The scars of war

I have been meaning to write this post for over half a year, since I am intrigued by the handful of places here in Munich which architecturally mark and remember WWII.  

The Siegestor (Victory Gate), first erected by King Ludwig I in 1852, was partially destroyed in WWII and
purposely reconstructed with a plain facade to memorialize the destruction of war.  The words across the top
translate as: "Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, reminding of peace."

It's not my intention here to recount war history, or dwell on the background and guilt of Munich as "Capital of the [Nazi] Movement".  There are certainly many things to see here if one is interested in Third Reich history, but for a variety of reasons I have tried to minimize my attention to the Nazi period while here:  partly to avoid the stereotype that Americans are interested in Munich only for that reason (and for Oktoberfest), partly because I am married to a German of a generation that fully feels the guilt from a time before they were even born, and partly to keep my year here on the happier side!

[In this context I will mention, however, the best book I read here this year:  the 800 page translation of Erfolg by Lion Feuchtwanger is a roman à clé, and explains as well as I can imagine the psychology and history of the post WWI time in Munich leading to the rise of the Nazis.  The title ("Success") is ironic in view of later history, but the book was published in 1930 and the story itself ends with Hitler's unsuccessful first attempt at a coup in 1923...  This was one of the many books burned by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933.]

At the end of WWII, an unbelievable amount of Munich was destroyed by bombing (see here for example) but over the following decades the city was reconstructed.  A few buildings, however, were rebuilt in such a way to remember the war damage.  I call them "scars of war", and most are on my regular walking rounds here.

Archive picture of the Alte Pinakothk,
after WWII damage.
From the museum site

My favorite is the Alte Pinakothek, which is has always been a fabulous art museum.  It has the most obvious "scar", where a bomb destroyed the entire middle of the building.

The "scar" of bomb damage repaired is quite evident in the brick color.

(The Germans knew the bombs would be coming, so art and valuables in the museums and palaces were evacuated to safe places in the country well before the main bombing campaign.)

Another scarred but beautiful building is the St. Bonifaz Abbey, quite near to Benjamin's school downtown.  It was built in 1835 by King Ludwig I (as part of his effort to revive Bavarian spiritual life) as a long and narrow Byzantine-style cathedral.  The back half of it was destroyed in the war, and it was only partially reconstructed, probably at about half its original length.

From the side, St. Bonifaz looks somewhat shorter than you'd expect.

(From the front, it looks quite regal...)   

I pass every day by the scars of WWII gun-shot "wounds" in the walls of the university building around the corner from our apartment.

"Wounds of memory"

There is a plexiglass plaque over some of the holes, as a remembrance, again, of the destruction of war.  It says "Wunden der Erinnerung" (Wounds of Memory).

The streets of Munich are heavy with history.  While I'm walking around town, I often find myself thinking about kings, composers, artists, Upper Bavarian peasants, Nazis, and ordinary citizens who had to contend with all the upheavals of history.

World war II, of course, looms large over history here.  Events are often stated as being simply before or after "the war."  Munich now is prosperous, cosmopolitan, and altogether enchanting I think.  In current times, you actually have to know what you're looking for to find signs of the war -- except for the handful of building memorials I've shown here.  They're certainly noticeable, but still somewhat subtle.  Quite thoughtfully done.

You can see "wounds of memory"
also in this statue outside the
Alte Pinakothek.