Beautiful Streets: bridging the Isar in Munich

After the first Bavarian king Maximilian (Max) I had started a classicist inspired project to improve his capital city of Munich by adding the eponymous Maxvorstadt between 1805 and 1810, his son Louis I (Ludwig in German) completed his vision by building the so-called Splendid Streets, avenues lined with trees and large buildings aligned on monuments placed at important junctions within the urban landscape.

His son Maximilian II ruled as king of Bavaria from 1848 until his death in 1864. He tried his best to maintain the independence of Bavaria within the German Confederation and paid patronage to the arts and science. He was however completely dependent upon the Austrian Empire the strongest and most populous country within the German Confederation. Max II resided in the Munich Residence, which had been enlarged and unified with new classicist facades by his father Ludwig, and the pleasure palace of Nymphenburg a few miles west of the city. The new king had to make his mark on the city after his very visibly influential father and grandfather before him.

So, shortly after his ascension to the throne Max II commissions the sheep paddocks east of the river Isar to be converted into a "memorable urban jewel crowning the glorious capital city of Munich". His grand scheme however proves difficult to realise as the low-lying grasslands are susceptible to seasonal flooding, the higher banks are stony and infertile and land has to be acquired within the old city to be able to link both banks of the Isar. The work finally starts in 1856 to build the terraces designed by Carl von Effner, the Senior Court Gardener between Haidhausen and Bogenhausen later known as the Maximiliansanlage or Max Gardens. Before this work had started in 1850 with the laying out of the Maximilianstrasse, a royal avenue, intended to beautify the city. This Beautiful Street starts at a large public square next to the Residence in front of the State Theatre and runs in a straight line to a bridge across the Isar to culminate in a roundel with at its centre the Maximilianeum (1857-74) originally a school for the gifted, now the State Parliament of Bavaria.Many of the buildings along this axis were designed or supervised by Friedrich Bürklein who worked in an eclectic style mixing elements from gothic and classicist architecture. The Gasteig Gardens directly south of the Maximilianeum were an integral part of the whole design.

The central axis of the Maximiliansanlage is formed by the Maximiliansstrasse linking the Maximilianeum (8) and the Max-Josef-Platz (1)  in front of the Bayerisch National Theater (2) across the Isar via the Maximiliansbrücke (7). At the start of the Beautiful Street Stadtpaläste (3) where built as an urban residence for landed gentry. The section that cut through the hitherto semirural area of Lehel was laid out with a central public garden with the Maxmonument (6) that started formally at the Maximiliansbauten (4) and ended at the Maximilianeum. Along the street the Völkerkundemuseum (5) was built. The waterlevel in the Isar is regulated by the Pumping House or Maxwerk (9) that sits on the Auer Mühlbach.

These Gasteig Gardens have since been merged into the Maximilian Gardens the 30 hectare park on the eastern bank of the Isar directly adjacent to the old city. At the heart of this landscape park stands the Prince Regent Terrace with a grotto and dolphin fountain that was commissioned by and named after Luitpold of Bavaria who was Regent for his nephews the incapable Louis II and Otto, both sons of Max II. Luitpold had revived a plan from 1852 for a northern Beautiful Street parallel to the Maximilianstrasse. First building work started on the focal point across the Isar (constructed between 1888 and 1894). In 1891 a new street was laid out between this viewing platform with fountain and the Prinz Carl Palais. In remembrance of the 25 years of peace after the Franco-German war of 1870/71 a monument was commissioned to be built atop the Prince Regent's Terrace in the shape of a small temple  underneath a column topped by an edifice of the Angel of Peace (Friedensengel). In 1996 the first stone was laid with the festive reveal on July 16 1899. This monument dwarfed the original viewing terraces and is still the point de vue of the Prinzregentenstrasse. In contrast to the axial interventions of his predecessors Luitpold's Beautiful Street, eponymously named Prinzregentstrasse, was not to be linked with official buildings, institutions and the like, but was designed as the focus of a fashionable residential area for the elite, much like Hausmann's axial interventions in Paris (carried out between 1853 an 1870).

