Munich

Munich is quite a bit different than Stuttgart. One thing I noticed immediately was a lot more diversity than we had encountered to this point. No one specifically stood out as refugees, but I do wonder if some of the people we saw were. The city is also historically Catholic, so that sets it apart from most of the rest of the country. It's a larger city, and I felt like there was a lot more traffic and activity. There are some great green spaces, but we didn't visit them so my impressions consist primarily of buildings and traffic The city is flatter, too, and while there are mountains in the distance, I never saw them while walking around. There are a few impressive buildings that pre-date the war, or were re-built following the war, but on the whole it didn't seem "pretty." In all, the city seemed less "scenic" to me so was less impressed. However my assessment may be unfair - we had just come from the spectacular Schwäbisch Hall, and by this point in the trip I was growing more tired and ready to go home. 

We had two full days in Munich, beginning Monday morning with a U-Bahn (subway) ride to Allianz Arena, home to the two Bundesliga teams in Munich: the multi-year and recently crowned champions Bayern Munich and the lesser-know second-division TSV 1860 Munich Lions. Our guide was good, and she took us into the stands to tell us a bit about the stadium, it's history, and the teams that play there. The stadium was built as a joint venture between the teams, but the Lions, being less successful, had to sell its stake to Bayern Munich,  now the sole owner. The Lions rent the stadium for the games they play there. The stadium was not clean and full of confetti, due to the big celebration after Saturday's game at which the won the league championship. We had just missed the city celebration downtown the day before. 

We learned that the field is something like 3% synthetic grass and 97% natural, with the synthetic pieces tied several inches into the ground. There is a system of lamps providing artificial sunlight which are used for 48 hours at a time. The current coach keeps the field well-watered and damp. We also learned a bit about the synthetic shell of the stadium and saw a small piece of the thin but sturdy plastic it's made of. The stadium can be lit, theoretically, in millions of colors using a system that was recently switch to LED lighting, resulting in a 60% energy savings. Primarily the stadium is only lit in red or white or blue, depending on which team is playing, and it's only lit for a couple of hours before sunrise and again after sundown. If the stadium is lit in other colors, it requires special approval from the city, due to safety concerns on the nearby highway. Recently it was lit in orange for a visit by the King of The Netherlands.

We had the opportunity to go inside to see the press room, the Bayern home dressing area, and the tunnel leading to the field. What was fascinating to me is that the stadium is considered "neutral," so anything in public areas with Bayern Munich branding is changed out for Lions games or German National Team games. And we saw a lot of branding in the hallways, player entrance, and press room. When the Lions play, everything in the stadium is branded for the Lions. Even more amazingly, in my opinion, is that the stadium name can be changed, too. Because Allianz is not a sponsor of Bundesliga, the German National Team, or FIFA, the Allianz name must be dark, covered or removed for any German National friendly games, tournaments, etc. During the world cup, they removed the giant lettering from the side of the stadium and re-named it the "Munich World Cup Stadium." We ended our visit with barely enough time in the huge gift shop, and a quick bite to eat so we could make it to our next thing.

The tour took longer than expected, so we were pressed for time to get back into the city center and transfer trains in order to get to our arranged tour at Dachau. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to us in advance, it was a holiday (Whit Monday - who knew?!). That meant a change in the train schedule. We were supposed to transfer trains at Marienplatz, which has to be the most confusing station. The platform was on a level that could only be accessed from certain other levels, and it was not easy to find the level or get off of it if you didn't want to be there. A couple of the escalators bypassed the level altogether. Finally we all got to the right place, only to discover that the schedule was changed. So we waited... and the train never came. There were no S-Bahn employees around to offer assistance, but we finally found someone who told us that the train had been re-routed completely for the holiday and wasn't even stopping at this station. We had to go the the Main Station to catch the correct train, which we did. I was not happy with all of the chaos, and we were heading out of the city to Dachau for a tour which I wasn't even sure we would be able to take, considering how late we were going to be.

Eventually we made it to Dachau, and our guide Michael was there waiting for us. By this point, it was quite chilly and we were enduring a steady rain... It didn't make for a pleasant tour, but I think it was strangely fitting considering what a solemn place it is and there is nothing happy about the horrible atrocities that took place there. It was also a stark reminder of the horrible weather the prisoners must have had to endure, year-round, wearing nothing but thin striped uniforms and made to work outside, and stand at attention for hours at a time. Or even worse, being hung by their wrists for punishment.

