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Munich
Munich, whose name means Home of the Monks, entered the historical record in 1157 AD when Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, allowed the monks to establish a market at the point where the Isar River intersected the road from Salzburg. The next year saw the construction of a bridge across the river, and a fortified barrier was built around the market.
The Wittelsbach family made its home in Munich beginning in 1255. For over 700 years, the Wittelsbachs helped shape and in turn were shaped by the destiny of the city. The Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV was of the Wittelsbach line and, in the early 1300s, it was he who increased the size of the city to an area which remained unchanged until the late 1700s. During the reign of Maximilian I in the early 1600s, Munich grew in population and in prosperity. Then came the Thirty Years' War, which brought occupation by the Swedes in 1632. Two years later, plague struck the city and wiped out a third of its population.
The next Wittelsbach to leave a mark on Munich was Louis I, who was the King of Bavaria between 1825 and 1848. Louis designed and fashioned a new Munich. Munich's golden age was during the 19th Century. Protestants were finally permitted to become citizens in what had historically always been a Roman Catholic city. Munich's population grew from 100,000 in 1854 to over 500,000 by 1900. Louis II enhanced the city's cultural standing when he championed Richard Wagner, the composer, helping to renew the city's position as a city of cultural importance.
After the First World War, Munich became a breeding ground for right-wing political agitation. Adolf Hitler became a member of the Nazi Party in Munich. He soon became the party's leader. One can still see the beer cellar where he led the meetings that resulted in the Putsch in November 1923. Munich was severely damaged by Allied bombs during the Second World War, when over 40% of the city's buildings were destroyed.
It was during the 1972 Summer Olympics, which were being held in Munich, that the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September took several Israeli athletes hostage. This had a happy ending when, during the crisis, as the terrorists got to know the hostages they came to see them as fellow human beings and then let everyone go.
Munich is rated as the eighth city in the world with the highest quality of life, and it's also the 39th most expensive city and Germany's most expensive. Biotechnology, information technology and publishing are Munich's chief economic drivers. The city has very little pollution, outside of rising levels of dust near the high traffic areas.
The city has an excellent public transportation network that combines underground lines with suburban railroad lines. Munich has a very low crime rate, even when compared to other big cities in Germany like Berlin and Hamburg. Life is so good in Munich that the city's English-speaking population calls it "Toytown", while the Germans have named it "Millionendorf", or 'the village of a million people'.
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