Munich

Quick note on photos: I have pictures I am posting from my phone to Facebook. If you want to see the pictures that go with these posts you can friend me or just look for me (look up ash525) and view the album for Germany, Switzerland, and Austria 2016 as I have made it public (so you don't even need an account to see them!). I say this for my Twitter friends and friends I have made on the trip that might view the blog without being on Facebook. I would add them on here but it's a quite arduous process right now with the Chromebook situation (officially NOT a fan of these things) and I am on vacation after all so my willingness to troubleshoot technology is limited.

We started the morning with a city tour of Munich. Our guide, Keith is actually an American but has lived here for 15 years. It was honestly a nice break to have an "American English" speaking guide! Most of the tour was done via bus which I think most of our group really enjoyed. Bullet points:

• Munich is the capital of the state of Bavaria. In case you didn't know BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works and the BMW headquarters is here.
• The Whittlesbach family were the rulers of Bavaria until WWI. 
• In 1662 they built a summer palace called Nymphenburg 
• During Hitler's reign they would have Nights of the Amazon which were big parades that would end at this palace. I've heard there are videos of it on YouTube but it seems they are being restricted from showing up on YouTube here. Hmmmm.......
• Bavaria sent troops to join Napoleon in 1813 but 30,000 of them ended up dying from the cold. To uplift the public the Oktoberfest in Munich in 1814 included free food for all. This really began the popularization of the event.
• In 1913 Hitler did not want to serve for the Austrian/Hungarian military to he moved to Munich. He tried to make money selling paintings to tourist in the beer halls. 
• In 1914 he served in the Bavarian army in their campaign against Austria. He didn't believe Austrians were pure Aryans.
• After WWI there were communist groups setup in Munich. Hitler was paid by the army to be a spy for them and go to political meetings to see which groups were communists. 
• Hitler became involved with the German Workers Party which was very anti-semantic and started out as their recruiter and speaker, eventually becoming their leader.
• In 1923 Hitler attempted to stage a coup at a beer hall very close to our hotel. 16 of his followers were killed. Later hie built a Greek style temple (he believed the Aryan race were decedents of the ancient Greeks) and put their tombs in it. Every year he and his top leaders would visit the tombs and put wreaths around them.
• In January of 1933 Hitler became the chancellor but he really didn't like Berlin and spent most of his time in Munich and built his offices here.
• In September of 1938 France, Italy, and England met with Hitler. He wanted to seize a part of Czechoslovakia and needed their agreement to let him do that. They agreed but later he broke his promises and seized all of it. 
• In November of 1938 Joseph Goebbels made a speech in the city hall of Munich that called for the start of the Kristallnacht (destroying of Jewish property).
• After WWII many of the large firms in Berlin moved to Munich and has many tech related companies with offices here.
• Hitler hid lots of artwork and in fact the castle we visited yesterday was full of it. When the US began winning the war they put the Monuments Men headquarters in Munich for them to begin getting the artwork back.
• Munich is known as a great place in Europe to receive treatment for eye, cancer, and heart care.
• 70% of buildings in Munich were destroyed during WWII. 
• When rebuilding the city they decided to keep the old style, unlike Frankfurt and other more modern cities. 
• The heaviest bombing was around the BMW headquarters, which at the time mostly made airplane motors. There was also a military training center close to there.
• The 1972 Olympic stadium and village was built on this site as it was basically just a landfill for WWII debris. It is now a beautiful part of the city.

Following our city tour we stopped off for lunch at a beer garden. We lucked up getting a table big enough for our Mississippi group but apparently while I was going to get my sausage and beer a German man took my seat. Ron had my back though and told him he would push him out if necessary. The man did get up when I got back but moved to the other side of the bench and crowded up on Ron. I'm not sure if the man spoke any English but if he did he surely was entertained with our our group when we talked about the German who we named "Clyde"!

The rest of the group headed to Dachau concentration camp while I stayed behind in Munich. I went to Dachau in 2008 with a group of students. It was a experience that was both moving and sad. I am so very glad I was able experience it but it is one place I just don't think you need to experience more than one time. SO...I started out my afternoon alone by climbing up the St Peter's Church Tower (299 steps) to work off the beer and sausage and get some good views of the city. Then I found the Apple store to get an SD to phone adapter so I can post pics from the GOOD camera since the Chromebook fails at that task. Then I went shopping!

Wendy's thoughts on Dachau (she came back with 3 books...history teacher and all): Wasn't what was expected. Smaller than she thought it would be. Everyone there was a POW but the Jew's were in the very back of the pecking order. The showers...take them into the room with robes on was both brilliant and sick at the same time. Most fascinating...if they shot a potential escapee they would get a bonus. The guards would rig it so that those that were lagging behind would be setup as escapees so they would get a bonus. There was a prison within a prison system where the 80 x 80 cells where they tortured those in the prison. When brought into the camps they didn't care about your intellect, they cared about your ability to work. They reserved the intellectuals for experimentation. In last 15 years they gave a survey of Dachau residents that lived in that time and they knew there was something going on there but didn't know exactly what. I know there will be many more reflections from our group but honestly you just have to experience it to understand the feeling you get. This is why we travel. Some say we are crazy to take a chance but I think all on this group agree that it is all worth it. Pictures, documentaries, etc. simply do not replace the feeling of being in a place.