Is Munich Germany's most successful — and livable — city? Christian Mayer thinks so — and argues it should be a model for the rest of the country
Posted Sunday, July 18, 2004; 8:34 BST
UWE LEIN/AP
STANDING TALL:
The Munich headquarters of the German carmaker BMW AG
I keep reading about how down and out Germany is, but it sure doesn't feel that way in Munich. Not when I drive into town and see the forest of construction cranes around Uptown München — the city's tallest office building at 146 m — and the new soccer stadium being built for the 2006 World Cup, which will look like a futuristic inner tube with a transparent glowing cover. And not when I visit Petuel Park, a new residential district the size of six soccer fields, with gardens, a creek and sculptures where a highway used to be. And least of all when I see the thousands of people on rollerblades, taking over the downtown streets for "blade night" every Monday evening. "There's no other place you can move so smoothly," says blader Leo Scheitzach, a 32-year-old Internet editor. I like to prove the same thing by tooling around my adopted hometown on my bicycle each day.
In other words, Munich is evolving into a uniquely livable modern metropolis, and we're all enjoying the ride. Traditionally, the city has been more famous for its brewers and Bohemians than for its brash modernity. In the 19th century Munich profited from the furious desires of Bavarian kings to build monuments, museums and Italian-style boulevards. This part of Germany never developed much heavy industry, so Munich still retains a small-town character in its center, while IT, media and biotech centers have taken root in the suburbs. And global players like Siemens, BMW, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have their German headquarters here, helping to make the city a more multicultural place. In the beer gardens, you may hear more English than German, and almost as much Italian or Japanese.
Munich is consistently voted the most attractive city in Germany. In a ranking of 50 German cities published last spring in the weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche, Munich again came out on top. People cite the high standard of living, low unemployment (6% last year, compared to 10.5% nationally) and low crime rate. But most say they love Munich for its beauty and leisure activities, from the southern lakes to the nearby Alps. There's an incredible lightness of being here; if you think Germans work hard, drink hard, worry hard and rarely risk a smile, you might be right — but not most Müncheners. A sultry summer evening spent in one of Munich's many street cafés feels like an evening in Verona or Milan — life takes place in public as people sit for hours sipping Augustiner or Spaten. It's no accident Oktoberfest attracts 6 million tourists a year.
Lola Paltinger loves the Oktoberfest, and it helps her earn her living. Paltinger, 31, a fashion designer from Mannheim, came to Munich because of the city's lifestyle. "When I don't work, I take my bicycle and hit the English Garden," she says. "I even bring my hammock." Paltinger's work reflects the city's new verve. She makes dresses that look like chic, skintight urban dirndls. "Ten years ago nobody liked Bavarian dresses, but now they're hip," she says.
That same drive to make it new is evident in the success of Munich's latest cultural attraction: the Pinakothek der Moderne, a museum of 20th century art. When the Pinakothek opened in September 2002, it broke all attendance records — within a year, over 1 million visitors had seen the permanent exhibition of painters like Beckmann, Kirchner and Baselitz. Other German cities have had to cut their cultural budgets and close venues, but the Munich and Bavarian governments still invest enough to make the city a showcase. They understand that much of its success rests on its cultural reputation. And we who are lucky enough to live here understand that our town is a shining example of what's good about Germany. The rest of the country may not be able to follow our example, but I think they'd benefit from some of our optimism.
Christian Mayer is a reporter for Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung
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