In 1816, King Ludwig I commissioned his court architect, Leo von Klenze, to build an art gallery. The long main section with short cross sections in the east and west was opened in 1836. The “Königliche Pinakothek”, as it was called then, was 150 metres long, and opened as the world’s longest gallery in its day. The House of Wittelsbach collection of paintings was presented in the rooms with bright top light.

After the Second World War, architect Hans Döllgast rebuilt the Pinakothek in 1957. It was heavily damaged, with a 40-meter-wide bomb crater at its centre. Here you see how Döllgast had the massive crater and other destroyed parts renewed with exposed brick with no plaster. The bricks came from the debris of the erstwhile Türkenkaserne barracks. Instead of reconstructing the original Pinakothek, the “wounds” of the Second World War were to remain clear to see.

Döllgast changed much of the Alte Pinakothek’s structure. In place of a loggia built by Leo von Klenze, inside we now have two immense symmetrical stairways. Döllgast also moved the entrance from the east side to the north, where today it sits facing the Neue Pinakothek, which you see across on Theresienstraße, where it opened in 1981. It now stands where Ludwig I once had a gallery built. This was completed in 1853 and was the world’s first museum of contemporary painting. Architects August von Voit and Friedrich von Gärtner were commissioned with the project. Ludwig wanted to create a dialogue between the old masters of the Alte Pinakothek and his collection of contemporary painting.

The Second World War reduced his Neue Pinakothek to ruins. Most of the collection had already been taken to safety before the air raid. The building itself was completely removed and replaced by a new post-modern building by Alexander von Branca. The Neue Pinakothek’s exterior was criticised because of the obvious references to historical form and style elements. But, with its well-proportioned and beautifully lit interior spaces, the Neue Pinakothek is one of Germany’s best regarded post-war period museum buildings.

The exhibition spaces are arranged around two patios in the form of a horizontal eight. Visitors are then optimally guided through the collection. “The floor plans should be as transparent as possible. The visitor shouldn’t have to have a scout’s talents but rather follow a natural gradient flowing through the sequence of rooms,” said architect von Branca.

The outer area was sunk to the right of the entrance and an artificial pond and restaurant for museum guests were installed. Alexander von Branca wanted to create a certain “openness to the city, inviting people in”.

By the way: The expansive lawns in front and behind the Alte Pinakothek are perfect for a break if the weather is good. Both tourists and Munich’s locals enjoy their leisure time, here in the north of the Kunstareal.

Photo: © Alte Pinakothek

Amerikahaus was opened in 1957 as a symbol of Germany’s democratic rebirth. Architects Karl Fischer and Franz Simm had designed a building that is remarkably open and transparent on the inside which was typical for the post-war modernity in which democratisation was also to be reflected in the city’s architecture. However, Amerikahaus also reflects the classical style of its neighbour buildings on Karolinenplatz.

At the top, on the quadratic main building, you can see the circular copper-clad flat dome, bringing light into all floors via the atrium below it. With their temple-like framing, the seven windows on the front façade of the second floor bring to mind the erstwhile Palais Lotzbeck, destroyed during the Second World War and replaced by Amerikahaus.

Don’t be surprised if you see old pictures of Amerikahaus with green-blue window frames instead of red. With the four-year renovation completed in 2020, they were restored to their original red and converted to casement windows, with a filigree steel structure on the outside and wooden windows inside.

A long, low building adjoins on the rear. You’ll see it best if you go just a little into the spacious garden. What many don’t know: Since the renovation, it also includes an ultra-modern multifunctional hall, hosting diverse events with cinema, concerts, lectures and much more. Famous guests include, for example, Nobel Prize for Literature winner Toni Morrison, former US President Bill Clinton and Magnum Photographer Steve McCurry.

By the way: From the Karolinensaal on the first floor of Amerikahaus you have impressive views of Karolinenplatz with its Black Obelisk, a war memorial erected by Ludwig I in 1833.

Photo: © Leonhard Simon

On Königsplatz you will find the Propyläen (Propylaea), the Glyptothek and the Staatliche Antikensammlungen (State Collections of Antiquities).

