Munich City Museum, City museum in Altstadt-Lehel, Germany
The Munich Stadtmuseum occupies the former municipal arsenal, built in 1500 by Lukas Rottaler in late Gothic style, and the rebuilt Marstall stables, joined by 20th-century wings by Hans Grässel, Hermann Leitenstorfer and Gustav Gsaenger. Its white and pale pink plastered facades, steep red tiled roofs, green-roofed spire and arched windows face the St.-Jakobs-Platz.
The museum was founded on 29 July 1888, when city archivist Ernst von Destouches took charge of the Historical City Museum. Its starting point was the city's 1879 purchase of art dealer Joseph Maillinger's picture collection, housed in the former municipal arsenal on St.-Jakobs-Platz, a late-Gothic building of 1500 by Lukas Rottaler that had also served as a granary. Expansions followed: Hans Grässel's transverse building (1926–28), the Leitenstorfer wing (1930–31), Gustav Gsaenger's block (1959–64) and the Hofmann wing (1977–78).
The collection includes Erasmus Grasser's Morris dancers, carved around 1480 for the Old Town Hall festival hall, and the original putti from the Mary's Column. A separate exhibition examines Munich as the "Hauptstadt der Bewegung", the Nazi movement's capital. The music collection holds more than 2,000 instruments from Africa, America, Asia and Europe.
The museum has been closed since early 2024 for a full renovation expected to last seven years; offices and restoration workshops moved to premises on the Arri Group site in Türkenstraße. Check before travelling whether interim exhibitions are open elsewhere. The complex fills the whole block around St.-Jakobs-Platz, with the entrance area set to be rebuilt and an extension added in the inner courtyard.
The photography museum (Fotomuseum) was founded in 1963 and holds nearly one million photos within a collection of some three million items, making it one of Europe's leading photo collections. The film museum's archive is known for restoring films by Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, G. W. Pabst and F. W. Murnau.
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