München

How was Munich you ask?
My reply: Wet, wet wet!

The rain that started whilst in Switzerland didn't ease up (and this while London was having sunshine and blue skies! I mean seriously...went to the continent to escape the myth that is an English Summer - that only lasted about 2 weeks...but I digress).

Everyone on the bus hoped the weather would clear up...but alas this was not to be. Left Switzerland, lunched in Liechtenstein, drove through Austria and entered Germany...all with rubbish weather as company.

Arrive in Munich and checked in at Wombats...pretty cool hostel, as hostels go.

Of course, it was raining and after a long day on the bus really wasn't in the mood to do much.

Next day...more rain! But I was determined to do the New Munich Tour; seeing how it runs in all weather. It rained for the entire walk! Yay for waterproofs...but it eventually got chilly that I wish I had thermals on...and I don't particularly like thermals.

So much for summer was the though running through my head!

But, despite the really crappy weather, Munich was totally awesome! The walk was amazing and our tour guide just brilliant.

Finding out all about Munich, old history, to WWII, to modern day...it was pretty amazing.


Started off at the glockenspiel - does it's thing twice a day, and is pretty
much as exciting as the astronomical clock in Prague. The people
are more interesting to look at. Add that it was pouring down...standing in the rain, watching some mechanical thing dance around for like 10min or however long it was...not quite appealing.

The glockenspiel has a story though - dates and names, not my thing if you haven't realised yet. But it was a Prince, and it was for his wedding...and there are 2 knights - with lances - one French, one Bavarian...and of course the Bavarian one wins.

And there are mechanical men in lederhosen doing their jig...and every few years real men do it in person...that should be quite a funny sight.

From the glockenspiel walked the city centre - the New Town Hall, the Old Town hall, a few churches and quite a few memorials to WWII.

Munich, as it stands today is 64 years old. I don't know why this struck me, but for whatever reason it did.

The only buildings that weren't bombed in WWII were the glockenspiel and the towers of the Frauenkirk - and this was for practical purposes only. Radar had just been discovered and the Allied bombers needed some sort of reference. These two buildings were the highest, and pretty much in the city centre.

The rest of Munich - is all restored. Impressive!

Our tour guide, Matt, was really good. And he'd told us that the tour would take on the theme of memorials...WWII is not a particularly proud segment of German history, but it is an important one.

Munich had it's own role in all of this - not only was the Nazi party founded here, but a failed coup occurred, and the nearby town of Dachau and the first work camp, turned concentration camp, which then went on to serve as a model for the hundreds that were subsequently established. Many of the guards at Auschwitz were trained at Dachau...But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Munich has many many memorials - but subtle ones, not in-your-face ones. I think there's something to be said for a more subtle memorial. I'm paraphrasing Matt, but it rings true. It encourages people to find out more, do their own research, and in that way the memory of WWII won't fade. It will be spoken about, and speaking about it and acknowleding it is one way to ensure that such an atrocity does not occur again.

There are numerous plaques on buildings across the city, and you wouldn't know what they were unless you asked. Or looked. Matt only pointed out a few. It made me want to explore the city centre and find all these memorials (and see the rest of Germany, Berlin in particular).

The one memorial he told us about looks a bit arbitrary - it's bronze cobble stones in an alley between two parallel streets.
In the failed coup, Hitler and his fellow partymen walked down both these streets. They started down the one, saw police ahead, headed down the alley and continued along the other - Residenz Strasse...shots were fired. Policemen and Nazis and a innocent bystander were killed. Hitler ran in the opposite direction. When the Nazis came to power the propganda told a different story - he (Hitler) apparently saved a little girl's life. There was no little girl.

At the top of Residenz Strasse a memorial plaque was put up to this event, and a wreath was hung up too. Today the memorial is no longer there but you can see the marks left on the building, and the holes where the nails were.

Everyone that walked passed this memorial had to give the Nazi saulte - if they didn't they were harassed. Now, there was this alley, that bypassed the memorial, and all it added was an extra minute if that, to one's journey...because of the parallel streets.

A silent protest if you wish, to the Nazi regime was going down Dodger's Alley, as it became known as. The Nazis of course cottoned on to this and stationed a guard that the entrance of this alley. They wrote down the names of people using this alley, and if you had no valid excuse for using it (other than the unmentioned one of avoiding saluting the memorial) you were harassed anyway!

So, the bronze cobblestones serve as a memorial to those who silently protested the Nazi regime...and possibly even risked their lives.

Another memorial is outside the University of Munich. It is in honour of the White Rose movement. This was a group of students and professor who printed what was considered propaganda but was in fact the truth, about the Nazis.

These students printed flyers en masse and tossed them in the corridors of the university hoping that students will pick them up and read them. This went on for months. A brother and sister - Sophie and Hans Scholl were part of this group. Both were in their early 20s.

One day, the janitor who'd been sweeping these corridors for months now spotted them dropping the flyers...reported them to the dean, the dean reported them to the Nazis. Hans and Sophie and a third student were arrested and interrogated. They refused to give the names of the rest of the group but the Nazis eventually found out and in the end these students and their professor were executed.

For telling the truth.

The Nazis spared no-one.

And this memorial is dedicated to these brave students who wanted to do something, however small, about the injustices that reigned supreme under the Nazi regime

There's far more to Munich than just the dark history of WWII...there's Oktoberfest! And beerhalls (and of course the history from when it was founded...but that kinda thing you can research yourself...better yet - visit Munich)!

And really really good German beer! This from a non-beer drinker!

After a wet, cold three hour walking tour, yummy Bavarian Stew (2 helpings!) and beer was most welcome.

The rain remained...and after a cold day, the warmth of the hostel was most welcome.

I only spent two full days in Munich...not very long...but long enough to leave a lasting impression. I visited the Dachau Memorial and Concentration camp.

I've been asked so many times wasn't it tough. And I have to reply that no, it wasn't.

It wasn't because I have nothing to compare and even to begin to imagine what these prisoners went through. There are photographs, you get told stories...but there's nothing to make it hit home if you wish.

You really need to take yourself out of where you are, away from all the tourists and somehow transport yourself to a place - which as you're standing there is surprisingly clean, and roll call square looks vast - a place where roll call square held 20 000 men! And not just the 6000 the camp was build to house. A place where sanitation was the last thing on mind of the guards. A place where human filth reigned, and it was smelly, and lice were a problem (amidst many). Food was vile and you are treated as a second class citizen, or worse.

This is difficult to imagine. Very.

Through work, freedom. Cruel Nazi sense of humour

Roll Call Square


One prisoner's words on being in the bunker

A memorial to those who died and survived Dachau. Done by a survivor of the camp.

But it was an eye opener...and has given me a curiosity to find out more about the Third Reich...but not only that, to find out more about the history of my country.

Not the same...but definite similarities. South Africa must have similar stories! Now, to find them. To do the research...and seek out the memorials (if they are there...and if they're not...perhaps attempt to do something about it? Ambitious, possibly.)