Michael was a no-nonsense tour guide. We were surprised to learn that the tour was scheduled to last two and a half hours. Jeanette tried to tactfully tell the guide that we were tired and asked if the tour could be shortened a bit. That didn't go over well, and we basically ended up with a two and a half hour tour. We barely saw any of the museum exhibits themselves, which is a good thing because I'm sure it would take more than a full day to see it all, and it would probably be way too overwhelming. However, we did see the grounds, the Maintenance Building, the Bunker (camp prison), Crematorium, the re-constructed barracks, and a devastating home move shot by a young U.S. soldier during the liberation of the camp. Michael knew his stuff, he shared a lot of stories and could answer any question, sharing some very specific details about the concentration camp system outpost near Schwäbisch Hall. (There were thousands of concentration camp sites, overall.) He asked us what movies and documentaries we had seen related to the Holocaust, and then mostly reacted in horror telling us how unrealistic they were. He seemed to especially hate Life is Beautiful ("a comedy!") and he didn't have much good to say about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. He didn't hear me mention Bent, so I don't know his opinion on that one. At the end of the tour I asked Michael what motivated him to give tours at Dachau. He said he's always been interested in history, and he was motivated by the stories of his grandparents. He went on to decry the rise of right-wing nationalism occurring around the globe, from Russia to France to Donald Trump. He's not sure what will happen to trans-Atlantic relationships if Trump is elected; I agreed the prospect is unthinkable.

Back in Munich, the rain finally let up and I had dinner with Jeanette, Erika, and Clark at an expensive (but good) Vegan restaurant. Later that evening I took advantage of my only opportunity to check out the Munich gay nightlife. On a Monday. On a holiday. Anyway, I found my way to the right part of town and, although things weren't busy, I enjoyed myself. I had a single beer at each of two bars. The first (Bau) was smallish and trendy with an attractive clientele, and a great painting on the wall. The second bar (Moro) was larger and is also a restaurant, had a slightly more traditional, classy decor, with several nice paintings on the wall and a friendly bartender. I concluded that nightlife is one area in which Munich beats out Stuttgart.

Tuesday began with a U-bahn ride to BMW Welt (BWM World), which was nothing less than amazing. Across the road from BMW's iconic "Four Cylinder" headquarters building, the BMW museum, and the manufacturing plant, BMW Welt is a stunning example of contemporary architecture on the edge of the Olympiapark. The building is large and I'm not sure what all happens there, but it is where they deliver new BMWs to new owners and there's a cafe, gift shop, and beautiful displays of some of the latest BMW, Rolls Royce, and Mini cars. And this is where the tours began. We had very knowledgeable, and funny, guide named Peter Bosch. He took us on a thorough tour of the factory, which blew my mind. It is a multi-level, high-tech manufacturing plant and assembly line. The logistics, robotics, and engineering used to produce hundreds of individually-customized cars daily is unbelievable. More on this in an upcoming post.

Once again, our tour took longer than expected, so we had limited time for the gift shop and we didn't get to explore Olympiapark or see its trümmerberg (the hill made of rubble from the WWII destuction). We had to rush to make it to our next visit at UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at the Technische Universität München, There we enjoyed a really good lunch at their cafe before learning more about the place from a graduate student who coordinated our visit. He then toured us around and we got to see the MakerSpace filled with all kinds of fantastic tools which can be used to make product prototypes. These included a 3D printer which can print fabrics and objects with moving parts, and a machine that can cut designs and patterns out of 50 mm steel using high-pressure sand and water. We also met a couple of entrepreneurs in their business incubator and heard (very very) briefly about the work of their business accelerator. Aside from the cool tools and good lunch, this visit wasn't as great as we hoped it would be. I'm sure it didn't help that everyone was tired to the point of being easily distracted and silly.

We took the train back to the city center and most of the students went to the hotel to pack. Jeanette, Erika, Clark and I met two recent Kelley graduates who were traveling on their own and walked around the Marienplatz area looking for souvenirs. We left the students in the market and went for our final dinner at a wonderful German food restaurant. After dinner we headed to the famous Hofbrauhaus for a final informal gathering with some of the students. There I chatted with two IU students who were in Germany on a SPEA program. One of them I had met in Bloomington this spring and we had talked about being in Germany at the same time. Some of the students on my trip are in his fraternity, which is how we ended up at the same place at the same time. I had one (very large) delicious Dark Radler as we talked and listened to the talented polka band perform throughout the evening. We went back to the hotel before it got too late, and I spent more time than expected packing up, ultimately getting a few hours of sleep before our 5 am meeting for departure to the airport.