Munich

Population: 1.28 million (1985). The administrative and business capital of the German Land (state) of Bavaria (population: 10.96 million). Location: on the Isar River in southeastern West Germany 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Bavarian Alps. Economy: automotive components and assembly, banking and insurance, brewing: electrical and other engineering; electronics, fashion and textiles, movie and television production: printing and publishing: tourism. Germany is a member of the European Community (EQ and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and is a signatory to the General Agreement on Tariffs and 'Trade (GATT).

> Background Briefing

More than most of the ten Lander (states) that make up the Federal Republic of Germany, Bavaria has kept its character. A land of rich plains and valleys and high Alpine peaks, its people vigorous, hearty, and proud, Bavaria is today a distinctive mixture of old and new of castles and villages, of baroque, rococo, and modern architecture, of agriculture and high technology. All of Bavaria's contrasts and contradictions are to be found in Munich, a city founded in the mid 1100s and ruled by the royal House of Wittelsbach until the end of World War I.

Badly damaged during World War 11, Munich has been rebuilt in a way that retains its stylish, baroque look, inherited from its royal past. The Maximilian and Ludwig kings had sponsored both fine buildings and the arts; the mentally unbalanced Ludwig 11 built fantasy castles that inspired adaptations at Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida. Munich was also the birthplace of another fantasy: the Nazi party.

For such a down to earth people, the Bavarians have endured more than their fair share of dreamers. Adolf Hitler, a native of neighboring Austria, made Munich his political base, staged his disastrous attempted Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 in the city center, and served his prison sentence in the fortress jail of Landsberg, where with much help from Rudolf Hess he wrote Mein Kampf ("My Struggle").

The Bavarians' dream after World War 11 was to turn their state into a rich democracy. They have succeeded; and much of the credit must go to one man, Franz Josef Strauss, longtime leader of the right of center Christian Social Union (CSU). Strauss was a potent figure in federal politics until bribery and other scandals in which he always denied any part forced him back to his Bavarian stronghold. There he competed energetically and often ruthlessly with other cities for business investment and a slice of the European Community cake. One monument to his enterprise: the rapidly expanding European Patents Office.

Strauss was Bavarian to the tips of his stubby fingers: unabashedly fat, a hearty eater fond of his bottle, a roisterer. He was also shrewd and cunning; and under his somewhat coarse exterior hid (when it suited him) a first class political brain. No wonder, then, that men in traditional costume wept openly when his funeral procession passed with regal pomp through Munich's main streets in 1988. Were they mourning not only the passing of a man they admired, but also of an era? Strauss built well, though, and the CSU party machine has its own momentum.

He did leave a power and leadership vacuum, however, and the city could be heading into an uneasy future. Real estate costs, already the highest in West Germany, have been soaring to new heights, threatening to scare off investment. There's also the question of whether the swing toward a high tech economy is unduly risky, with too many of Munich's chips on the same number.

That swing started after the war, notably with the relocation of the electrical and electronics giant, Siemens, from Berlin to Munich. More recently, such multinational corporations as Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, and Digital Equipment Corporation have crowded in. Bavaria is also the home of BMW's three plants and headquarters of Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen. The MBB aerospace giant has also set up shop in the area. Strauss's policies included encouragement of smaller and medium sized German companies with start up loans. At the same time, Munich became a major center for trade and industrial fairs, with no fewer than 5 of the 15 held annually devoted to electronics and computer systems. Significantly, there's now no room for the food and wine fair: it has moved to Stuttgart.

Munich has remained a pleasant city in spite of all the changes. People work hard but they also play hard. Tradition still rubs shoulders with the avant garde; students still share their backstreet tavern tables with elderly intellectuals; and the price of a mug of beer is still a factor in the official cost of living index.

Arriving By Air

Munich's one commercial airport, Riem, is due to be supplemented in 1991 by a much larger one, further out and to the northwest. Until then, Riem is struggling to cope with ever rising numbers of passengers. Delays are common, particularly in summer, and the arrivals hall is often chaotic. If you're being met, arrange to be picked up outside the main doors, not inside. Opening of a new charter terminal in late 1988 did little to organize the chaos.

Transport from and to the airport is equally tiresome. There is no direct rail service to the city, and the shuttle buses from the airport to the station of Riem are crowded. Buses direct to the city are nonstop and drop passengers on the north side of the main railroad station, the Hauptbahnhof, opposite the Hotel Deutscher Kaiser. Taxis take just as long, particularly at peak times: about half an hour. They cost about four times more than buses.

By Train

The newly refurbished Hauptbahnhof is central and served by hourly InterCity and EuroCity trains to and from all major German cities and some foreign ones. Frankfurt is 4'/2 hours away, Hamburg 8. If you're traveling first class, reserve a place in a Grossraumwagen, which offers very comfortable compartments with food and drink served at your seat. Many trains have telephones and secretarial services. InterCity and EuroCity diners offer good food of high quality, and it's not expensive by European railroad standards.