Königsplatz (Munich)

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The Propylaea on the Königsplatz. On the north side on the right the Glyptothek , on the left edge of the picture is the building of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen , on the top right the Lenbachhaus
Königsplatz with antique collection
Looking northeast onto Königsplatz (middle left) and Karolinenplatz with the obelisk on the right edge of the picture

The King Square is a square in Munich's district Maxvorstadt , of the overall ensemble of street Brienner heard the first avenue of Munich. The square in the style of European classicism is a center of cultural life and is considered one of the main works of the Ludovician “Isar-Athens”.

location

Königsplatz is in the third quarter of Brienner Strasse in the south of Maxvorstadt. It is the fourth and last place in the entire Brienner Straße ensemble. In the east it separates Katharina-von-Bora-Straße from Arcisstraße, in the west Königsplatz is bordered by Luisenstraße.

traffic

The course of Brienner Strasse over Königsplatz

In terms of private transport , Königsplatz has no other function than an extension of Brienner Strasse. At the same time, traffic is directed to Luisenstrasse, which connects to the main train station .

In public transport, Königsplatz is connected to the U2 line  by the Königsplatz underground station .

history

The history of Königsplatz is closely linked to that of Brienner Straße. Karl von Fischer , who on behalf of the then Crown Prince and later King Ludwig I, together with Friedrich Ludwig Sckell, expanded the former Fürstenweg from the Munich residence to Nymphenburg Palace to the splendid and main street Brienner Straße, tried to break up the rigid grid plan of Maxvorstadt through squares, which he projected at places where the streets sloping across the street led to the Fürstenweg.

Karl von Fischer's conception

View of the ensemble towards the east

Karl von Fischer designed the Königsplatz based on the model of the Acropolis in Athens . Classical rigor should be embedded in lively green and thus correspond to the urban planning ideas of Ludwig I, who wanted to see cultural life, civic ideals, Catholic Christianity, royal administration and the military all embedded in green. In this respect, the Königsplatz belongs to an ensemble that begins with the Abbey of St. Boniface and runs over the Königsplatz to the Pinakotheken , where his body regiment in the Turkish barracks grew into a unit.

In order to create a square surrounded by temples, Karl von Fischer expanded Brienner Strasse. No street cross was the basis for the square; Fischer moved the intersecting streets to the edges of the square, thereby delimiting it and making the space independent. Fischer's concept envisaged two temples around 200 meters long on the long sides, directly at the edges of the residential area. The rigid symmetry should be canceled out by lawns and trees. However, this concept was only partially implemented.

Further development by Leo von Klenze

Doric Propylaea

After Leo von Klenze had received the order to build the Königsplatz, he kept Karl von Fischer's basic concept. His Glyptothek corresponds to the antique collection that Georg Friedrich Ziebland designed. At the intersection of Brienner Strasse and what was then Arcisstrasse, Karl von Fischer had already implemented small residential buildings, which architecturally corresponded to the palace-oriented development of Brienner Strasse with free-standing buildings that appeared square in plan, to form the eastern end of Königsplatz.

As a conclusion, Leo von Klenze erected the Propylaea in the west , which followed the propylon , the gateway to the Athens Acropolis. The monument is dedicated to the Greek struggle for freedom. At the Propylaea in Munich, Klenze realized his own canon of forms within the framework of classicism , which also has Egyptian influences. The gable decoration thematizes the Greek fight for freedom (1821–1829), in the building panels bear the names of Greek freedom fighters. The Propylaea take away from Brienner Straße its continuous character, similar to Karolinenplatz . Since the area was still open at the time of implementation, the Propylaea also assumed the (symbolic) function of a city gate. Thus, the Königplatz became an oasis of urban calm. The inclination of the square is essential for the effect of the structures and their interaction. It slopes slightly from the buildings over the lawns to the central street. This slight inclination is enough to create the impression of ancient temples, which were always built on hills and hills. The Königsplatz was not intended to fulfill any specific objective or to stage a rulership, but only to emulate antiquity with its aesthetics and ideals, as Ludwig I understood them.

Remodeling during the Nazi era

One of the two temples of honor on Königsplatz in 1936 during the celebrations for November 9th
View from the Propylaea of ​​the Glyptothek (left), Führerbau (center) and one of the temples of honor, 1937

After the takeover of the Nazi Party in 1934, the transformation of Munich for "started Capital of the Movement ". The Königsplatz, renamed Königlicher Platz by the National Socialist rulers , was redesigned by Paul Ludwig Troost in such a way that Karl von Fischer's conception was reversed. All green has been removed. At the eastern end, the Führerbau was erected north of Brienner Strasse and, symmetrically to the south, the NSDAP administration building. Instead of Fischer's houses, two “temples of honor” were erected as a common grave for the Nazis who died during the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch in 1923. Their bodies were transferred there and reburied in iron sarcophagi . A cult was staged around these dead, known as the “ martyrs of the movement ”, to portray them as martyrs .

