Königin­straße

Origin of the name

Königinstraße (Queen's Street) received its name in 1808, together with the then Königsstraße (King's Street), today's Brienner Straße: according to the Stadtgeschichte München database, both were meant to commemorate the Bavarian rulers' elevation to royal rank in 1806. On 1 January 1806 Elector Max IV Joseph had been proclaimed the first King of Bavaria as Maximilian I Joseph – a rank he owed to Napoleon. The Maxvorstadt guidebook likewise notes that the naming was meant to recall "the attainment of royal dignity in 1806" (Arz 2018, p. 148). None of the sources names a particular queen; the name forms the female counterpart to Königsstraße and belongs to a period when the streets, squares and suburbs of the young monarchy were being named.

Today's street grew together from two parts. According to the Stadtgeschichte database, its northernmost section was called Wiesenstraße (Meadow Street); it was merged with Königinstraße in 1875, and the old name officially remained in use until 1 January 1877. The villa estate on which Munich's first zoo opened in 1863 still had the address Wiesenstraße 12 – today Königinstraße 28 (Arz 2016, p. 47). Both of Martin Arz's guidebooks, however, place the name "Wiesenstraße" on the section "as far as Veterinärstraße" and date it to the period before 1808 (Arz 2018, p. 148; Arz 2016, p. 155). House numbers have also shifted: Felix Dahn's family home, recorded as Königinstraße 9 on the 1849 plan, is today's number 19 (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, p. 18).

From the outset the street was a boundary. Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell considered the natural Isar escarpment near today's Königinstraße the ideal edge for the planned "Theodorpark", later the English Garden (Arz 2018, p. 6). Today it also marks an administrative border: according to the official district boundaries of the city's GeodatenService, the west side belongs to the Maxvorstadt (sub-district Schönfeldvorstadt) up to house number 59 and to Schwabing-Freimann from the junction with Schackstraße (no. 61). On the east side, the Maxvorstadt extends further north with the grounds of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, roughly to no. 24; from the junction with Ohmstraße and the Allianz site (no. 28), Schwabing begins here too. Between Schackstraße and Ohmstraße the district boundary runs along the centre line of the street. The park side south of Veterinärstraße – including the kiosk at the entrance to the English Garden – already belongs to the Altstadt-Lehel district.

History

Before Königinstraße existed, this was the "Schönfeld" (Fair Field): north of the Residenz the city bordered on an area famous for its fruit and ornamental gardens. On the bastions and ramparts of old Munich a veritable garden city with hundreds of summer houses had grown up in the 18th century, and it was almost entirely swept away by Elector Karl Theodor's plans; in 1789 the electoral councillor Cajetan Stürzer declared in the expropriation proceedings: "I believe that if I have to give up the garden, I am giving up half my life" (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, p. 10). The Schönfeld was first to become a military garden and then to be added to the new English Garden, which Karl Theodor decreed as a public park in August 1789. But Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell saw the natural boundary of the park in the Isar escarpment near today's Königinstraße; the plots already purchased were therefore put to profitable use, and in 1795 Karl Theodor had 29 building plots marked out along Gartenstraße (today Kaulbachstraße), which had to be built on immediately (Arz 2018, p. 6). As far as today's Königinstraße, villas with large gardens arose, whose "fair" setting gave rise to the name "Auf dem Schönfeld" in 1795 (Stephan 2013, p. 32). In front of the street, a wide meadow stretched from today's Prinz-Carl-Palais to the tree nursery at the end of the Schönfeld suburb (Schiermeier 2012, p. 19). Further north, on former Jesuit land with the laundry that gave the site the name "Jesuiterwasch", Karl Theodor ordered the foundation of a "formal veterinary school" in March 1790 – to fight cattle plague and to train vets and farriers for the cavalry (Arz 2018, p. 29; Stephan 2013, p. 20).

At the southern end of the later Königinstraße, "on the border with the English Garden, where Königinstraße once began", the Lorraine-born Abbé Pierre de Salabert, tutor and confidant of Max Joseph, commissioned the 21-year-old Karl von Fischer to build him a palais: work began on 24 May 1804 and it was occupied two years later (Arz 2018, p. 22). After Salabert's death in 1807 the king bought the house, now known as the "Palais" or "Pavillon Royal"; in 1825 Ludwig I gave it to his brother Prince Carl, who had it enlarged by Jean-Baptiste Métivier. After Carl's death the Austro-Hungarian legation moved in in 1876, while the finance minister lived in the annex on Von-der-Tann-Straße; the garden reserved for his use is still called the "Finanzgarten" (Arz 2018, p. 22). In 1923 the historian Karl Trautmann called the "old 'Salabert-Schlössl' at the entrance to the English Garden" the only well-preserved witness to the vanished garden city (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, p. 10). The palais "accentuates the transition from the Hofgarten to the English Garden and the Schönfeld suburb" (Stephan 2013, p. 110). Water, too, is part of this transition: the Palaisbächl stream ran through the Finanzgarten to the palais and joined the Schwabinger Bach at the entrance to the English Garden (Schiermeier 2012, p. 137).

