Munich

We arrived in Munich under gray skies and cold weather. I swear I saw a snowflake… in June… in Southern Germany. I’m sure the city was ready to roll out the snowplows within the night. Not really, but I think I made my point, it was cold. Munich, the largest town in Southern Germany, is the capital of Bavaria. This being said, I was expecting people to be walking around in lederhosen and to see a beer hall at every corner; after all it is home to the largest Hofbrauhaus (beer hall) in the world. I thought it would be the equivalent to New Orleans in Germany; a place that would exploit its Germanic past and heritage on every street corner. But Munich is a modern, clean city that once held the infamous 1972 Olympics and has grown up since the days of the Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. As we were walking through the city our first night there, we came to a street lined with expensive, boutique shops and expensive BMW’s and Mercedes Benz’s speeding up and down the streets. And then I realized… I was back in Dallas. The city seemed extremely wealthy with freeways everywhere and tall, modern skyscrapers dotting the city skyline. This thought was confirmed with a visit to the audaciously designed BMW Welt, a showroom experience designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au, across the street from their headquarters, to exhibit their latest cars and innovative engineering so those wealthy enough to buy their car from here could drive off in a perfect setting. The place was amazing in the design of the building.
Afterwards, a smaller group of us went to the Herz-Jesu-Kirshe (Sacred Heart of Jesus Church). Designed by the firm Allman, Sattler, and Wappner, it is a large wooden box surrounded by a blue glass box that manipulates the light. On the outside glass wall, the material becomes more opaque closer to the altar while the slats that make up the wooden box open up more to allow more light in the closer to the altar. An extreme amount of detail is carried through the whole building: carpenter nails make a silhouette on the blue glass, crosses are subtly seen in the facade, and extreme detail is given in how the wood and steel come together.