in this camp surprised me, it seemed more of a memorial site than a museum.  There was a Jewish memorial, which reminded me a lot of the Tower memorial at the Jewish museum.  It was a dark, large space with only a small window of light leading the viewer in and entrancing them. 

There were more memorials back in the area of the gas chambers and crematoria, where the majority of the outright murders took place.  It is amazing that such a beautiful natural area could be the location where thousands of brutal murders took place.

The gas chambers and cremation ovens were haunting, you could see that every visitor felt the need to move through very quickly.

 After the camp, we ate at another bier garten. Mmm schnitzel and radler!  We had a break to go shopping at the many stores in Munich and I got a Bayern Munich shirt and things at H&M.  Wine and appetizers at a Greek restaurant were fun.

Sunday: We had a quick tour of Nazi structures in Munich, including the building where the Munich conference took place.  Lunch and then train ride home!  It's good to be back in Berlin!