Art
Three Pinakotheken, a Glyptothek, a Brandhorst, a Lenbachhaus — and Germany's densest literary and painterly bohème setting. The Maxvorstadt is not an art town on the side; it is one at its very core.
Two movements, one district
The Maxvorstadt carries two art-historical narratives that interlock within a few square kilometres. The institutional narrative begins in 1830 with Klenze's Glyptothek, continues in 1836 with the Alte Pinakothek, deepens in the 19th century around the Neue Pinakothek and the Lenbachhaus, and culminates in the present with the Pinakothek der Moderne (2002) and Brandhorst (2009). Architecturally it is a textbook from Classicism to Sauerbruch Hutton.
The bohème narrative is more personal and more disorderly. It begins around 1900 in the cafés of Türkenstraße and Schellingstraße, with Wedekind, Karl Valentin, Erich Mühsam, Ringelnatz and the 11 Executioners. In 1906 Kandinsky moves into Ainmillerstraße, in 1911 "The Blue Rider" is founded around Münter, Marc, Macke, Klee. Thomas Mann writes "Gladius Dei" and pens the sentence that has hovered over every neighbourhood description since: "Munich was radiant."
The details can be found on two sub-pages: Museums for the institutional side, Bohème for the literary-painterly side.
Institution
or bohème?
Pinakotheken, Glyptothek, Brandhorst, Lenbachhaus, NS-Doku, Egyptian Museum — 13 houses, from Klenze to Sauerbruch Hutton.
Bohème
Mann, Kandinsky, Klee, Wedekind, Mühsam, Ringelnatz — the literary-painterly Maxvorstadt around 1900 and the Blue Rider.
MunichThomas Mann · Gladius Dei, 1902
was radiant
Mann describes here life in the Maxvorstadt — the pulsating heart of the bohème and the centre of Ludwig I.'s Greek revival.