King Ludwig I was committed to national education. At the beginning of the 19th century, he wanted to make his art collection accessible to the general public. He was also a massive Greece fan, so Munich was to become an “Athens on the Isar”. In the word “Bayern” he even replaced the Latin “i” with the Greek “y”.

Ludwig met the architect Leo von Klenze in Paris in 1815 and brought him to Bavaria. Klenze became Bavarian Building Superintendent at Court three years later. The two had a tense relationship for many years, but the collaboration resulted in numerous buildings of world renown.

About the Glyptothek

“Splendid! Wonderful, my dear Klenze!” Ludwig I is said to have exclaimed as he rode past the Glyptothek in his carriage. Or at least Leo von Klenze’s diary says he did. Von Klenze built the Glyptothek from 1816 to 1830 as the first building on Königsplatz. It is Munich’s oldest public museum.

“Glyptothek” is a portmanteau of the ancient Greek words “glyphein” and “theke”. “Glyphein” means “to chisel”. “Theke” translates as “storage”. Combined as “Glyptothek” they pretty much refer us to a, “storage place for sculptures”.

With its columns and alcoves, the Glyptothek resembles a Greek temple. The fourteen rooms around the inner courtyard with vaulted ceilings are however in the style of Roman baths. Originally, the walls and floors here were different colours. An old concept was applied again in the interior for the reopening in 1972. The exposed brick walls, blue-grey shell limestone floors and large windows to the inner courtyard created a reserved framework for the exhibited antiquities.

Kerstin Schreyer, the Bavarian Building Minister at the time, said: “The façade was restored to its original state with a general renovation from 2018 to 2021. “We in particular focussed on reproducing the façade according to the original plans. It had only been provisionally repaired in the post-war period”.

The new plaster façade on three sides of the building simulates natural stone masonry with soft shades of stone and pink. You’ll see this best on the side walls as you go on to the next station.

By the way: You’ll find one of Munich’s most beautiful museum cafés in the idyllic inner courtyard of the Glyptothek. The trees and walls filled with greenery will sweep you away to Greece or Italy.

About the Staatliche Antikensammlungen (State Collections of Antiquities)

The Staatliche Antikensammlungen (State Collections of Antiquities) are directly opposite the Glyptothek. Ludwig I commissioned architectt Georg Friedrich Ziebland to build him a Corinthian temple – with stepped plinth, columns and stylised entablature. It’s adjoined at the rear by the Benedictine Abbey, with the Basilica of St. Boniface. After ten years the complex, which was planned together, was completed in 1848.

Due to the Second World War the museum’s interior in particular was destroyed. The building’s core was removed and it reopened as an exhibition space for the State Antiquities Collections in 1967.

The high building plinth and the wide steps to the entrance raise the building optically above Königsplatz. In the centre, over the eight columns, in the tympanum you can see the golden-radiant Bavaria as rejuvenator and protector of the arts. The Staatliche Antikensammlungen (State Collections of Antiquities) mirror the Glyptothek, but differ in height, the wide steps and the absence of alcoves.

About the Propylaea (Propyläen)

Ludwig I had the Propyläen (Propylaea) – also designed by Leo von Klenze – erected in the centre of Königsplatz. When the foundation stone was laid in 1816, the gigantic gate in the form of a Greek temple was planned as the entrance to the royal residence area. The line of view along Brienner Straße still exists today, from the Propyläen (Propylaea) across Karolinenplatz to Odeonsplatz and on to the Residenz.

The Propyläen (Propylaea) is modelled on the gate system of the Acropolis in Athens. The gable relief topicalizes the Greek fight for freedom from 1821 to 1829. The two towers give the impression as though the Glyptothek and Antikensammlungen (State Collections of Antiquities) were their wing structures. “A gateway of sublime pointlessness,” as art historian Norbert Lieb described the Propyläen (Propylaea) with a wink and a nudge.

The Propyläen (Propylaea) form a triad together with the Glyptothek and the Antikensammlungen (State Collections of Antiquities). Hard to believe that one of Munich’s biggest car parks sat between such magnificent buildings right into the 1980s – known locally as the “sea of slabs”.