Named in 1808, Königinstraße became the villa street of the Schönfeldvorstadt, the first state-sponsored settlement outside the fortifications built to uniform rules, where aristocrats, civil servants, merchants and master craftsmen lived (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, p. 74). How generous the plots were is described by Felix Dahn, who grew up in his parents' house at Königinstraße 9 (today no. 19) from 1835 to 1850 and called those years "in the unforgettable house" the happiest of his life: the garden of some 4,000 square metres between Kaulbachstraße and Königinstraße had fruit trees, vines, a skittle alley, hothouses, a dovecote and a fountain used as a bath – and it was the stage for battles between Romans and Goths in which bean poles served as lances. Decades before "A Struggle for Rome" (1876), says Klaus Bäumler, "the struggle for Rome took place in the gardens of the Maxvorstadt" (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, pp. 18–19). The court painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach, resident on Obere Gartenstraße from 1844, enjoyed with his guests the view from his balcony terrace across his own garden and Königinstraße into the English Garden (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, p. 16). In the north, on what was then Wiesenstraße, Métivier built an Italian Renaissance-style villa in 1823 for War Minister Nikolaus von Maillot de la Treille; on 23 July 1863 the banker Benedikt Benedikt opened Munich's first zoo there, with a predator house, monkey pavilion and wolf den; it closed for good in 1870 (Arz 2016, p. 47; Schiermeier 2012, p. 30).

By 1900 the street had acquired its stately character: a photograph from 1911 shows villas and palais "embedded in plenty of greenery", whose owners displayed their status with carriage drives, while another from 1906 shows the small private park behind Königinstraße 11 (Stephan 2013, pp. 113–114). In 1893/94 Georg von Hauberrisser built the brick house at no. 27 for the painter Franz von Defregger, Franz Deininger designed the palatial villa at no. 17 in 1907–1909, and Heilmann & Littmann remodelled no. 11 in 1913/14. The court actress Klara Ziegler left her villa on the English Garden and her fortune to a foundation, which opened the world's first theatre museum there in 1910 (Arz 2018, p. 21). On the corner of Von-der-Tann-Straße stood the headquarters (Generalkommando) of the Bavarian army, where the Interior Ministry kept offices from 1898 (Arz 2018, p. 21). Next to it, Anita Augspurg and Sophia Goudstikker opened their Elvira photographic studio in 1887; the new building erected by August Endell in 1898, with its 13-by-7-metre "dragon ornament", counted as the first striking Jugendstil building in Munich (Liedtke 2013, p. 24; Stephan 2013, p. 112). From 1887 the Schönfeldvorstadt became the "nucleus" of the middle-class women's movement in Munich; the writer Emma Haushofer-Merk lived at Königinstraße 10 from 1902 to 1925 (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, pp. 74, 100). At the Jesuiterwasch a clinic wing some 150 metres long was built along Königinstraße in 1896–1900 to designs by Julius Metzger (Schiermeier 2012, p. 31); in 1914 the Veterinary College was incorporated into the university as its seventh faculty (Arz 2018, p. 29).

After the First World War, government offices moved into the villas: the Ministry of Agriculture, founded in 1919, was based at Königinstraße 17 from 1921 (Arz 2018, p. 21), and in 1924 the Bavarian Minister-President took up his official residence in the Prinz-Carl-Palais (Arz 2018, p. 22). In 1927 Hitler's niece Geli Raubal came to Munich to study medicine and first lodged in a boarding house at Königinstraße 43 (Smith 2009, p. 142). In 1933 Reich Governor Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp briefly moved into the Prinz-Carl-Palais; for Mussolini's state visit in 1937 the regime demolished the annex on Von-der-Tann-Straße to widen the street as the approach to the "House of German Art" and had Fritz Gablonsky enlarge the main building as a guest house (Arz 2018, p. 22; Liedtke 2013, p. 24; Liedtke 2018, p. 230). In September 1937 Hitler paid Mussolini a return visit there, where the Duce was staying (Köpf 2005, p. 116). At the Elvira studio, where an SA unit had been quartered since autumn 1933, the dragon ornament was hacked off in 1937 (Arz 2018, p. 24; Liedtke 2013, p. 24). From October 1941, on the orders of Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, Jews were barred from entering the English Garden as well; on 8 November 1941 the Protestant banker Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann urged Regional Bishop Meiser to protest, as the ban was liable "to drive the victims of such sadism to despair" (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, pp. 28–29).

The Elvira building was destroyed in the air raid of April 1944, and the plot went to the Americans (Arz 2018, p. 24; Liedtke 2013, p. 25). Klara Ziegler's villa was also lost in the war, although the collection had been moved to safety in time (Arz 2018, p. 21). The Prinz-Carl-Palais came through the war largely undamaged; the Americans handed it over to the Free State on condition that it be used for cultural purposes, the Academy of Fine Arts moved in in 1948, and for a time it served as emergency quarters for the Glyptothek and the Antikensammlungen (Arz 2018, p. 24). The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was badly damaged and rebuilt by 1965 (Arz 2018, p. 29); the new clinic buildings date from 1953 (Schiermeier 2012, p. 31), and Lothar Dietz's Snake Fountain was added in 1958. On the site of the army headquarters and the Elvira studio, Sep Ruf built the American Consulate General in 1957–1959, now regarded as a listed cultural monument (Arz 2018, p. 24). In 1958 the Ministry of Agriculture moved from Königinstraße 17 into the Nazi-era building on Ludwigstraße (Arz 2018, p. 21).

