What did Munich actually look like in the past? Historical photos show how much a city has changed. The change is particularly evident in the building at number 22 on Marienplatz.
Architecture is good when it looks attractive and makes itself useful. This applies in particular to inner-city locations. At number 22 on Munich Marienplatz shows how quickly changes are shaping our cityscape and why the balancing act between maintaining and redesigning is not easy.
Munich’s “Marienplatz” used to be called “Marktplatz”
“Marienplatz” is the name of the heart of which is visited and photographed by millions of tourists München including carillon only since 1854, when the Schrannenhalle in Blumenstraße was put into operation. Previously, the people of Munich simply called the 50 by 100 meter area “market place”. Wine, eggs, cereals and fish have been offered for sale here since 1315, and the fish fountain erected in 1866 commemorates the latter goods.
As early as 1900 (our historical photo dates from 1902), elegant shops with illuminated shop fronts competed for the attention of well-heeled customers. At that time, the stationary trade on the south side of Marienplatz was urban and upper-class.
During the Second World War, a total of 70 air raids with 6,000 fatalities reduced 50 percent of Munich to rubble and ashes. The south side of Marienplatz was hit so hard that most of the ruins were demolished and the new buildings were set back a few meters to enlarge the square.
Culinary excursion
On Shrove Tuesday 1857, the butcher Sepp Moser is said to have sent his apprentice to Saitlingen to make veal sausages in the “Zum Eternal Light” inn at Marienplatz 22. But he came back with pig intestines. In an emergency, Moser still filled them with the finished mass and scalded it in hot water because he was afraid that the pig intestines might burst when roasting. However, the guests loved it. When the sweet home-made mustard was added a little later, the pleasure was complete and the white sausage was famous far beyond the city limits of Munich.
New tenant at Marienplatz: the Munich bookseller Hugendubel
In 1979, seven years after the inner-city traffic was calmed by the pedestrian zone, the large Munich brewery Hacker-Pschorr took over the corner building on Rindermarkt at Marienplatz 22 and rented several floors to the Munich bookseller Heinrich Hugendubel. His concept for literature, presented in a commercial department store style, was initially controversial, but quickly flourished throughout Germany.
In 1996, the previous building in a prime location was replaced by a daring architectural experiment that paid little attention to the protection of the ensemble and the historicity of the town. A sensational facade with lots of glass, blue steel and visible elevator shafts wanted to be an eye-catcher in the partially medieval surroundings. What was successful: the people of Munich came in droves to browse in the Hugendubel, which was already ultra-modern at the time, or to see and be seen in the ground-floor café with outdoor seating. And that despite the fact that critics vilified the ambitious corner house facade as a “tacky country tart”.
Marienplatz: from fashionable to classic
Barely two decades later, however, people had obviously had enough of the fashionable eye-catcher. The current owner, Bayerische Hausbau, began revitalizing the building at Marienplatz 22 in 2016, also because the outdated building technology was a cause for concern.
Simple, noble and classic, the remake at Rindermarkt should now fit into the old town ensemble. For this purpose, the city heimat keeper and Munich architect Gert Goergens designed a calm facade made of light beige sand-lime brick, loosened up by small ornaments in the style of the Italian palazzi aesthetic. The traditional bookseller Hugendubel will move back in after completion in 2017, as will the Munich Press Club, as well as gastronomy and a Telekom flagship store.
The response so far has been consistently positive. But who knows how long this new design will remain a hit in the metropolitan competition for progress. (Sven Goergens)
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