Maxvorstadt

‘Museums and universities’ pretty much sums up Maxvorstadt, meaning most visitors are likely to spend some time here. The Pinakotheken and Brandhorst art museums form the Kunstareal, while the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and venerable Kunstakademie (Art Academy) bustle with student activity. The area has been a hotbed of culture since the early 20th century; painters Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky had their studios here, and Thomas Mann used to talk literature with colleagues in smoky coffeehouses. Today students shape the neighbourhood vibe.

How you spend a day in Maxvorstadt really depends on your artistic tastes, but whatever your preferences, be prepared to overdose on some of the best art in central Europe: the Kunstareal with its four world-class art museums is one of Munich’s major highlights. Away from the oils and installations, the area around Königsplatz has a darker story to tell as it was here that Hitler erected the Nazis’ admin buildings – the NS Dokuzentrum tells the tale. End the day in one of the studenty bars.

Geschwister-Scholl-Platz | Geschwister-Scholl-Platz ©

Getting There & Around

g Bus 100 passes through the Kunstareal on its way from the Hauptbahnhof to the Ostbahnhof. The Pinakotheken have their own dedicated stop.

X Königsplatz is served by the U2.

j The Pinakotheken stop is served by tram 27.

Top Sights Kunstareal

Munich’s unrivalled Kunstareal is a compact area of Maxvorstadt packed with southern Germany’s finest art museums – some of the city’s must-sees. The Alte Pinakothek, the Museum Brandhorst, the Neue Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne will keep art fans busy for at least half a day each – many travel to the Bavarian capital specifically to spend time amid these high-brow institutions.

NENAD NEDOMACKI/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

MAP GOOGLE MAP
www.kunstareal.de
gPinakotheken,
jPinakotheken

Alte Pinakothek

Munich’s main repository of Old European Masters, the Alte Pinakothek (%089-238 0516; www.pinakothek.de; Barer Strasse 27; adult/concession/child €7/5/free, Sun €1, audioguide €4.50; h10am-8pm Tue, to 6pm Wed-Sun) is crammed with all the major players who daubed canvases between the 14th and 18th centuries. This neoclassical temple was masterminded by Leo von Klenze and is a delicacy to be savoured, even if you can’t tell your Rembrandt from your Rubens. The collection is world famous for its exceptional quality and depth, especially when it comes to German masters.

A key room is the Dürersaal upstairs. Here hangs Albrecht Dürer’s famous Christlike Self-Portrait (1500), showing the gaze of an artist brimming with self-confidence. His final major work, The Four Apostles, depicts John, Peter, Paul and Mark as rather humble men, in keeping with post-Reformation ideas. Compare this to Matthias Grünewald’s Sts Erasmus and Maurice, which shows the saints dressed in rich robes like kings.

There’s a choice bunch of works by Dutch masters, including an altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden called The Adoration of the Magi, plus The Seven Joys of Mary by Hans Memling, Danae by Jan Gossaert and The Land of Cockayne by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. At 6m in height, Rubens’ epic Last Judgment is so big that Klenze custom-designed the hall for it. A memorable portrait is Hélène Fourment (1631), a youthful beauty who was the ageing Rubens’ second wife.

Museum Brandhorst

A big, bold and aptly abstract building, clad entirely in vividly multihued ceramic tubes, the Brandhorst (www.museum-brandhorst.de; Theresienstrasse 35a; adult/concession/child €7/5/free, Sun €1; h10am-6pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun, to 8pm Thu; gMaxvorstadt/Sammlung Brandhorst, jPinakotheken) jostled its way into the Munich Kunstareal in a punk blaze of colour in 2009. Its walls, its floor and occasionally its ceiling provide space for some of the most challenging art in the city, among it some instantly recognisable 20th-century images by Andy Warhol, whose work dominates the collection.

Pop Art’s 1960s poster boy pops up throughout the gallery and even has an entire room dedicated to pieces such as his punkish Self-Portrait (1986), Marilyn (1962) and Triple Elvis (1963).

The other prevailing artist at the Brandhorst is the lesser-known Cy Twombly. His arrestingly spectacular splash-and-dribble canvases are a bit of an acquired taste, but this is the place to acquire it if ever there was one.

Elsewhere Dan Flavin floodlights various corners with his eye-watering light installations and other big names such as Mario Merz, Alex Katz and Sigmar Polke also make an appearance. Damien Hirst gets a look-in here and there.

Neue Pinakothek

The Neue Pinakothek (%089-2380 5195; www.pinakothek.de; Barer Strasse 29; adult/child €7/free, Sun €1; h10am-6pm Thu-Mon, to 8pm Wed; gPinakotheken, jPinakotheken) harbours a well-respected collection of 19th- and early-20th-century paintings and sculpture, from rococo to Jugendstil (art nouveau). All the world-famous household names get wall space here, including crowd-pleasing French impressionists such as Monet, Cézanne and Degas, as well as Van Gogh, whose boldly pigmented Sunflowers (1888) radiates cheer.

