Munich Musings

My roommates and I spent this past weekend in Munich, Germany.  I think it has been the most moving experience I have had this semester-- we learned about and experienced so much of the city's history and culture in just two days.  It is such a beautiful city with such a tumultous history, but being there in person let me see firsthand things that I never have, and know I never would have, gotten out of books...


We spent Saturday touring the Dachau concentration camp, which was the first camp opened in Germany.  It was described as a concentration camp for political figures, and held a number of nationals detained for political reasons, as well as their families.  We were there on a cold, gray, foggy day, which I think helped us get a fuller experience of the place and its history.  It was unreal to see the small rooms that held so many people, and the actual rooms and chambers where such terrible acts took place.  It was so strange how I have read about these things in books and learned about them in class, but seeing it in person was such a different feeling.  There is a beautiful memorial on the camp grounds dedicated to all those who died there, with a quote reading "To honor the dead and remind the living."  I feel there couldn't be a more suitable quote.  The Holocaust was such a dark and terrible part of history, but it does need to be passed on and remembered.

Grounds of Dachau

Dachau prisoners' beds

The system used to categorize prisoners, with the colors and shapes referring to the type of person or crime committed

On Sunday we took a free walking tour of Munich.  Our tour guide was so personable and interesting to listen to.  We learned so much about the city during our three hour tour ("a threeeeee hour tooour..."), from history about the line of leaders, to the origins of Oktoberfest, to the story of the May Pole.  She was also telling us a lot about the resistance movement to Nazism that took place in the 1930s and 1940s.  She talked to us about how there was a whole movement of people who did not want to conform, and who would actively resist Nazi rules and be punished for it with arrest or beatings.  While too often German is stereotyped for Hitler's rule, our tour guide emphasized that this was not the case at all.  She also spoke about how the country does in fact recognize and take responsibility for what was done.  For older generations there is very little national pride today and, as our guide told us, being German is not something to be proud of.  Children are taught about the Third Reich starting from when they are eight-years-old, and making Hitler's sign, even in a fit of drunken hilarity, is a crime punishable by law.  It was so interesting to learn how the country has worked to reform its reputation and amend its past wrongs.  The walking tour, and particularly our tour guide, was one of my favorite things we did that weekend.

On a lighter note, we did get up to some touristy things in Munich, too!

Pretzels in the outdoor market!

We went to this beautiful church on our walking tour, called Alta Peter

The Golden Road, a memorial to the anti-Nazi movement in Munich

Munich Town Hall

It was a great weekend to spend with the roommates.  We had so much culture and history in just a few short days, and it has been one of my favorite trips so far.  Munich was moving and educational on so many different levels, and I am so glad to have gotten to experience the city.