The Catholic Vibe of Munich

Munich is a metropole in which cultures meet — but the Catholic history of the city is ever-present, GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER writes.

When God decided that German culture needed some Italian flair, he created Munich — or, as the Italians call it, Monaco (di Baviera). There are many picturesque towns in Germany, but these are usually steeped in their particular regional culture. Munich is unmistakably German and Bavarian, but the warmth of the Italian lifestyle permeates the city.

And this finds expression in the vast number of Italian restaurants in Munich. There are an estimated 400-500 of them in Munich, reportedly more than in Florence and Siena combined. Even the famous Hofbräuhaus is liable to offer pasta with meat sauce as an alternative to that great Bavarian staple, the Weisswurst.

Hofbräu is one of the six beers that are allowed to have a tent on the famous Oktoberfest, whereas the region’s best-selling beer, Erdinger, may not. The reason resides in geography: the brewery in Erding is just outside Munich, and only beers brewed within the city’s boundaries may be represented at the Oktoberfest.

Half of these beers have  Catholic roots, which are revealed in their names: Augustiner, Paulaner and Spaten-Franziskaner.

Throughout Bavaria, and indeed Europe, there are many more breweries that started in monasteries. Back in the day, the monks brewed their strong beer to see them through Lent; its consumption was mainly nutritional, rather than recreational — though, one suspects, the latter was a welcome side benefit.

On holy days, the monks would give the laity some free beer, which, unsurprisingly, boosted Mass attendance. Children would even receive a litre to mark their First Communion.

In Bavaria, the monks’ beer days ended gradually. Some breweries were sold, among them Munich’s big three monks’ breweries; others were forcibly nationalised during the particularly anti-clerical secularisation of 1803.

Munich’s Old City is beautiful. While 90% of the city was destroyed in 18 separate bombing raids in the Second World War, the Old City suffered relatively few of them — though these did extensive damage.

Much of the Old City has a Catholic flavour — appropriately, since the root of its German name, München, is “at the monks”, a reference to a monastery that already stood there when the town was founded by Henry the Lion.

Munich’s ornate but quite young city hall, finished only in 1909, is located on the Marienplatz, or St Mary’s Square, which dates back to 1198, forty years after the settlement was first mentioned. It has been Munich’s centre point ever since.

Just behind the city hall is the church of Munich’s oldest parish, St Peter’s. Situated on the inner city’s only significant elevation, the site is believed to be that of Munich’s first settlement.

There might have been a church there already when Munich was founded, or maybe it was a customs house. Either way, an original church is mentioned shortly after Munich’s foundation.

The 14th-century St Peter’s church, which was frequently remodelled over the centuries, was almost completely destroyed in a 1945 air raid. But just as its ruins were about to be torn down — to retain only the iconic tower (known to the locals as “Old Peter”) and the choir — the finances materialised to reconstruct the church. Thus, as happened in many German cities after the war, a piece of cultural and religious heritage was saved.

Today, St Peter’s is still an active church, popular with tourists who climb up the tower to take in a panoramic view of Munich.

These visitors will be struck by the twin towers of the Frauenkirche (or the church of Our Lady), Munich’s cathedral, and thus the former seat of then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.

The two towers, with their unusually rounded peaks, can be seen from afar due to a city ordinance which prohibits the erection of buildings more than 100m high.

It is a huge church. Consecrated in 1494, it can hold 20000 people — that is 7000 more than Munich’s entire population at the time.

Legend has it that the decision to build such a big church was made after the death of a girl during Mass in the previous church, which had stood on the spot since the 13th century. That church was so small and crowded that the girl could not be taken outside to be saved; hence the need for a more spacious one.

More likely, the Frauenkirche was built at its enormous size to trump the nearby St Peter’s in a show of old-fashioned ecclesiastic and civic rivalry.

It includes the massive tomb of Louis IV, the 14th-century Holy Roman emperor who found a final resting place in a cathedral despite having been excommunicated (mostly for political reasons).

A popular detail in the Frauenkirche is the purported footprint of the devil, with spores. There are two competing legends, both relating to the fact that, before the cathedral was remodelled, one couldn’t see any windows upon entering the building.

In one version of the story, the devil had helped build the church in exchange for the soul of the first person to enter it. The builder, however, shrewdly denied the devil his reward on the grounds that he had delivered poor work, as there were no windows. In anger the devil stamped his foot, leaving a mark.

In the other legend, the devil — this time not part of the construction crew — left his footprint in rage after finding that, contrary to his mocking, the church actually did have windows.

The Frauenkirche is located just off Munich’s main shopping street, the Kaufingerstrasse. On the street, now a pedestrian zone, the Jesuits have their headquarters in St Michael’s church—though one might miss its purpose, since the exterior doesn’t look much like a church.

St Michael’s was built between 1583-97, drawing architecturally from the Jesuits’ mother church in Rome, Il Gesù, and served as Bavaria’s centre of the Counter Reformation. It is the largest Renaissance church north of the Alps.

Its barrel-vaulted roof is the world’s largest after that of St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican — though one has no idea of its vast size when just looking at its façade. It collapsed during a 1944 air raid and was rebuilt.

The baroque interior is grandiose, with triumphal arches after the fashion of Roman emperors designed to symbolise the One True Faith’s victory of the Reformation.

Among its many tombs are those of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the builder of Bavaria’s fairy tale castles, including the famed Neuschwanstein.

Perhaps Munich’s prettiest church, and certainly the most Italian, is the yellow Theatinerkirche, founded by the Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence. Dedicated to the order’s founder, St Cajetan, its architecture was inspired by Rome’s basilica of Andrea della Valle.

Located on one side of Odeon Square, this is the church outside which Adolf Hitler’s 1923 coup attempt was put down. During the Third Reich the Theatinerkirche provided an unwilling backdrop to many Nazi rallies held in front of the huge Feldherrnhalle loggia.

The church dates to the 17th century, though the façade was completed only in 1768. Just three decades later, the monastery of the Divine Providence monks was dissolved by the secular authorities, and the church was placed in the service of Bavaria’s royal court.

The Theatinerkirche also suffered damage in air raids; it was restored by 1955, the year after the Dominicans took charge of it.

These are by no means Munich’s only Catholic churches: just opposite the Theatinerkirche, for example, is the impressive 19th-century Ludwigskirche.

In Munich, wherever you are, you are always just a short skip away from both a church and a beer house. And the order in which you visit them is between you and God.