In the 1960s Munich was to become a "car-friendly city": plans included a tunnel from Königinstraße to Leopoldstraße and the Altstadtring tunnel beneath the Prinz-Carl-Palais (Bäumler et al. 2015, p. 16); a tunnel under Veterinärstraße between Königinstraße and Ludwigstraße was also seriously discussed (Arz 2018, p. 15). The tunnel under the palais was built in 1970 – its cellars had to make way for the reinforced-concrete slab, and since then it has stood "more or less on the roof of the Altstadtring tunnel" (Arz 2018, p. 24). Resistance led to the founding of Aktion Maxvorstadt in 1971 (Arz 2018, p. 42), which stopped most of the other plans; according to Bäumler, the "urgently needed urban repair" at the palais is still outstanding (Bäumler et al. 2015, p. 17). Since 1968 the Minister-Presidents have used the palais as their representative official seat; when the new State Chancellery opened in 1993 it lost its political significance (Arz 2018, p. 24). The Consulate General was given a high security fence in 1985, and at the end of the 1990s Königinstraße was closed to cars in front of the building. On 29 January 2000 the footpath along the edge of the park parallel to Königinstraße was named after Wilhelm von Pechmann (Bäumler/Fromm 2017, p. 29). From 2016 a dispute flared up over the veterinary clinic site, freed up by the faculty's move to Oberschleißheim: LMU wanted to demolish the buildings for a physics campus, in July 2023 the Bavarian Administrative Court quashed the development plan, and in July 2024 the Free State, the university and the plaintiffs agreed to preserve and rebuild the buildings.

North of Schackstraße, Königinstraße belongs to Schwabing and becomes the address of two global corporations. Munich Re, co-founded in 1880 by Carl von Thieme, had Oswald Bieber and Wilhelm Hollweck build its palatial four-winged headquarters at Königinstraße 107 in 1911–1913, entered through a court of honour lined with paired Ionic columns (Arz 2016, p. 46; Zuber 1984, p. 79). On the former zoo site the University Riding School was built in 1927, founded "to strengthen young people and prevent premature ageing" (Arz 2016, p. 48); next to it Josef Wiedemann built the head office of Allianz, which had relocated from Berlin, at Königinstraße 28, opened by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1954 (Arz 2016, p. 49). In 1934 the Englishwoman Unity Mitford came to Munich to attend a school at Königinstraße 121 and entered Hitler's circle (Smith 2009, p. 144). On the corner of Ohmstraße stands Martin Dülfer's Jugendstil apartment building at no. 85 (Arz 2016, p. 111), where in July 2018 Munich's first memorial marker (Erinnerungszeichen) for victims of the Nazi regime was installed – for Franz and Tilly Landauer.

Today

Today the Maxvorstadt section is a quiet, green edge road whose southern end is dominated by security measures: in front of the Consulate General, cars may not enter from Von-der-Tann-Straße, and bollards, a fence and a police post set the scene. Opposite, the English Garden opens up with the Schwabinger Bach, which tumbles into the park under Von-der-Tann-Straße as the continuation of the Köglmühlbach (Schiermeier 2012, p. 16), and the popular Milchhäusl kiosk with organic snacks and a mini beer garden (Arz 2018, p. 141). Behind front gardens follow the villas and palais of the Schönfeldvorstadt, used by the LfA Förderbank Bayern, public authorities and student fraternities; at no. 43 the café Königin43 beckons (Arz 2018, p. 135). In the park the Freiherr-von-Pechmann-Weg runs parallel, and at Veterinärstraße stand the classical gateway of 1790 and the Snake Fountain in front of the veterinary clinic site, whose future is being negotiated after the 2024 settlement between heritage preservation and new buildings for LMU's physics department. Bus route 100 (the Museum Line) stops at "Königinstraße" (Liedtke 2018, p. 89).

North of Schackstraße the street turns into a corporate address in Schwabing: with the head office of Allianz (no. 28) and the main building of Munich Re (no. 107), it is, according to Wikipedia, the only street in Germany hosting the headquarters of two DAX companies; the insurers' buildings between Königin-, Thieme-, Martius-, Leopold- and Giselastraße are linked by a tunnel system about 1,000 metres long, closed to the public, which doubles as an art gallery (Arz 2016, p. 48). In between lies the University Riding School with the Café Reitschule, from which you can look into the riding hall (Arz 2016, p. 49; Arz 2018, p. 134); at the corner of Thiemestraße a smiling bronze girl by Augustin Lohr has been offering water from a shell since 1956 (Arz 2016, p. 46). Historicist and Jugendstil apartment buildings line the west side until the street ends at Maria-Josepha-Straße and Mandlstraße on the edge of the Altschwabing ensemble.