Quality at a Price
München is regularly ranked as one of the world’s most livable cities with the highest quality of life. But it’s also the most expensive city in Germany where the rents are unaffordable for a lot of people.
Where the World Comes to Party
The Oktoberfest, a 2-week-long fair with giant beer tents and many rides, actually begins in September. At a typical Oktoberfest 6 million visitors drink 1.5 million gallons of beer, eat the equivalent of 91 oxen, 383,000 sausages and 630,000 chickens. Unfortunately, we do not have the exact numbers for how many Bavarians wear their traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl to the fair ;-)
The Olympics of Terror
München hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics which were overshadowed by the killings of 11 Israeli by Palestinian gunmen. In 2011, München failed in its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. If chosen, München would have been the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Bavarian Motor Works
BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) is the largest premium carmaker in the world. BMW headquarters are located right next to the Olympic Park in the BMW Tower which is shaped like a four-cylinder engine and has been declared a historical landmark.
Hitler’s First Concentration Camp
In 1933 the Nazis opened the first concentration camp in Dachau, 10 miles north of München. The camp was used for Jews and political prisoners from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich. More than 25,000 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide.
The White Rose
Two of Germany’s true heroes are Hans and Sophie Scholl. The two siblings were university students in Nazi Germany when they decided to form a resistance group in München, “Die Weiße Rose”. They were arrested and executed by decapitation following a distribution of leaflets calling for active opposition to Hitler’s regime.
Traveling Light
In 1987, millions of music fans were immediately ready to build a memorial for the researchers at the München Fraunhofer Institute for this invention: the MP3 format compresses data to just one twelfth of their original size. This means that now you can travel with your music. And what would life be like without your ipod?
Icy Pleasures
Even though München is hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline, it is a surfing hotspot. Right in the heart of the city, in the Englischer Garten, one of the world’s largest urban public parks, you can catch an awesome standing wave on a tributary of the Isar River. Surf the waves of the Eisbach but dress warm. Eisbach means ice creek, and yes, it’s really cold, even in summer.
Germany’s Powerhouse
One of the world’s top soccer clubs is FC Bayern München, winners of 26 national championships and 5 European Champions League titles. Stars are born here, among them “Kaiser” (Emperor) Franz Beckenbauer and today’s top players Thomas Müller and Phillip Lahm, who came up through Bayern’s youth ranks.
Home of the Champs
The Allianz Arena is home to Bayern München and their local arch rival TSV 1860 München, currently playing in the Second Bundesliga. The stadium which opened in 2005 was built in less than three years and is one of the most modern and architecturally unique soccer arenas in all of Europe. It has a capacity of close to 80,000.
Soccer Rocks!
Sportfreunde Stiller who hail from München are one of Germany’s most popular indie rock bands. Their biggest hit was “’54, ‘74, ‘90, 2006”. The first three numbers of the song’s title refer to the years when Germany won the World Cup. In 2006, host Germany hoped to become world champions but finished third – and threw an unforgettable party in the process.