Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Mom's 1953 Europe Road Trip: Munich

From Mom's Europe trip diary, in the "PLACES VISITED" section: 
September 17, Thursday – Munich, Germany
After breakfast, took a bus tour of city which was quite unsatisfactory.  Met Sylvia back at hotel and went to eat at Ratskeller.  From there we went shopping & I bought cutlery and scissors for myself and Mother.*  Also bought a wood carved crucifix for myself.**  Ate supper and went to bed.  On the tour, saw badly-damaged buildings, the Führer's house, other beautiful buildings like the Glockenspiel on the Town Hall (clock with moving parts).

* According to the "PURCHASES" section of the trip diary, my mother bought two knives and miscellaneous cutlery at Henckels in Munich for a total of 94.3 marks.

** The crucifix was purchased for 25 marks at J. Chr. Dehm in Munich.

Although she doesn't mention it in her narrative, she also purchased a toy car at Teddy in Munich for 9.75 marks.

Here are some photos my mother took of some bomb-damaged buildings in Munich:
 World War II damage in Munich (a church?), 17 September 1953 / Geraldine Guokas Pape / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

World War II damage in Munich (a factory?), 17 September 1953 / Geraldine Guokas Pape / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Both the Ratskeller and the Glockenspiel are part of the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) on the Marienplatz in Munich.  Below is a photo of the Neues Rathaus from May 1960:
Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F008211-0004 / Unterberg, Rolf / CC-BY-SA-3.0-de via German Federal Archives

Below is a photo of one of the entrances to the Ratskeller, which is in the basement of the Neues Rathaus.  The Ratskellar opened August 1, 1874:
Ratskellereingang Innenhof Neues Rathaus München [Ratskeller entrance, Neues Rathous courtyard, Munich,
17 June 2007] / User:Mattes (Own work) / Public domain

And here are a couple videos of the Glockenspiel in action (both by bonifazimarco, CC BY 4.0).  The first is of the top half of the Glockenspiel, which tells a story of the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V to Renata of Lorraine in Munich in 1568.  The celebration includes a joust between a Bavarian knight (in blue and white) and a knight from Lorraine (in red and white) - guess who wins?

This is followed by the lower half of the Glockenspiel, which tells a second story about Schäfflerstanz (the Coopers' Dance).  The traditional story is that local coopers (barrel makers) encouraged frightened residents back out into the streets at t
he end of a devastating 1517 plague with their twirling dance, reenacted every seven years during Fasching (the festival before Lent).



This is the 41st in a series of posts transcribing entries in my mother's 1953 Europe Trip journal.


© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

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