Perhaps the most memorable canvases, though, are by Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, who specialised in emotionally charged, brooding landscapes.

There are also several works by Gauguin, including Breton Peasant Women (1894), and Manet, including Breakfast in the Studio (1869). Turner gets a look-in with his dramatically sublime Ostende (1844).

Local painters represented in the exhibition include Carl Spitzweg and Wilhelm von Kobell of the Dachau School, and Munich society painters such as Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Franz Lenbach and Karl von Piloty. Another focus is work by the Deutschrömer (German Romans), a group of neoclassicists centred on Johann Koch, who stuck mainly to Italian landscapes.

Pinakothek der Moderne

Germany’s largest modern-art museum, Pinakothek der Moderne (%089-2380 5360; www.pinakothek.de; Barer Strasse 40; adult/child €10/free, Sun €1; h10am-6pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun, to 8pm Thu; gPinakotheken, jPinakotheken) unites four significant collections under a single roof: 20th-century art, applied design from the 19th century to today, a graphics collection and an architecture museum. It’s housed in a spectacular building by Stephan Braunfels, whose four-storey interior centres on a vast eye-like dome through which soft natural light filters throughout the blanched white galleries.

The State Gallery of Modern Art has some exemplary modern classics by Picasso, Klee, Dalí and Kandinsky and many lesser-known works that will be new to most visitors. More recent big shots include Georg Baselitz, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Dan Flavin and the late enfant terrible Joseph Beuys.

In a world obsessed by retro style, the New Collection is the busiest section of the museum. Housed in the basement, it focuses on applied design from the industrial revolution via art nouveau and Bauhaus to today. VW Beetles, Eames chairs and early Apple Macs stand alongside more obscure interwar items that wouldn’t be out of place in a Kraftwerk video. There’s lots of 1960s furniture, the latest spool tape recorders and an exhibition of the weirdest jewellery you’ll ever see.

Pinakothek der Moderne | WESTEND61 GMBH/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO ©

Walking TourOff the Beaten Track in Maxvorstadt

Maxvorstadt is all about big-name art and Nazi buildings, right? Well, even this small Munich neighbourhood has a B side, the grid of streets west of the Königsplatz and the Pinakotheken throwing up some wonderfully distinctive but wholly unvisited sights. With its timewarped cafes and impressive church architecture, uncover a part of Munich few except the locals really know.

Walk Facts

Start Alter Botanischer Garten; XKarlsplatz

End Nordbard; XHohenzollernplatz

`1Alter Botanischer Garten`

The Old Botanical Garden is a pleasant, rather bushy park centred around a large sculptural fountain – a verdant oasis in a traffic-heavy part of town. There are acres of bench space here for picnickers or you could head to the Park Cafe, a less-known beer garden, but one that’s frequented by locals.

`2St Bonifaz Church`

Established by King Ludwig I in 1835, this neo-Renaissance red-brick and stone church is fronted by eight classical columns. That’s unusual enough in Munich, but the interior is an even bigger surprise: the pews form a circle around the altar, there is abstract art on the walls and the organ looks like it’s made from bits of BMW engine.

`3Augustenstrasse`

There are two eateries to look out for on busy Augustenstrasse. The former Jewish restaurant Schmock at No 52 (now the Vu Tang Laos noodle house) has an ornate original interior. Up the road, on the corner with Steinheilstrasse, Cafe Jasmin takes you back to the days of the Wirtschaftswunder (West Germany’s post-war economic recovery).

`4Munich Technical University`

Munich’s ‘other’ university is one of Germany’s best, turning out graduates that contribute to the country’s engineering prowess. You should come here for the modern rooftop Café im Vorhoelzer Forum, which has some of the best views of any Munich eatery.

`5Alter Nordfriedhof`

You might think this overgrown graveyard was the last place you’d want to hang out. However, the joggers, mums with prams, and running kids give the game away. After just 71 years, the Nazis decommissioned this 19th-century cemetery, and following WWII it became a park – just one with lots of gravestones…

`6Josephsplatz`

Dominating Josephsplatz, the oversized neo-baroque St Joseph Church looks older than it is, having only been built in 1898. Inside, it’s a mammoth barrel of whitewashed stucco. Outside, the city has installed an interesting children’s playground, and there’s a dribbling fountain you can watch from the benches.

`7Nordbard`

The Nordbad is a Munich swimming pool with an old exterior but a fully modernised interior. It’s one of the least frequented pools and is open from very early morning till late at night. However, you don’t have to don trunks to access the adjacent Cafe Bellevue.