The square was the scene of parades and rallies during the Third Reich. A 21,000 square metre area was paved with stone slabs for this. As rainwater didn’t drain away and huge puddles formed it was known in the vernacular as the “sea of slabs”. After the war, it was simply used as a huge car park. When the slabs were ripped out in 1987, Brienner Straße was adorned with the paving, greenery and gravel paths it has to this day.

Photo: © Alfred Müller

Where art and students meet

Right before you is the Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst (State Museum of Egyptian Art), housed in a dual-purpose building with the University for Television and Film and built from 2007 and up to 2011. The architects Peter and Gottfried Böhm designed a formally reserved building parallel to the Alte Pinakothek. To provide space for the Alte Pinakothek’s large lawn the university block was set back from Gabelsbergerstraße and the museum of Egyptian art was installed below ground.

The architects wanted to transpose the atmosphere of ancient temple complexes into modernity – with the colossal portal wall at the entrance, for example, abstractly implying Egyptian architecture. The expansive steps draw you into the museum. The ancient Egyptian treasures are exhibited up to nine meters underground. The Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst (State Museum of Egyptian Art) is Germany’s only subterranean art museum.

However, from the outside, visitors will have the impression that they will find themselves in darkened spaces. On the contrary: East of the entrance, you’ll see an atrium, generating a very special lighting mood in the museum. It is also used as an exhibition space.

Inside, covering 3,200 square metres, large, nave-like spaces alternate with smaller, more intimate ones. The visitor flow is oriented on the guidance paths of ancient Egyptian temples. Wall openings draw the visitor’s gaze to special exhibits.

By the way: On the lawn, you’ll see the four-metre-high aluminium sculpture, “Present Continuous” by Dutch artist Henk Visch. The red plastic pipe interpreted by the artist as an “ideas beam” continues right into the museum. You’ll find the other end again in one of the exhibition spaces.

The University for Television and Film is situated in the 150-metre-long concrete base and the glass structure above it. The double skin of the top three floors generates varying lighting patterns with rotating glass panes and sun protection louvres.

The solid three-storey plinth has practically no windows at all. Behind the up to 70-centimetres-thick walls are cinemas, TV and film studios and film production spaces. Unlike a museum, daylight is not a requirement in studios. And the students need sound-proofed rooms for film post-production.

Architect Peter Böhm wanted to emphasise the building’s workshop character with the concrete façade. It consists of seamless layers, concreted into one another. During the construction phase, an approximately one-meter layer was applied in the formwork each day, thus producing the incidental shading of the wall surface. Ninety percent of the outer walls were then worked to create the surface’s rock-like appearance.

The entrance on Bernd-Eichinger-Platz floods light into the foyer with its immense windows. It acts like a small, roofed piazza, also used for events. From here, you enter the cinemas, seminar rooms, the library and the cafeteria. Bridges and ramps with overlapping balustrades connect the floors and spaces.

By the way: Exciting events are held regularly in the inner courtyard at the rear of the university, such as open-air cinema nights in the summer.

Photo: © Marianne Franke

Today’s central building of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich is one of the city’s most important historical witnesses. In autumn 1933 the Nazis began construction here of a representative building, known as the “Führer’s building”. It was inaugurated as their party headquarters during a visit by Mussolini in 1937. In September 1938, Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier signed the Munich Agreement here, legitimising the German armed forces’ occupation of the Sudetenland in October 1938.

Architect Paul Ludwig Troost had designed luxury liner interiors in the 1920s, developing into his “liner style”, much admired by Hitler. As a concert visitor, you’ll still see it today: The entrance hall, or the south atrium with its wide staircase, is styled on ocean liner stairs.

Troost’s intention was to suggest a down-to-earth quality and eternity with this neoclassical building, referring as he did to, “German tectonics”. The so-called “Führer building” was fitted with ultra-modern equipment – underfloor heating, lifts, loudspeaker systems for propaganda and an air-raid shelter. Troost died in 1934 as it was being built. His widow Gerdy and head clerk Leonhard Gall completed the building.