The second Beautiful Street completed the axial intervention bridging the Isar and thus completing the intended Maximiliansanlage (B). The northern Beautiful Street runs close to the Englisher Garten (A) and the Hirschanger (A*), with the Prinz Carl Palais (1) functioning as a spatial anchor point between this public park, the new street and the Hofgarten (C) of the Munich Residence. The new axis  of the Prinzregentstrasse runs across the Prinzregentenbrücke (2) towards the Prinzregententerasse (3) with the Friedensengel (4). Contrary to its original plan the street is imbedded in many imitations: Bayerisch Nationalmuseum (5), Statsministerium (6), Haus der Kunst (7), Statskanzlei (8) and Innenministerium Bayern (9). The Deutches Museum (D)  was added in 1925 as a separate non-axial intervention on an island in the Isar.

Besides these royal axial interventions, the new additions to Munich were commissioned and built by private developers. These suburbs all have a Paris-inspired layout with a contorted grid of streets bisected by streets radiating from a square or public garden as the focus of the new quarter. Plots in these suburbs were sold to individuals for building large urban villa's on them or to investors who would have fancy mansion blocks and terraces built. These suburbs are known as: Isarvorstadt (E), Auvorstadt (F) and Ludwigvorstadt (G).

Splendid Streets: Maxvorstadt Munich

Munich was founded near a monastery and named after these monks (apud Munichen). The city is first mention in 1158 when Henry the Lion Duke of Saxony and Bavaria grants the right to hold a market near the Isarbridge on the Salzstrasse (Salt Street) between Salzburg and Augsburg. Later the city was fortified and subsequently enlarged and again fortified. At the end of the 18th century the defences were decommissioned and torn town. This made it possible to expand the old city.

The Maxvorstadt comprises of a grid type urban extension that was to double the urban area of Munich. The scheme took several decades to complete. In the meantime several other suburbs (the literal translations of Vorstadt) were developed: Ludwigsvorstadt, Isarvorstadt, Schwanthalerhöhe and Haidhausen on the other side of the Isar.

The Maxvorstadt was planned between 1805 and 1810 on the instigation of the first Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph, after whom the area was named. It was projected over a large flat area northwest of the old city between the old routes to the Marsfeld (a Military exercise ground), Nymphenburg Palace, Dachau, Schleissheim Palace and Freising. These old routes were formalised as straight streets within a grid layout.  The aim was to create a formal expansion that would serve as a beautiful addition to the medieval Altstadt.   

The old fortified city was surrounded by a wide moat that was fed by several brooks. The Mushroom shape is very distinct and came to be after the second large expansion of the city in the fourteenth century which was mostly located on the higher ground behind the older city.

The Briener Strasse would serve as the central axis of the new suburb connecting the road to Dachau and Schleissheim with a rotunda to the new entrance gate (1812) to the Hofgarten (Palace Gardens) behind the Münchener Residenz (Residential Palace). Along this route several formal ensembles were erected around several squares. The Königsplatz (Kings Square) on this axis was created as the centre of a new cultural hub, not unlike Albertopolis in London, the Kaiserforum in Vienna, the Forum Fredericianum in Berlin and the Royal Forum in Brussels. The queer axis starts at the Kaffeehaus in the Alter Botanischer Garten (1814) and ends at the gates of the Alter Nördlicher Friedhof (1866). The Maxvorstadt connects to the old city via a wide boulevard (Sonnenstrasse - 1812) and the Maximiliansplatz (1808), a long garden square that is part of this green boulevard. The boulevard stretches from the Sendlinger Tor, where a large square was created on the site of a former bulwark, to the Briener Strasse. A secondary axis links this garden square with the main axis of the Maxvorstadt at the Obelisk (1833).

Although the main focus was on the Maxvorstadt In the Southwest a second axial ensemble was created between the Sendlinger Tor (a former city gate) and a new general hospital (Algemeinen Krankenhaus - 1813) across a formal park. A third ensemble was created north of the city to separate the Maxvorstadt from the Englischer Garten. and tie the residential palace into the new scheme. It consists of a long axis, a so-called Prachtstrasse (literally: Splendid Street), that starts by the palace at the Feldherrnhalle (1844) next to the Palais Prysing (1728) and runs at a slightly different angle than the grid of the Maxvorstadt. Across from the Hofgarten a second ensemble was created consisting of the Odeonsplatz. The axis ended at the Siegestor (1852) a triumphal arch modelled after Marble arch. Before this the street widens to a square with the university buildings around it. Next to the Siegestor on a queer axis the Akademie der Bildende Künste (Academie of Fine Arts - 1808) was built.