The renovation significantly expanded the width of Königsplatz. By removing the green, Königsplatz was able to expand in the direction of the “Führerbauten” and focus on the temple of honor like a funnel. This reversed the viewing direction by 180 °. At the same time, the square was paved with 20,000 granite slabs that deliberately came from all parts of the German Empire . The completely evenly laid, one-square-meter slabs made the temples and the Propylaea look very out of place. That was Troost's intention. The historic buildings should no longer dominate the square, but appear equal or subordinate to the new buildings. At the same time, the new Germany should show in the National Socialist architectural style developed in particular by Troost that it is derived from the old order, architecturally from the classicist style of Ludwig I, but represents its own new order that relativizes everything and puts it behind it. Since then, Königsplatz has been used for parades and rallies by the NSDAP. On May 10, 1933, a book burning , largely organized by the National Socialist German Student Union , took place on Königsplatz .

post war period

During the air raids on Munich during the Second World War , the classical buildings in particular were badly damaged. The Troost temple of honor were still preserved after the end of the war and there was a proposal to convert one into an exhibition hall and the other into a café . However, the American military government ordered the demolition of the National Socialist memorial as part of the denazification : On January 16, 1947, the temple of honor was blown up by the US Army . It was not until 1987/1988 that the panels covering Königsplatz were removed and the original state from the beginning of the 19th century was restored as far as possible. In comparison, the difference between the National Socialist urban planning concept and Ludwig I's was once again clear. Only the residential buildings of Karl von Fischer are still missing to restore the original impression. The overgrown bases of the Troost temple of honor still stand in their place. A reconstruction of Fischer's buildings is periodically requested, but has not yet been seriously discussed.

At the end of the 1990s, the buildings were completely renovated. The groups of gable figures were replaced by copies, some of which were exhibited on the platform of the Königsplatz underground station.

The Greek context of the Königsplatz

Ionic glyptotheque

After the Greek Revolution , Ludwig's son Otto was appointed ruler of the newly created Kingdom of Greece at the London Conference of 1832 . Ludwig I hoped to establish a permanent Wittelsbach dynasty in Greece . Before this, and reinforced by this development, Ludwig's philhellenism was also expressed in his new buildings.

The architecture of Königsplatz was intended to symbolize the bond between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Greece . The Doric Propylaea should represent this connection and at the same time be the gateway to the future. The Ionian Glyptothek was supposed to be the highlight of the cultural creation in the form of a temple. The building in the south of the square, which is designed according to the Corinthian order and which today houses the State Collections of Antiquities , was called the Art and Industry Exhibition Building for the Promotion of Art and Industry in Ludwig's time and should bring this development to the present with the Fischer buildings in the exit demonstrate.

When Ludwig I walked through the completed Propylaea in 1862, this symbolism had already become history: Ludwig had renounced the throne in 1848 in favor of his son Maximilian II ; Otto had to abdicate in 1862, followed by Georg I from the German-Danish house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg .

Attractions

Corinthian State Collection of Antiquities

building

In the summer of 2014, Königsplatz was used for an art campaign with pleasant side effects.

Museums

Closer surroundings

Research and education

Museums

Panorama of the Königsplatz

and display information about the image
Panoramic view on Königsplatz with the ensemble from the State Collection of Antiquities, Propylaea and Glyptothek (2011)

Regular events

The German special postage stamp for the 225th birthday of the architect Leo von Klenze shows the Propylaea.
  • TUNIX (Open Air Festival of the TU - AStA , since 1981)
  • Top Without Open Air of theMunich City District Youth Association (in July, 1998–2006)
  • Königsplatz Open Air (classic open air since 1993, irregular since 2000)
  • Open air cinema
  • Munich reads - from burned books in memory of the book burning on May 10, 1933
  • Munich Sports Festival (sports event of the Department for Education and Sports - Sports Office of the City of Munich)

Others

  • After the massive redesign by the National Socialists, the Königsplatz was nicknamed "Lake Balaton" by the granite slabs that did not allow the rainwater to drain off well.
  • After the end of the war, some of the granite slabs in the municipality of Graefelfing were used as flooring for pedestrian paths.
  • The television series Raumpatrouille used Königsplatz as the backdrop for the landing site of the Orion spacecraft in deep-sea base 104.
  • In 1995 the artist Wolfram Kastner put a circular burn mark on Königsplatz to commemorate the book burning by the National Socialists, so that “no grass grows over history.” The action was approved by the city council after initial resistance. A renewal of the burn mark requested by Kastner was subsequently rejected. Only in 2013, on the 80th anniversary of the book burning, did the city council allow the artist to re-create the burn mark.
  • In November 2018, Königsplatz was the scene of a large art installation by action artist Walter Kuhn . On the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, approx. 3500 large red poppies made of artificial silk were set up on the four central green areas of the square in memory of the victims of this and all other wars in the past and today. At the same time, the artist saw in his action an attempt to remind of the importance of the square at the time of National Socialism and its crimes.
  • Königsplatz is part of the annual “sightseeing” loop of the Munich marathon in October.

literature

Web links

Commons : Königsplatz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lauterbach, Iris., Rosefeldt, Julian., Steinle, Piero .: Bureaucracy and cult: the party center of the NSDAP on Königsplatz in Munich: history and reception . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-422-06164-9 .
  2. ^ Homepage of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich: Munich (1933) . 5th October 2018
  3. ↑ Christoph Hackelsberger : The postponed modernity. Munich 1985, p. 35.
  4. ↑ Helga Pfoertner: Living with history. Vol. 1, Literareron, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-89675-859-4 , pp. 27–30 ( PDF; 1.1 MB ( Memento from April 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
  5. ^ Resolution of the general assembly of the city council on March 19, 2003 (PDF; 73 kB)
  6. ↑ Remembering the book burning. In: Abendzeitung-muenchen.de . May 10, 2013, accessed October 10, 2013 .
  7. ↑ The project. Retrieved November 22, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 3200 red poppies on the Königsplatz. In: sueddeutsche.de . November 1, 2018, accessed November 22, 2019 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 44.7 ″  N , 11 ° 33 ′ 55.4 ″  E