On the other side of the intersection, you’ll see the so-called “Führer building” counterpart, an administrative building with similar layout and the same façade. The two buildings were designed to close off Königsplatz.

After the Second World War, the US Military Government used them as “Central Art Collecting Points”, where looted art was gathered. Countless stolen works of art were identified here and returned to their owners.

The “Führer building’s” former congress hall was converted into a concert hall in 1954. The University of Music has been housed here since 1957 – with a big and small concert hall, an organ hall and numerous lesson and practice rooms for many of the more than 1,300 students. The earlier Nazi administrative building on the other side houses the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke, the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte and the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München (the Museum of Casts of Classical Statues, the Central Institute for Art History and the State Graphic Collection Munich).

On the right beside the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich you’ll see the ruins of a former Nazi “temple of honour”. A second one stood on the other side of the street. These so-called “temples of honour”, with the graves of 16 “martyrs” killed during the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 were inaugurated in 1935. After the Second World War in 1947, the US army blew them both up. The greenery now in their place was planted about ten years later.

By the way: In the concert halls, you can regularly enjoy free concerts by young musicians studying here.

From 1887 to 1890, the renowned painter Franz von Lenbach had a representative studio and a villa built in the Tuscan style here right beside Königsplatz. The house was one of Munich’s most modern, fully electrified, and heated with steam. Star architect Gabriel von Seidl drew up the building plans.

Garden designer Max Kolb extended a geometric garden in the inner courtyard, where he installed a fountain system complete with pond. In it, he placed a three-bowl fountain, probably from 16th or 17th century Vicenza in Italy. Between the lawns and paths, Max Kolb adorned the garden with further fountains, vases and sculptures.

Following Lenbach’s death, the city acquired the property in 1924 and architect Hans Grässel added a third wing. The Städtische Galerie (or State Gallery) im Lenbachhaus opened five years later. It took shape as you see it today between 2009 and 2013. The garden was restored and a new building erected on Brienner Straße with the general renovation according to plans by Foster + Partners. The radiant-golden façade of yellow metal and brass-coloured bronze pipes colourfully references the older yellow buildings.

At the rear, the villa was extended by a second floor and encased with flat sheet metal. Make a short detour around the building to the left into Richard-Wagner-Straße and you’ll see all façade elements at the same time – the bronze pipes, the flat sheet metal of the extension, the original walls and the immense ground floor windows.

Clearly contrasting in colour from the golden wall covering is the blue “LENBACHHAUS” signage by Thomas Demand. Extra special: The three-dimensional letters consist of two fonts at once. An Antiqua font with serifs based on the typography of the founding period, and the more modern “No-frills sans serif” typeface.

On the other side of Brienner Straße is the Kunstbau, a subterranean space above the tracks of the Königsplatz subway station, converted in 1994 for special exhibitions. Architect Uwe Kiessler separated the space into two nave-like sections with eighteen inserted pillars. On the ceiling, he extended an open rail system for complex light installations.

By the way: You can ride down the escalator to the subway station to look into the Kunstbau through the massive hall windows.

Photo: © Dominik Parzinger

Museum Brandhorst is  at on the northeastern corner of the Kunstareal, which is considered the entrance as also the exit to the lively university quarter. Apropos considering: Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton designed a truly unique feature for the museum building’s outer skin. The multi-coloured façade consists of 36,000 ceramic rods.

Twenty-three colours give the building the look and feel of an abstract painting. Go right up close and you’ll see each colour individually. Seen from the side the rods appear as a bright colourful surface.

The ceramic rods were also arranged according to brightness. From further away, the ground floor is darker than the other building parts, evoking the impression that the building consists of three units. Of course, there are only two parts – the wide, three storey head-end building in the north, and behind it the long rectangular section with two floors.

The architects designed the 350-square-meter space above the foyer especially for a major work by Cy Twombly. His “Lepanto Cycle”, created for the Venice 2001 Biennale, represents the historic Battle of Lepanto. Perhaps contrary to what you might assume from outside, the interior is not rectangular, but rather rounded in a semicircle. Twelve large-format paintings hang like a panorama, so you can take them all in at once.

