The beer swell, the glass clink, lederhosen and dirndls. Few cities have such a one-dimensional image, at least in terms of tourism, as Munich. True, the arrival of Harry Kane reminded him of his footballing legacy and for enthusiasts the BMW museum on the ring road remains a place of pilgrimage. However, the beer festival in October attracts all the attention.
It’s a shame. Thanks to its long history at the crossroads of Europe, Munich’s cultural past is much broader and deeper than that. Not only does it have a world-class collection of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art assembled by powerful rulers, it has also become a critical epicenter of modern art, with a new exhibition in the highlights of Tate Modern.
In the years before World War I, the leafy Bohemian neighborhood of Schwabing was the intellectual and creative crucible of German Expressionism and one of Europe’s first experiments in abstract painting. A small group of artists, including Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc, August Macke, Paul Klee, and Russian immigrants Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin, and Alexej von Jawlensky, formed the Blue Rider movement. (I know it’s a strange name; Kandinsky’s explanation was that it combined his own love of horsemanship, Marc’s love of horses, and their shared affinity for the color blue.)
The group staged two seminal exhibitions in 1911 and 1912, characterized by haunting, dreamlike images and rich, otherworldly colors. They tended to use naïve folk art as a frame of reference rather than the academic tradition. Perhaps most importantly, Klee and Kandinsky also attempted abstraction; They were among the first artists to stay away from representational art for hundreds of years.
Like their London contemporaries the Bloomsbury Group, they loved to get out of the city and party in the countryside. Their favorite haunt was the Bavarian lake region at the foot of the Alps. Münter built a house in Murnau, one of the most beautiful towns on the edge of the Staffelsee. Her lover Kandinsky moved here, and until the First World War intervened, they would entertain friends from Munich with painting, swimming and intellectual reflections under the Alpine sun.
It turned out to be a brief and unfortunate moment. Macke and Marc were killed in the First World War, and Kandinsky and Münter fled the country. But much of the remarkable art they produced is still housed in Munich and a number of atmospheric museums in the most picturesque part of the lake district, which is far less well-known to British tourists. Here’s how to explore the city and its artistic hinterland.
Lenbachhaus Museum
This beautiful late 19th-century villa was built by the painter Franz von Lenbach. It was turned into a museum, and in 2009 an expansion by Norman Foster was added to what is now the most important of all the Blue Rider collections, including many works by Kandinsky, Klee and Münter’s own donations (lenbachhaus.de).
Murnau and the Bavarian lake region
Murnau is a small town with an idyllic location on the edge of the Staffelsee lake, beyond the Bavarian Alps, just an hour by train from Munich. It was developed as a chi-chi resort for the city’s middle classes in the early 20th century and soon became a favorite with artists as well. Münter and Kandinsky came here to paint in the summer of 1908, staying at the Griesbräu hotel (griesbraeu.de) – you can still book room 12 from where Kandinsky painted the view down the main street (now at the Lenbachhaus).
Schwabing District
Once the epitome of Bohemian shabby chic, this leafy suburb of Munich was badly damaged during the war and has been gentrified in recent years. But you can still feel something of the atmosphere of a century and more ago. And the English Gardens remain Munich’s most beautiful public park.
Pinakothek der Moderne contains a comprehensive overview of modern art, focusing on paintings and sculptures from 1900 to the present, including some of the most important works of the Blue Horseman painters (pinakothek-der-moderne.de).
Münter House
Gabriele Münter built this small house on the edge of town in 1909, and he and Kandinsky spent much of their time here decorating the walls and furniture and working in the garden and potting. There was no formal artist studio, but in nice weather they painted outside or captured views from windows. This was the main social center of the Blue Rider group outside Munich and is now used as a museum, which houses a collection of Münter’s paintings and several other treasures such as Kandinsky’s Russian samovar (he was a tea drinker) (muenter-stiftung.de).
Schloss Museum
Adapted from a former medieval castle, the local museum has three galleries devoted to the works of Münter, Kandinsky, Von Jawlensky and Marc (discover-bavaria.com).
Kochel am See
Marc was a founding member of the Blue Rider group but his career was cut short when he was killed at Verdun in 1916. They had summer houses first in nearby Sindelsdorf and then in the village of Kochel am See, about 10 miles from Murnau. he was buried. His original house is privately owned, but this magnificent villa overlooking the Kochelsee has been converted into the Franz Marc Museum, dedicated to his works and those of other Blue Rider painters such as Klee, Macke, Münter and Kandinsky (franz-marc-museum). also).