100 years of Munich history
In 1900, the population of Munich numbered 500,000. Back then, the city was hardly an international one, more closely resembling a big village. Today, München is a thriving metropolis with a head count of over 1.3 million. Though predominately cosmopolitan, the Bavarian capital has kept its rustic charm. In keeping with the upcoming millennium brouhaha, we bring you a list of people and events — some important, some just plain interesting — that formed the Munich we know today. 1900 -1909 1900 - FC Bayern soccer team is founded. 1900-02 - Lenin lives in Munich where he writes his revolution guidebook Was tun?. 1901 - Munich resident C. Röntgen, inventor of the x-ray machine, receives the Nobel Prize for physics. 1902 - Gabriel von Seidl founds the first environmental protection group in Germany. 1906 - Building begins on the Deutsches Museum. 1910 -1919 1910 - The Octoberfest celebrates its 100 year anniversary. Thirsty visitors quaff 12,000 hectoliters of beer. 1910 - Kandinsky paints the first abstract painting. 1910 - The German Touring Kayak club is founded, the oldest collapsable boat club in the world. 1911 - The Blue Rider group is formed consisting of Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Alexej Jawlensky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin. 1911 - Opening of Munich’s Hellabrunn zoo. The first “geo zoo” (animals are not fenced in but kept in place by moats and brooks, etc.) in the world. 12.12.1912 - Crown Prince Luitpold dies at the age of 91. 1919 - Kurt Eisner, head of the independent social democrats and of the only Soviet Republic in Germany, is shot dead by a Bavarian noble as he left his office. 1919 - The first boxing match is held in Munich. 1920 -1929 1920 - Peter Ostermayer opens the first film studio in the Geselgasteig. The first film, Die Wahrheit, is made for 950 Goldmark. 1923 - Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch — Munich becomes the cradle of the Nazi movement. 1923 - The unemployment rate in Munich triples in three months. 1924 - What is now known as the Bayerischer Rundfunk first hits the airwaves as Deutsche Stunde in Bayern (German Hour in Bavaria). 1925 - The Deutsches Theater opens its doors. As post-wartime prices are reduced so that everyone can afford Fasching festivities, the grand ballroom is packed. 1926 - The first soccer game is broadcast on radio. 1927 - The Vierjahreszeiten Hotel chooses the theme “Literature in the Night” for its Fasching party. Popular costumes at the masquerade ball include Homer, Helena and Madame Chauchat of Thomas Mann’s novel Magic Mountain. 1928 - American poet Thomas Wolfe ends up in a drunken brawl at the Oktoberfest after drinking 7-8 Mass. 1929 - Bogenhausen resident Thomas Mann wins the Nobel Prize for literature. 1930 -1939 1933 - The first Six-Day Race bicycle race is held. 1933 - Nazis gain power at city hall. The Hitler greeting becomes mandatory for everyone. 1934 - A drought plagues Munich’s summer season, leading residents to whisper “God won’t let it rain because people say ‘Heil Hitler’ instead of ‘Grüß Gott. ’” 1935 - Hitler orders the removal of the Bavarian white and blue flag declaring that only swastika flags should fly over Munich. 1936 - SA tries to blow up Maypoles in Hohenbrunn. 1937 - The Nazi propaganda-promoting exhibition Entartete Kunst (degenerate art) opens at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst. 1937 - 8,713 Jews in Munich. 1938 - Reichskristallnacht (night of the broken glass), during which Jewish-owned shops and businesses are vandalized, takes place November 9-10. 1939 - Assassination attempt on Hitler in the Bürgerbräukeller. 1939 - Beginning of World War II. 1940 -1949 1942 - 645 Jews in Munich. 1943 - The White Rose anti-nazi student protests end in the arrest and murder of the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl. 1944 - The most extensive bombing of the city. Between 1940 and 1945 there are 71 air raid bombings on Munich. 1945 - On April 30, Americans march into Munich. At war’s end, 82,000 apartments have been destroyed, seven million cubic meters of debris are left behind, 22,346 men have fallen and 10,000 aviators are reported missing. 1945 - American Forces Network (AFN) hits the airwaves. 1947 - Post-war rationing leads to a four-week allowance — consisting of 10 kilos of bread, 400 grams of meat, 1,250 grams of baby food, 62.5 grams of cheese, 500 grams of sugar, 125 grams of malt coffee, eight kilos of potatoes, 1 liter of low-fat milk, 500 grams of fish and 50 grams of lard — per household. 1947 - Opening of the newly rebuilt synagogue on Reichenbachstrasse. 1948 - Munich comedian Karl Valentin dies. 1949 - The German patent office opens in Munich. 1950 -1959 1951 - When Thomas Seehaus is born, Munich becomes a “million” city. Munich is Germany’s third largest city. 1951 - The Residenztheater opens. 1951 - First direct flight from Munich to New York. 1952 - The Chinese tower is rebuilt. 1953 - Post-war reopening of the Stadtmuseum. 1954 - Bayerisches Fernsehen broadcasts its first television show on November 6. 1955 - The first parking meters are installed in Munich. 1955 - The first part of the Max-Planck-Institut moves to Munich. Nobel prize-winners Werner Heisenberg (1933 for Physics) and Adolf Butenandt (1939 for Chemistry) bring their research facilities to the city. 1957 - Frauenkirche is fully renovated. 