48°6′6.5″N 11°35′0.8″E / 48.101806°N 11.583556°E / 48.101806; 11.583556
118-620: The Reichszeugmeisterei ( German: [ˈʁaɪçs.tsɔʏkmaɪstəˌʁaɪ] ; RZM ), formally located in Munich , was the first and eventually the primary Zeugmeisterei ( quartermaster 's office), as well as the national material control office of Nazi Germany . It replaced the SA-Wirtschaftsstelle , the purchasing agency of the Sturmabteilung . As early as 1925, to avoid identification problems during street fighting in
236-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
354-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
472-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
590-598: A 12-story office building was erected in the southern part of the historic city centre in the late 1920s. Munich again became important to the Nazis when they took power in Germany in 1933. The party created its first concentration camp at Dachau , 16 km (10 mi) north-west of the city. Because of its importance to the rise of National Socialism, Munich was referred to as the Hauptstadt der Bewegung ("Capital of
708-697: A greater audience. William V was addressed with the epithet "the Pious" and like his contemporary Wittelsbach dukes promoted himself as "father of the land" ( Landesvater ), encouraged pilgrimages and Marian devotions . William V had the Hofbräuhaus built in 1589. It would become the prototype for beer halls across Munich. After World War II the Residenze, the Hofbräuhaus, the Frauenkirche , and
826-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
944-562: A large fire broke out in Munich that lasted two days and destroyed about a third of the town. In 1349, the Black Death ravaged Munich and Bavaria. The growth of Munich was supplemented by its location on top of a gravel bed, where the Isar branched into Munich City Streams , which in turn provided power for many mills and industries within Munich. In the 15th century, Munich underwent
1062-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
1180-608: A new aesthetic of power. Construction work for the Führerbau and the party headquarters (known as the Brown House ) started in September 1933. The Haus der Kunst (House of German Art) was the first building to be commissioned by Hitler. The architect Paul Troost was asked to start work shortly after the Nazis had seized power because "the most German of all German cities" was left with no exhibition building when in 1931
1298-520: A new toll bridge, customs house and a coin market closer to his home somewhat upstream at a settlement around the area of modern old town Munich. This new toll bridge most likely crossed the Isar where the Museuminsel and the modern Ludwigsbrücke is now located. Otto of Freising protested to his nephew, Emperor Frederick Barbarosa (d. 1190). However, on 14 June 1158, in Augsburg , the conflict
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#17327825975831416-630: A plague ordinance to halt an epidemic escalation. The bubonic plague nevertheless ravaged Munich and the surrounding countryside in 1634 and 1635. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) troops again converged on Munich in 1647 and precautions were taken, so as to avoid another epidemic. Under the regency of the Bavarian electors, Munich was an important centre of Baroque life, but also had to suffer under Habsburg occupations in 1704 and 1742. When Elector Maximilian III Joseph died in 1745,
1534-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
1652-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
1770-531: A revival of Gothic arts : the Old Town Hall was enlarged, and Munich's largest Gothic church – the Frauenkirche – now a cathedral, was constructed in only 20 years, starting in 1468. When Bavaria was reunited in 1506 after a brief war against the Duchy of Landshut , Munich became its capital. The arts and politics became increasingly influenced by the court. The Renaissance movement beset Munich and
1888-528: A satellite department of the Police Headquarters of Munich . Munich Munich ( / ˈ m juː n ɪ k / MEW -nik ; German : München [ˈmʏnçn̩] ; Bavarian : Minga [ˈmɪŋ(ː)ɐ] ) is the capital and most populous city of the Free State of Bavaria , Germany . With a population of 1,594,632 inhabitants as of 31 May 2024, it is
2006-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
2124-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
2242-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
2360-408: Is based on high tech , automobiles , and the service sector , as well as IT , biotechnology , engineering, and electronics . It has one of the strongest economies of any German city and the lowest unemployment rate of all cities in Germany with more than one million inhabitants. The city houses many multinational companies, such as BMW , Siemens , Allianz SE and Munich Re . In addition, Munich
2478-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
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#17327825975832596-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
2714-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
2832-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
2950-410: Is home to two research universities, and a multitude of scientific institutions. Munich's numerous architectural and cultural attractions, sports events, exhibitions and its annual Oktoberfest , the world's largest Volksfest , attract considerable tourism. Munich was a tiny 8th-century friar settlement, which was named zu den Munichen ("to the monks"). The Old High German Muniche served as
3068-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
3186-696: Is now a world leading party service. The city was the site where the 1938 Munich Agreement signed between the United Kingdom and the Third French Republic with Nazi Germany as part of the Franco-British policy of appeasement . The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain assented to the German annexation of Czechoslovakia 's Sudetenland in the hopes of satisfying Hitler's territorial expansion. The Munich-Riem Airport
3304-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
3422-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
3540-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
3658-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
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3776-646: Is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),
3894-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
4012-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
4130-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
4248-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
4366-833: The Bavarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed. The November 1918 revolution ended the reign of the Wittelsbach in Bavaria. In Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler described his political activism in Munich after November 1918 as the "Beginning of My Political Activity". Hitler called the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic "the rule of the Jews". In 1919 Bavaria Film was founded and in the 1920s Munich offered film makers an alternative to Germany's largest film studio, Babelsberg Studio . In 1923 Gustav von Kahr
4484-644: The Bayerischer Rundfunk began its first television broadcast in 1954. The Free State of Bavaria used the arms industry as kernel for its high tech development policy. Since 1963, Munich has been hosting the Munich Security Conference , held annually in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof . Munich also became known on the political level due to the strong influence of Bavarian politician Franz Josef Strauss from
