The second day in Munich.. the aim to spend most of the day in the Maxvorstadt/Konigsplatz area, the museum quarter, to generally walk around and to see two buildings in particular. But before this, I headed off by U Bahn to the Neuhausen-Nymphenburg area in west central Munich, with tree lined boulevards...
To see a particular modern church called the Herz-Jesu-Kirche..
Won in competition by Allmann, Sattler Wappnar after the previous church had burnt down, it was consecrated in 2006..
The church is effectively a box within a box.. the outer box of glass protecting the internal timber screen box. The key design brief requirements were context, transparency, light and creating a contemporary church able to meet the demands of those that use the building.
The front screen is made of two huge doors that pivot to expose the inner box.. (I expect not opened very often).. The two smaller doors within the doors are 2400mm high, so this gives some sense of the scale of the big doors...
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| (Picture from the architectural firm...) |
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| As is this.... |
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| Envelope and timber box... |
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| Simplicity of the altar and chancel |
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| A recurring motive of nails used as the manifestation on the front screen and doors |
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| From the transparent entrance to the translucent chancel end.... |
NS-Dokumentationszentrum
Compared with many museums in this area, this new building outwardly gives no signal to its purpose or content. If you are not aware of its significance it is likely that most people would walk past it to visit the big statements of Munich's munificence to the arts.
It is a simple, box where the design reflects the inner galleries and circulation.
This building houses Munich's story of the rise and fall of National Socialism.
Munich is inextricably linked with the rise of Hitler and National Socialism and it has taken 70 years for a building to be constructed that tells the specific story of Munich's role in this.
The galleries, from the top (third floor), moving down to the first, show how the city was complicit in the rise, its role, including the regiments raised in Munich, and the fall.
It's location is also fundamental in the story. The site was formally the 'Brown House', a former mansion that was converted into the headquarters of the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers Party) in 1930. The first uniforms of the Nazis were called the 'Brown Shirts', hence the name.
Konisplatz is also an important NSDAP site. New party buildings were constructed and the square remodelled and paved over to become a ceremonial square for shows of 'strength'.
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| A photo of a board showing the before and after... see the two large buildings at the junction of the Konigsplatz/Brienner Strasse, Arcisstrasse/Katharina-von-Bora-Strasse . Both survived |
Post war, the square was used as a car park. What to do with these structures led to contrasting opinions over whether Munich should present itself as a new, modern outward looking city against those that held the view that its past could not be 'brushed under the carpet'.The remains of the Brown House and other buildings were removed and landscaping over but much later it was realised that other remaining structures needed to be kept to ensure that the legacy of Munich's past could not be ignored and needed to be recognised.
The purpose of the building is to document the history of the city and the NSDAP; it isn't a museum or a gallery but it charts how a society can first acquiesce and them become the embodiment of a culture of extreme politics.
What was disturbing was the post war story of how the city did not wish to acknowledge its past.. The 60's vandalism of Jewish cemeteries (despicably also a recent event in the UK too), the city's desire not to recognise the location of Jewish deportees to the concentration camps and the general wish to delete any references of the NSDAP from the city: Munich was now a tourist destination for Bavaria and did not wish to remind visitors of its past.
In the building there was an exhibition called..
Centred on a satirical film made in the 1920's it imagined the removal of Jews from German society and how the political route this would take....
The film makers created an socio-political structure where they recognised each move to the political right led to further moves to the right creating an extreme and violent society leading to dictatorship. Their imagination became reality within 10 years.
The narrative of the film is the spine of how it actually occurred in Munich.
Its core statement is; 'who are those that decide that they are not us'..
I wasn't allowed to photograph the exhibition..I don't understand why as the whole world needs to see this exhibition, but at the end of it I felt that Donald Trump and his gang of right wing apologists need to be locked in a room and made to understand how their actions can lead to the same conclusion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Documentation_Centre_for_the_History_of_National_Socialism
Sometimes through my journey in Europe I have become aware of our own hypocrisy when it comes to charting and documenting the impact of our involvement in Europe, particularly the false promises given to Poland in 1939 and how we chastise societies in their swing to the right while accepting groups like the ridiculously named ERG; the European Research Group, a 'Brexit' cover group for extreme right wing ideology.
This exhibition exposes all those that allow this swing to the right to be the norm and should be shown to all.
After this.. I visited the Museum Brandhorst but arrived too late to visit the modern art inside.
The building, designed by Sauerbruch & Hutton houses a gift to Bavaria by the Henkel Trust of modern art housed in a building paid for by the Bavarian government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_Brandhorst
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| There is a door and window concealed in the cladding.... |
The care and execution of the facade detailing is not carried through into the entrance interiors.. a good example of how so many architects can design facades but not interiors.. The 'dead' red is particularly space killing...
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| These stair lights shine directly into your eyes when walking up the steps... |
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| ..and a brown squirrel.. |
The Englischer Garten...
A long day....
One final item.. before I left on my journey, I had an idea to write to Jaguar Land Rover to suggest they provide me with a car so that I could 'fly the metaphorical' flag and help their flagging sales instead of driving my German car.. I had no reply.. Unfortunately I have no royal blood or any other meretricious reason for such an offer..
On a number of occasions I have seen JLR showrooms; here is the one in Munich...
I think they can get on without me.....
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