District tour Schwabing

Schwabing is not a place, but a state…

... said Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow at the turn of the century and "There's a pub in Schwabing that must be something special" is how the Munich band Spider Murphy Gang sings about this situation. What is this, probably the most famous district in Munich, all about?

 

Schwabing – the ancient lady

 

Schwabing is also significantly older than Munich itself, but for centuries it had a rather insignificant, village-like existence. It was not until the 19th century that things really started to flourish. While the newly built Maxvorstadt was simply too expensive, it was still possible to buy land here at realistic prices. The small village grew quickly and was elevated to city status just four years before it was incorporated into Munich.

 

Schwabing – always in…

 

It is the time around the turn of the century that goes down in history as the "Schwabing Bohemians". 1,180 painters and sculptors lived in Schwabing around the turn of the century, although many of the important residential addresses, cafés and artists' meeting places were actually in the neighboring Maxvorstadt, but were definitely associated with Schwabing, that new, cultural and intellectual "state". They came from everywhere to settle in Schwabing and to consciously behave in an "unbourgeois" manner and to finally be counted by the people of Munich as "Schwabing rascals".

 

Schwabing – Munich’s answer to Paris

 

At the turn of the century, even Moscow, Paris and Berlin had to take a back seat to Munich as the art capital of Europe. This is where artists, writers and poets broke out of the ossified bourgeois society of the Empire. Personalities such as the dramatist Frank Wedekind, the "Simplicissimus" publisher Albert Langen, the famous "Alter-Simpl" landlady Kathi Kobus, the poet Joachim Ringelnatz, the writers Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, the painters of the "Blue Rider": Alfred Kubin, Lovis Corinth and Paul Klee, to name just a few.

 

The Schwabing myth lives on!

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The era of the “Schwabing bohemians” ended abruptly with the outbreak of the First World War. After both the First and the Second World Wars, there were almost desperate attempts to revive the “myth of Schwabing”, but this was not really successful. During the American occupation, there was a real nightlife here and the “ Schwabinger Gisela ” became one of Munich’s most famous restaurants, but the great Schwabing era could never be revived in this form. The unrest of the 1960s almost had to take place here in Schwabing, as the anti-authoritarian movement referred to the anti-bourgeois tendencies of the bohemians at the turn of the century.

But the “Schwabing myth” somehow lives on and every generation that has once lived here almost has to say about Schwabing: “This is no longer my Schwabing”.
That’s how it always was, that’s how it always will be…