The ground floor is optically separated from the floors above by a ribbon of windows. And not just for design reasons. Although daylight primarily falls on the exhibition from the skylights, the side windows also provide soft light thanks to a special technique. On the museum’s west side above the ribbon of windows, you’ll see the “daylight diffuser”, spreading the falling daylight into the building at a 90-degree angle with built-in prisms.

The acoustics also played an important role in the design. Perhaps you noticed it’s quieter at this much-loved corner of Türkenstraße and Theresienstraße than at similar street intersections. The secret of this effect lies in the coloured rods – a horizontally folded, two-tone sheet metal skin. The folding technique and the very fine perforations absorb street noise, so it’s also quieter in the museum.

By the way: You’ll find even more contemporary architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts, just ten minutes’ walk north of the Museum Brandhorst on the outskirts of the Kunstareal. Beside the older building section from the 19th century a modern extension was added in 2005 by the architects Coop Himmelb(l)au with reinforced concrete structures interwoven with one another.

Photo: © Werner Boehm

The Nazi Documentation Centre stands where the Nazi party headquarters, the so-called “Braunes Haus”, once stood. The entire Reichsleitung was housed here until 1945 in the classical Palais Barlow built in 1828. After the War, the ruins were demolished and the space remained undeveloped until 2012.

The design by architects Georg, Scheel und Wetzel won the competition for the Nazi Documentation Centre. The aboveground installation space has more or less the same dimensions as the former palace. The cube with 22.5 metre in length made of fine, white exposed concrete, contrasts starkly with its surroundings. It is not in line with the so-called "Führer buildings", but overtops their height. The cube marks the point where the perpetrators operated without an actual reference to the “Braunes Haus”. The partially two-floor louvered windows also allow visitors to see the surrounding remains from the Nazi period. That way, they become part of the documentation.

The four exhibition levels are each divided into two L-shaped spaces. Two-floor airspaces connect the levels, recognisable from outside as the corner-covering glazing units. Below the cube and the forecourt are two basement floors, housing a reading hall and an auditorium for 200 people.

The square with a quadratic raw concrete slabs terrace is named after Holocaust survivor Max Mannheimer, who passed away in 2016. It was dedicated to him in 2018 for his unique social commitment.

Looking to the street you will see the “Brienner 45” media artwork by brothers Benjamin and Emanuel Heisenberg. Film collages from key documents of the Nazi period, of both historical and current importance, run on screens which are sunken into the ground, reminiscent of wall remains.

Photo: © Orla Connolly

Pavilion 333 is an extra special project in the Kunstareal, as it was built in 2020 by students of architecture at the Technical University of Munich. It is named after the last three digits of the post-code where it stands: 80333. Professors Hermann Kaufmann and Florian Nagler and their co-workers were responsible for the project. For several months, Kunstareal visitors were given an insight into what the “DesignBuild” method is all about.

With DesignBuild schools of architecture around the world teach students how to design and implement projects 1:1. At some locations, this even produces theatres, schools and hospitals. The construction method is extremely cost-effective. Pavillon 333 is a temporary structure – it can be dismantled and rebuilt at another location.
The flat roof is carried by four main supports, visible inside in the pavilion. The temporary use was incorporated from the very beginning with the pavilion’s timber construction. Everything is therefore designed to be used multiple times. The polycarbonate panels on the sides and the four ceiling-high glass panels are also reusable. Two of these are combined with louvered windows, while the other two are opposing entrances.

The usable area for the educational programme held here is 140 square meters. A veranda runs around the 12.5 by 12.5-meter and six-meter-high cube, extending the pavilion into the public space. The veranda is flush with the roof’s front edge. The grey curtain connects the roof and veranda and provides both sun protection and a privacy screen.

Photo: © Matthias Kestel

Four museums under one roof – that’s the Pinakothek der Moderne

The 13,000-square-meter Pinakothek der Moderne plays a key role in the Kunstareal, both architecturally and in city planning terms. It is the nexus between the irregular structures of the old town and the grid pattern of the Maxvorstadt district. The building’s function as the gateway to the Kunstareal was already worked out in the design phase. At the same time it was not to compete with the dominance of the Alte Pinakothek.