Three axial ensembles connect to the quarter belt road (A) that links up to the Old Botanical Gardens (B) and the Maxplatz (C). The starting point is the Sendlinger Tor (1) from where an axis leads to the General Hospital (2). The culmination of the scheme is the Residenz with the Hofgarten (D).At the Hofgartentor (1) starts the central axis of the Maxvorstadt (in red). Next to this "Splendid Street" lies the Wittelsbacherplatz (2) with an Equestrian statue and flanked by the Odeon (1828), the Palais Ludwig-Ferdinand (1826) and the Palais Arco-Zinneberg (1820). The axis proceeds to meet the Obelisk (3) and beyond to the Königsplatz with the Glyptothek (4 - 1833), the Antikensammlungen (5 - 1848) and the Propylaea (6 - 1862), to end at a rotunda (7) on the Dachauerstrasse. The queer axis starts at the Kaffehaus (8), runs along the Königsplatz to the Alte Pinakothek (9 - 1836) and Neue Pinakothek (1853) to end at the gatehouses of the Northern Cemetery (10 - 1866) and served effectively as the backbone to the development of the Kunstareal. The third axis (in orange) was also meant as a "Splendid Street" lined with official and representative buildings. The axis of the Ludwigstrasse starts at the Feldherrnhalle (1) along the Odeonsplatz (2) with the Odeon, the Palais Ludwig-Ferdinand and the Palais Leuchtenberg (1821). The Hofgartengalerie (3 - 1853) stands opposite. The street was lined with ministerial building and civic buildings like the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State-Library) completed in 1839 (6). The splendid street crosses the Ludwigsforum (4) with on its westside the main building of the Ludwig-Maximilian University (1835) and on the westside the Georgianum (1840) and the Veterinary Institute (1840s) to end at the Siegestor (5). Next to this triumphal arch stand the Academy of fine Arts (7).

Getting around... Munich

As the capital and largest city of the state of Bavaria, Munich relies on many modes of transport to keep the city running. Private cars are abundant and traffic grinds to a halt at least twice daily - as I know from experience. With some 1.55 million people living within the city limits and a further 2 million beyond the city relies on a number of modes of transport, all very commonplace in large urban centres. Getting around Großstadt München is complicated by the fact that the city stretches across rivers like the Isar and Würm and several brooks and canals. This means that there are many bridges that are potential bottlenecks for road traffic. Luckily Munich also has a very extensive public transport network.

The backbone of public transport is the Schnellnetz of S-Bahn and U-Bahn. This rapid transport network comprises of both over ground suburban railway (S-Bahn) with 8 lines and an underground railway (U-Bahn) with 6 lines. These modes of transport take you throughout the Bavarian metropolis and have excellent connections to the busses and trams of local transport and trains for long distance travel.

Bus                               Tram                             S-Bahn (train)

The underground (or U-Bahn) runs throughout the city...

Südseite Obersendling: new green in an urban envelope

Located near the river Isar, on both sides of the railway and with views of the Alps beyond, this former employment area ticked all the boxes for residential redevelopment. The commuter station Siemenswerke is now at the heart of the new urban quarter of Südseite. Along the railway the area presents itself with long slabs of apartment blocks with apartment towers behind.

Once you leave the S-Bahn station the new urban quarter opens up, revealing an urban park on the westside and communal gardens on the eastside.

Although a high-density redevelopment, as is usual in Munich, Südseite feels spacious and green as a result of a conscious placement of the apartment towers in a sea of enveloping greenery within a clear boundary of housing. The architecture is modern and of the moment, but without being gimmicky or using design elements for the sake of it.

The apartment complexes around the towers (left) have been kept simple in design and echo the treatment of the earlier apartment slabs (right). The last phase has been treated in a more urban fashion with long facades in comparison to the earlier buildings which are more segmented.

Beyond the similarly white housing of the second and third phase stand the colourful building of the first building phase. These apartment building are long slabs set in communal greenery. The colours are quite typical for such Zeilenbauten with pastel shades of yellow, green, blue and red.

In phase 3 (left)and phase 2(right) the architecture is based on simple facades in simple volumes. The detailing around the windows or the treatment of the ground floor provides ornament and variation.

Seen from a distance Südseite presents itself as a high-density urban area with the new residential towers at its heart providing a new skyline together with the former Siemens Office Tower (Siemens Hochhaus) that is just visible as a grey slab behind the new towers in white.