Munich: Germany legends, Map, And Beer. A Festive Tour In Munich

Today, we took the city walking tour of Munich. If you go to visit Europe, we absolutely recommend walking tours for your first time in any city (which will familiarize you with the European city you are in, through the living history all around you.) One of the best tour companies we have discovered is New Europe tours.
Their tour guides work for tips only, which gives you the opportunity to take the tour before deciding how much to pay. Matt (actually an American living in Munich) gave us our tour of the city. Being someone who is fascinated with the history of Munich himself, he was absolutely fascinating to listen to, because of how he was able to synthesize so much information into a small amount of time, and add just the right amount of sarcastic wit to help you see the more negative aspects of history from a humorous and positive, while still respectful, perspective.

What we didn’t know about Munich is that it’s really the birthplace of Nazi, Germany. Hitler’s first real exhibition of power took place inside the HofbrauHaus, where he invited a bunch of Communists (Communism is at the opposite political spectrum from Nazism) to the HofbrauHaus under the guise that they were going to hear a speech about Communism. However, the story goes that during Hitler’s speech, the 300 or so Communists became so outraged by what Hitler was saying that they many of them began to throw their beer glasses at him. (Crazy, huh? – Those glasses are heavy.)
This was part of Hitler’s plan, who ran outside, where about 1,000 people following the ideals of what became Nazism were waiting for the Communists to exit the building. When the Communists came out, a large street brawl ensued, and left many Communists battered and bruised.
All this took place (as we remember the way Matt told the story) in 1919, just 1 year after the end of World War One, but a long time before most Americans think of Hitler as actually doing anything political.
In another scheme, Nazis took the leadership of the city of Munich hostage in a failed coup attempt. Hitler’s arrest took him to jail where he wrote his famous “Mein Kampf.” His trial for this coup attempt was presided over by a judge who was favorable to what the Nazis were trying to do in Germany, and allowed television cameras into the courtroom.
Because of Hitler’s excellence as a public speaker, and the judge’s favorable opinion of Nazism, this televised broadcast of the trial (in an era when very little else was on TV – especially not “reality TV”) gave Hitler a medium for spreading his ideals throughout Germany and Western Europe.
All this we learned from our city walking tour led by Matt. We really liked him and his style of touring around the city.
After the tour, we also went to the famous German surfing location in the city of Munich.
These guys are CRAZY!
After the tour, we also got Matt’s number. Later on, we met up with him and his awesome (German) girlfriend to have more beer and a huge dinner at a well-known Munich restaurant.
It was a great day!

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