Episode 11: Music and Literature in Munich

Bayerische Staatsoper - Nationaltheater am Abend © München Tourismus, Felix Löchner

First, hear what Wagner, Mahler and Richard Strauss did in Munich and where you can still find traces of them today, followed by a rundown of the city’s current music scene, from Bavarian folk music to classical. Learn about the ‘Golden Age’ in Munich, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, with its café culture and iconic characters. Literary Munich is covered via the authors Heinrich Heine, whose statue stands in the ‘Poet’s Garden’ near Odeonsplatz, and Thomas Mann who settled in Munich after studying at the university and wrote all his most famous works there. Heine’s remark, uttered in 1823, that ‘Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn human beings’ is one of the most quoted sentences in German culture today.

MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON

More information about Munich coming soon.

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Links & Reading

Useful websites for tourists
Munich Tourist Office 
Munich Tourist Information 
Simply Munich

5 useful guidebooks
Top 10 Munich (Dorling Kindersley)
Lonely Planet Munich, Bavaria and the Black Forest
Rough Guide to Munich and Central Bavaria
111 Places in Munich that You Shouldn’t Miss by Rüdiger Liedtke
Only in Munich A Guide to Unique Locations, Hidden Corners and Unusual Objects by Duncan J Smith

3 useful history books
Weimar and the Rise of Hitler by A J Nicholls
The Trial of Adolf Hitler by David King
Hitler’s Interpreter The memoirs of Paul Schmidt

5 Biographies
The Swan King: Ludwig of Bavaria by Christopher McIntosh
The Mad King by Greg King
Lola Montez, Her Life and Conquests by James Morton
Sophie Scholl by Frank McDonough
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn

2 Books on Munich’s Artistic Heritage
The Munich Art Hoard by Catherine Hickley
Munich, Its Golden Age, Art and Culture by Rainer Metzger