The building can be entered from two sides – from the spacious hall in the Northwest and from the winter garden loggia in the Southeast. What is extra special is that both entrances are connected by a slanting wall, producing a diagonal axis through the entire ground floor. On the right beside the entrance you’ll see how the wall already begins outside the building.

Opened in 2002, the Pinakothek der Moderne is a double-skin structure of exposed concrete, glass and steel by architect Stephan Braunfels. The core of solid in-situ concrete has a thin exterior skin made of large, smooth and seamlessly concreted façade elements.

The centre of the rectangular structure is the impressive rotunda with a 25-meter-high glass dome, acting like the roof of a piazza, ensuring some delightful strolling.

The following museums are all connected by a large spacious staircase: The Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, the Architekturmuseum der TUM (the Architectural Museum of the Technical University Munich), the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München (the State Graphic Collection Munich) and the Sammlung Moderne Kunst der Bayerischen Staatsgemäldesammlung (Bavarian State Painting Collections). The idea for this only came about after the competition. A central opening in the rotunda was previously planned here, which Braunfels then abandoned in favour of the more dramatic stairway solution. The funnel-shaped stairs lead visitors from top to bottom. According to Braunfels, the 100-meter-long and 12-meter-high stairway is itself, “an extraordinary interior space sculpture”.

Photo: © Haydar Koyupinar

The Türkentor stands between the Pinakothek der Moderne and the Museum Brandhorst as the perceived entrance to this part of the Kunstareal. It is considered Munich’s smallest museum building and is home to just one exhibit.

The Türkentor is the only remaining part of the Prinz-Arnulf barracks, which King Max I Joseph completed in 1826. The locals called it “Türkenkaserne”, as it sat on the “Türkengraben” canal. Until its partial destruction at the end of the Second World War, it was initially used for military purposes – from 1920 by the police and under the Nazis once again by the military. Following interim use as a residential and commercial space it was almost completely demolished in the 1960s – except for the classical style street façade of the Türkentor, which was the former main entrance in the east of the complex.

Berlin architecture firm Sauerbruch Hutton redesigned the Türkentor between 2008 and 2010. In the building with water-struck bricks you’ll now see the Large Red Sphere sculpture by American artist Walter De Maria. The 2.6-metre sphere of red granite weighs twenty-five tonnes. It sits on a three-step plinth, surrounded by four pillars. On these you’ll see a beam structure with rusty nails, consisting of the remains of the former intermediate ceiling.

Photo: © Haydar Koyupinar

Learn more about the Maxvorstadt district here

The 64-hectare Kunstareal is right in the middle of Maxvorstadt, connecting Königsplatz and the adjacent buildings with the spaces around the Pinakotheken. With eighteen museums and exhibition spaces, more than thirty galleries, six universities and numerous cultural institutions, the Kunstareal is one of Europe’s most important cultural hubs.

You are here on Arcisstraße, which forms a chessboard pattern with the surrounding streets, Barerstraße, Theresienstraße and Brienner Straße. This easy to memorise urban development structure characterises the entire Kunstareal. Maxvorstadt emerged at the beginning of the 19th century as the city’s first systematic expansion. A system of longitudinal and transverse axes was designed to connect it with the old town. Together with the open spaces, the combination of stand-alone buildings housing public institutions as well as residential buildings as block perimeter structures ensures a truly unique urban development ensemble.

Brienner Straße on Königsplatz, to the south, was Munich’s first large-scale street installation. It was designed to create an unmistakable connection between the Residenz area and Nymphenburg Palace, where the Bavarian monarchs spent their summers.

During the Third Reich, the area’s character was seriously impinged on by the construction of the party buildings and the structural changes to Königsplatz. After the Second World War, Königsplatz was rebuilt according to the original plans.

Where you are now standing the Alte Pinakothek was installed in 1836 within the newly created Maxvorstadt. On the other side of the street is the main building of the Technical University of Munich, founded in 1868 as the first polytechnical school to teach architecture and urban development in Munich.