Munich Day 1
The warm rain upon arrival in Munich didnt deter us from walking to the City Center after checking in at the small Hotel Concorde, located on a quiet street within proximity of major attractions in all directions.
At the Viktuallienmarkt or central farmers’ market (“open every day since 1807”) as the weather cleared, we enjoyed supper from a take-out fish restaurant at a tree-shaded table. It was too late to browse the market’s array of offerings but we could appreciate the 150 foot tall urban version of a traditional maypole.
Looking up, we were drawn by several baroque church steeples outlined against the sky, every step opening dazzling new perspectives
Rounding a corner a new prospect came in view
and unfolded
the visual splendor accompanied by a piano and a chorus of voices filling the vast space
It was the Neues Rathaus, or New City Hall, at Marienplatz
Construction was begun in 1889 and completed in 1905, in the neo Gothic style of the Parliaments of Budapest and London. Ukranian and Israeli banners made a clear political statement
in the city which was a stronghold of the early Nazi party, as did plaques in the entryway honoring those who “collaborated with the US forces to liberate Germany from the violent rule of the National Socialists”
Another plaque states that the “National Socialists’ war of conquest and annihilation led the world into a catastrophe.”
A follow up inquiry led to this official website cataloguing places of remembrance and commemoration of the City’s involvement in the Holocaust.
On the way back to the hotel we were serenaded with a busker rendition of Johan Strauss’ Radetsky March.