Along the Isar - a walk

Declaration of Love to a River

 

Proudly, the Isar River flows through Munich, already traveling nearly 140 km before crossing the city's border at Großhesselohe. Proudly, because the Isar knows:

“...an Isar without Munich is possible, but no Munich without the Isar.”

Since the city's founding, the river has been intimately intertwined with Munich's history, through good times and bad. The Isar shaped the city's life and was, and still is, its defining feature. Often, this feature could take a dangerous form, bringing disaster to the city in the shape of floods. The people of Munich have always tried to adapt to the river, with varying levels of success. They wanted to tame the Isar, but how do you tame a wild river?

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The Isar and Its Bridges

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For centuries, the Isar was a sprawling river system with many side arms and a wide riverbed that covered today's city area. This was advantageous for rafting, which brought prosperity to the city. However, rafting was also dangerous because the river was unpredictable. The people of Munich tried to regulate the river and make rafting safer. As the city grew, the Munich bridges of today emerged in the 19th century:

Wittelsbacherbrücke, Reichenbachbrücke, Corneliusbrücke, Ludwigsbrücke, Maximiliansbrücke, and Max-Joseph-Brücke, to name a few. The devastating flood of 1899 caused terrible damage to the city, even collapsing two bridges. This event ultimately forced the Isar into a stone and concrete corset.

 

Isar Restoration - Pure Nature in the City

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In the aftermath of the 1899 flood, the Isar was rigorously regulated within the city, constrained to a straight concrete channel with overflow outlets, weirs, flood basins, and quay facilities. At the time, no one thought about the ecological damage to the river. Further damage from industrialization led to a significant decline in the Isar's fish and wildlife population.

Only in the 1980s did attitudes start to shift. The "Isar Plan - New Life for the Isar" project was developed through a unique collaboration among local citizens, the city of Munich, and the state of Bavaria. From 2000 to 2011, the Isar was restored across an eight-kilometer stretch within the city. It was an ambitious undertaking, and its successes are now visible for all to see.