October 2005
Street Life
Nyphenburger Strasse has a long and colorful history
Ah, Nymphenburger Strasse. At first glance it seems like any busy thoroughfare—a shortcut to the A8 perhaps, or the route to a Friday night out at Cinema, the English-language movie theater. But Nymphenburger Strasse has one of the longest and most colorful histories of all Munich’s boulevards. From politically diverse to architecturally rich, glamorous to desperate,
wunderschön to war-torn, this boulevard has seen it all. Extending northwest from Stiglmaierplatz to the Südliche Auffartsallee along the Nymphenburger canal, the street’s beginnings can be traced back to the mid-1100s, when it was first recognized as an important leg of the old Salt Road, which led from Salzburg to Augsburg. Both sides of the street at that time were sparse moorlands, known as the “Neuhauser Haide.”
In 1664, when Elector Ferdinand Maria began construction on a summer residence (Nymphenburg Palace) for his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, to celebrate the birth of his long-awaited heir, Max Emanuel, the thoroughfare acquired its name. Then interchangeably called Nymphenburger Strasse or Nymphenburger Chaussée, it became the most direct link between the Residenz in Munich and the palace in the countryside of Neuhausen. In 1770 the boulevard underwent a facelift. Linden trees were planted along both sides, to which poplars were added nine years later. And, at eight meters wide, it acquired its first nickname—“Fürstenweg”—in reference to the elite status of those who used it. Only the coaches belonging to the Elector’s court and guests were allowed to travel it. Everything else—goods, deliveries and normal burghers—was forced to take the “Neuhauser Fahrtweg”—nowadays the parallel street of Blutenburgstrasse. (One can still see the difference in importance simply by the lack of trees along the latter.)
When Napoleon inhabited Nymphenburg Palace, in 1801, it was common to see royal guards flanking Nymphenburger Strasse. Indeed, the boulevard has seen its share of European monarchs pass by, including Queen Elizabeth II, who rode with the Duke of Edinburgh in an open-top Mercedes during a vist to Munich in 1965.
Building work on the street began in earnest in the 19th century. Being a stately thoroughfare, however, construction companies were under strict instruction to keep their buildings a proper distance from the street; hence the creation of the
Vorgärten—front yards. But this construction boom along Nymphenburger Strasse had its downside. As the Löwenbräukeller and enormous, neo-Baroque buildings began to spring up, the area around the corner, where you’ll find today’s Erzgiesserei-, Linprun-, Kreittmayr-, Lori- and Sandstrassen, became a large sandpit from which construction companies drew their gravel. This became the backdrop for a shanty-town, and, as the pit had no drainage, many of the poor living there would drown with each heavy rainfall. From 1825 to 1846, “the Pit” of Nymphenburg was a topic of great debate. Only in the latter years, when the shacks were finally cleared, were residents integrated into the city.
Later in the same century, Nymphenburger Strasse encountered its first famous American guest. In the winter of 1878–79, Samuel Langhorne Clemens—better known as Mark Twain—arrived in the neighborhood. While in Munich, Twain wrote
A Tramp Abroad (1880), and also finished his renowned
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The building at Nymphenburger Strasse 45, which still stands, is where this literary master resided briefly.
The street continued to flourish into the 20th century. It gained first steam, then electric streetcars and fast became the fourth-largest street in Munich (after Türken-, Landsberger- and Lindwurmstrassen). Then, in the mid-1940s, World War II arrived. With the air raids of 1944–45, Nymphenburger Strasse’s “Fürstenweg” days were brought to an end. Several buildings were destroyed and the street’s former grandeur gave way to a no-man’s land. Compared to other areas of Munich, restoration was slow and, as a result, the street became one of the seedier areas of the city.
Indeed, in the 1950s Nymphenburger Strasse acquired a new nickname—“Nüttenburger Strasse” (i.e. “Prostitute Alley”). The desolate buildings, with their discreet Hinterhöfe, became the stage for the oldest profession in the world. The cinemas arrived too, each vying for a piece of the scene. The playbill from Cinema from 1955 boasts late shows with the likes of
Women in the Night and
Men Without Souls; the old Atrium Filmtheater and the still-standing Schlosstheater (near Rotkreuzplatz) also played a part in the B-film, erotica and film-noir scene. Nymphenburger Strasse in the 1950s and 1960s seems to be the closest thing to Hamburg’s Reeperbahn that Munich has ever experienced.
The committee responsible for cleaning up Munich before the 1972 Olympics did away with most of the smut and by the mid-1980s the boulevard had regained a bit of its glamour, providing a backdrop for the cult TV series “Kir Royal” (1986). The series’ main character, Baby Schimmerlos, a gossip reporter for the fictional
Münchener Allgemeine Tageszeitung, lived in a fabulous apartment on Nymphenburger Strasse. Today, the street is used by tens of thousands of people daily. Several of the older buildings are now listed, and the headquarters of the Christian Social Union (CSU) has an address here, along with consulates and embassies. With its long and diverse history, it seems Nymphenburger Strasse has come full circle.