1957 - The Amerikahaus opens. 1958 - Munich celebrates its 800 year anniversary 1958 - The entire Manchester United soccer team is killed in a plane crash into the towers of Paul Heyse Church near the Theresienwiese. 1958 - U.S. consulate opens on the Königinstrasse. 1960 -1969 1960 - Liesl Karlstadt dies - comedian and life partner of Karl Valentin. 1960 - Television cameras are installed on Marienplatz to observe traffic conditions. 1962 - 136 air raid sirens are installed, the first since WWII. 1963 - Reopening of the Bavarian State Opera. 1964 - Controversial (to this day laws prohibit the construction of any building taller than the Frauenkirche) Hertie skyscraper opens on Leopoldstrasse. 1965 - Munich wins the bid for the 1972 Olympics. 1967 - First color television. 1968 - Organizers choose Günther Behnisch’s and Egon Eiermann’s tent roof design for the Olympic stadium. 1968 - Student revolution in Munich. 1970 -1979 1971 - Olympic games tickets go on sale. 4,345,860 tickets are printed. 1971 - The last part of the Mittlerer Ring is completed making it 28 kilometers. 1971 - The first brick of the Jewish Community Center on the Reichenbachstrasse is laid. 1971 - Hertie between Bahnhofplatz and Karlsplatz/Stachus becomes the largest department store in Germany, boasting 33,000 square meters. 1971 - During the building of the Olympic park — which was an airfield before the war — 1,792 Stabbrandbomben, 65 phosphorous bombs and 12 heavy bombs are found and disarmed on the site. 1972 - Germany’s first pedestrian zone from the Kaufingerstrasse-Neuhauserstrasse is opened. 1972 - From August 26-September 11, the Olympic games take place. On September 5 members of the Israeli team are brutally murdered by Arab terrorists. 1973 - Fuel shortages caused by the Near East oil crisis result in speed limits of 100km and no driving allowed on Sundays. 1974 - The German Heart Center is built. 1975 - Germany’s first women’s bookstore is opened. 1975 - Wies’n beer costs DM 3.75 for the Mass. 1976 - Munich police wear green uniforms (instead of blue) for the first time. 1978 - City printers strike leaving several daily newspapers out of print between February 28 and March 20. 1980 -1989 1980 - A young man detonates a bomb at the Oktoberfest killing 13 people and injuring 211. Though the perpetrator has neo-Nazi ties, a motive is never substantiated. 1980 - Pope John Paul II visits Munich. 600,000 flock to the Theresienwiese to attend his mass. 1981 - A public debate over nude sunbathing in Munich’s public parks takes place. 1981 – The Neue Pinakothek opens. 1982 - Carl Orff, composer of Carmina Burana, dies. 1982 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of Germany’s most internationally renowned film directors, dies. 1983 - Weather records: the warmest Three Kings Day, since 1876, it reaches 13 C., July 27 is the hottest day since 1781 with 37.5 degrees Celsius and the warmest Christmas Day since 1883 is recorded at 16 C. 1985 - Munich cultural center Gasteig opens. Home of the Munich Philharmonic, four concert halls, Munich Adult Education College, a municipal library and the Richard Strauss Conservatory. 1986 - Alcohol-free beer is first served at the Oktoberfest. 1990 -1999 1992 - The Villa Stuck becomes the third city museum. 1992 - IMAX theater and Forum der Technik open at the Deutsches Museum. 1992 - World leaders, including George Bush, meet in Munich for the Economic Summit. 1992 - Flights do not land in Munich for one evening only while the airport moves from Riem to its new, modern facility in Erdinger Moos. 1992 - 400,000 residents formed a candlelight chain, demonstrating against the blossoming hatred toward foreigners. 1993 - Peter Jonas is named director of the Bavarian State Opera. 1994 - Three people are killed and 36 injured when a city bus falls, at a right angle, into a crater in a Trudering street. Faulty construction of a water main in a new S-Bahn stretch is blamed for street collapse. 1994 - The first beer garden revolution takes place. Approximately 20,000 demonstrators protest against early closing hours of the Waldwirtschaft. 1996 - Shop hours are extended to 20:00 on weeknights and 16:00 on Saturdays. 1996 - World famous conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, Sergiu Celibidache dies. 1997 - The Galerie at the Rathaus hosts record breaking numbers for the exhibit War crimes of the German Army during World War II. 1998 - Zubin Mehta becomes director of the Bavarian State Opera. 1998 - The new Messe (trade fair center) opens in Riem 1999 - Oberbürgermeister Christian Ude is elected for a second term as mayor of Munich. 1999 - At about noon on August 11, a total solar eclipse is visible in Munich, a phenomenon which won’t occur again here until 2151. Though sporadic cloud cover ruins the view for some, along the Isar local businesses enjoy lunch hour in the dark. 1999 - James Levine succeeds Sergiu Celibidache as conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. 1999 - In celebration of the upcoming millennium change, neon artists decorate Munich with their works for the holiday season. 2000 - Munich Found staffers return from vacation full of new energy and ideas. <<<