Museums, Munich

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Munich Stadtmuseum (Münchner Stadtmuseum) is the Munich’s municipal museum, the largest municipal museum in Germany. It is housed in the former arsenal and stables that date from late gothic period, got destroyed during WWII but reconstructed again.

We didn’t have much time so we focused on Permanent exhibition that houses a musical instruments collection on 4th floor (about 6000 instruments and sound sources many of them from exotic places), a Puppet Theater exhibition on 3rd floor (you can see the history of puppetry since 19th century and items like shadow puppets, marionettes, puppets from all over the world etc)

Then we visited Typically Munich! Exhibition, some items are interesting some others just boring, there are also scale models of the city.
There is also a permanent exhibition that focus on National Socialism in Munich (the National Socialist German Workers’ Party have been founded in Munich in 1919 and had its headquarters here until 1945), Munich was the capital of the Nazi Movement so it’s no surprise the first concentration camp was built in nearby Dachau.

It is open Tuesday to Sunday 10.00-18.00
The entrance fee for permanent exhibition is 4e, students/seniors/disabled 2e, munich pass holders/unemployed free
The entrance fee for all exhibitions is 6e, students/seniors/disabled/munich pass holders/unemployed 3e

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Based on a former airbase just outside of Munich, the Flugwerft Schleissheim is a delight for anyone who still has a remnant of their childhood fascination for aircraft remaining. There is a large and extremely well preserved collection here, all kept under protective roofing inside a converted hangar. The exhibits also include some extremely rare finds, even one that you probably won't see anywhere in the world, let alone Europe. All of this is located close to one of Bavaria's finest palaces, so although it's a little out of the way, there's plenty for all to see and do in the area.

The exhibits include a large number of planes from the modern West German airforce, but have recently been suplemented with relics from the East German airforce. So along with American Phantoms and Shooting Stars, you can see a classic Mig 21, a dual rotor Kamov Ka-26 and a unmistakeable Mig-15. In addition there are a few planes from other airforces, including the rare sight of a Saab Drakken, and the truly bizarre Hindustani Aircraft Ltd (HAL) Marut.

The Marut was intended to be India's first supersonic jet aircraft, only they could never buy an engine powerful enough to take it to those speeds, so it ended up being a bit of a white elephant. It looked ever so much the elegant futuristic fighter plane it was meant to be, but because of the lack of engine technology it simply limped through the air, a pale shadow of its designers intentions. Its inclusion in the exhibits in Munich was a real surprise.

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When it is complete, the transport museum in Munich should be world class. For now it has a small, but wonderful, collection of cars and other vehicles that you can access for a discount. Now you can see the main hall, which contains a host of amazing originals, including a Protos from the 1907 New York-Paris rally, a Puffing Billy locomotive, and my personal favourite, a car I thought I'd never see in real life: the NSU RO 80 with its unique rotary wankel (snigger) engine.

This is another modern art museum. I didn't know about it before going to Munich. I found it out once there because it's next to the alte pinakothek. The truth is that I liked the paintings here more than the ones in the neue pinakothek (here are also really good). Visit it if you like modern art. Besides paintings there are also some other exhibitions. It's 9 euros.

Open daily, except Mondays, 10-17
Thursday and Friday, 10-20

I always try to visit the nature museums in any city I stay.In Munich I've been to the Jagd und Fischerei Museum in the city centre a few times, and this time I had planned to go to the museum Mensch und Natur (Humans and Nature) in the Nymphenburg palace. Getting there was unexpectedly difficult, as I went on a day when the tram drivers in Munichs decided to go on strike.But with the help of a friendly student, I found my way .

There were several very interesting exhibitions in the museum, the most interesting was the one about Bruno.
Bruno is the name which was given to a bear which had wandered into Bavaria from Slovenia some years ago. He was the first bear in Germany since more than 100 years ago and reactions were anything from pure joy to pure panic.
The museum dedicates a room to Bruno, including a very interesting video about him and presenting the controversy of how to react.Bruno proved to be a bear with no fear of humans at all, he had clearly learned that close to villages it was very easy to get food. When even Finnish bear hunters with special dogs didn't manage to capture him, it was decided to kill him.

This was by far the most interesting room in the museum. I must admit, when I looked at this bear, I was quite glad I hadn't run into him when hiking in the area.

A great modern art museum with innovative architecture and a thoughtprovoking collection of paintings, sculptures, and installations. The most interesting part in my opinion is the "design" department where different historic design concepts are shown in relation to daily life - objects like vehicles, computers and furniture.

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Strolling down the road I came to the Residenz, the old palace of royalty in the city and fairly hard to miss if you're in the area. Curiousity led me to explore some of the architecture and thus it was that I stumbled on the State Museum of Egyptian Art.
This is not your grand British Museum, nay, more your small rural museum with enough to keep you interested but not stay all day.
There's an eclectic mix of fine jewellery, sarcophagi, inscribed slabs et al from the Egyptian side of things and there are also works from the Greco-Roman era (pic 2) though the golden mask in the opening pic is undoubtedly one of the highlights.
I found a major problem here for me was the fact that there is not only no English captions but the staff can't help either and there was no literature available in English. Hopefully, in times to come, this will be redressed to allow more visitors access to the knowledge contained therein.

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I hadn't read of any art in the museum, just the porcelain. Imagine my surprise when I discovered some quality works interspersed with the rest of the exhibition in the Marstall Museum, including some works by my favourite, Gerit Dou.
His history is interesting inasmuch as he left the school of Rembrandt after less than a year and started his own, feeling that the master lacked a little in detail. Thus Dou's works are renowned for their fine work. He rarely painted large canvases, preferring instead to do small portraits such as you see in the opening picture here.
Some of the fine Murillos and works of Raphael are shown in the other pics.

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The Porcelain Museum is also located in the south wing. The pieces displayed demonstrate a comprehensive history of the products of the Nymphenburg porcelain manufactory (founded in 1761), which is based in the north-east section of the round tower in front of the castle.
Class just oozed from the exhibits and I loved the range of subjects, from the 3 dogs fighting the bear in pic 2 to the tranquility of the flower vase in pic 3 to the quirkiness of the snuff lady in 4 to the warrior in the final shot.

Opposite the sculpture collection Glyptothek lies this interesting antiquity museum. The museum building is built in the style of a greek or roman temple. Fine temporary exhibitions - at the time when this photo was taken, there was an exhibition about Troy, which is why a life-size Trojan Horse is standing in front of the staircase.