4602-646: The Beer Hall Putsch , an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic and seize power. The revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest and the temporary crippling of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Munich was chosen as capital for the Free State of Bavaria and acquired increased responsibility for administering the city itself and the surrounding districts. Offices needed to be built for bureaucracy, so
4720-568: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
4838-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
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4956-480: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
5074-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
5192-625: The Glass Palace was destroyed in an arson attack. The Red Terror that supposedly preceded Nazi control in Munich was detailed in Nazi publications; seminal accounts are that of Rudolf Schricker Rotmord über München published in 1934, and Die Blutchronik des Marxismus in Deutschland by Adolf Ehrt and Hans Roden. In 1930 Feinkost Käfer was founded in Munich, the Käfer catering business
5310-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
5428-718: The Maximilian Gardens . From 1848 the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten was published as a regional newspaper in Munich. In 1857 the construction of the Maximilianeum was begun. By the time Ludwig II became king in 1864, he remained mostly aloof from his capital and focused more on his fanciful castles in the Bavarian countryside, which is why he is known the world over as the 'fairytale king'. Ludwig II tried to lure Richard Wagner to Munich, but his plans for an opera house were declined by
5546-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
5664-479: The Peterskirche were reconstructed to look exactly as they did before the Nazi Party seized power in 1933. The Catholic League was founded in Munich in 1609. In 1623, during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Munich became an electoral residence when Duke Maximilian I was invested with the electoral dignity , but in 1632 the city was occupied by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden . In 1634 Swedish and Spanish troops advanced on Munich. Maximilian I published
5782-460: The Reformation and was a political point of divergence during the resulting Thirty Years' War , but remained physically untouched despite an occupation by the Protestant Swedes . Once Bavaria was established as the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, Munich became a major European centre of arts, architecture , culture and science. In 1918, during the German Revolution of 1918–19 , the ruling House of Wittelsbach , which had governed Bavaria since 1180,
5900-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
6018-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
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#17327825975836136-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
6254-401: The Weimar Republic , Adolf Hitler ordered the wearing of brown shirts by members of the newly established NSDAP and the SA. These uniforms were complemented by brown caps and coloured badges in 1927, which could only be purchased at the SA-Wirtschaftsstelle . Due to an increasing number of members, Hitler instructed the SA command in 1928 to establish a Zeugmeisterei in Munich. This office
6372-457: The bombing of Munich in World War II , with 71 air raids over five years. US troops liberated Munich on 30 April 1945. In the aftermath of World War II, Germany and Japan were subject to US Military occupation. Due to Polish annexation of the Former eastern territories of Germany and expulsion of Germans from all over Eastern Europe , Munich operated over a thousand refugee camps for 151,113 people in October 1946. After US occupation Munich
6490-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
6608-431: The third-largest city by population in Germany , after Berlin and Hamburg , and thus the largest which does not constitute its own state, as well as the 11th-largest city in the European Union . The Munich metropolitan area – including suburbs and satellite towns – has 3 million inhabitants; and the city's metropolitan region is home to about 6.2 million people and is the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in
6726-458: The 1700s beer came to be regarded as the fifth element . Beer was essential in maintaining public health in Munich and in the mid-1840s Munich police estimated that at least 40,000 residents relied primarily on beer for their nutrition. In 1832 Peter von Hess painted the Greek War of Independence at the order of King Ludwig I . Ludwig I had the Königsplatz built in neoclassicism as a matter of ideological choice. Leo von Klenze supervised
6844-403: The 1943 Battle of Stalingrad members of the group stenciled slogans such as "Down with Hitler" and "Hitler the Mass Murderer" on public buildings in Munich. The core members were arrested and executed after Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans Scholl were caught distributing leaflets on Munich University campus calling upon the youth to rise against Hitler. The city was heavily damaged by
6962-406: The 1960s to the 1980s. The Munich Airport , which commenced operations in 1992, was named in his honor. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It
7080-430: The 2018 Mercer survey, and being rated the world's most liveable city by the Monocle's Quality of Life Survey 2018 . Munich is consistently ranked as one of the most expensive cities in Germany in terms of real estate prices and rental costs. In 2023, 30.1 percent of Munich's residents were foreigners, and another 18.5 percent were German citizens with a migration background from a foreign country. Munich's economy
7198-447: The Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach under Duke Albrecht V who bolstered their prestige by conjuring up a lineage that reached back to classical antiquity . In 1568 Albrecht V built the Antiquarium to house the Wittelsbach collection of Greek and Roman antiquities in the Munich Residenz . Albrecht V appointed the composer Orlando di Lasso as director of the court orchestra and tempted numerous Italian musicians to work at
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#17327825975837316-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
7434-433: The European Union. Straddling the banks of the river Isar north of the Alps , Munich is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria , while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany with 4,500 people per km . Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area , after the Austrian capital of Vienna . The city was first mentioned in 1158. Catholic Munich strongly resisted
7552-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
7670-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
7788-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
7906-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
8024-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
8142-431: The Isar south of Munich, at the towns of Baierbrunn and Gauting . A Roman settlement north-east of Munich was excavated in the neighborhood of Denning . Starting in the 6th century, the Baiuvarii populated the area around what is now modern Munich, such as in Johanneskirchen, Feldmoching, Bogenhausen and Pasing. The first known Christian church was built ca. 815 in Fröttmanning. The first medieval bridges across
8260-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
8378-405: The Movement"). The NSDAP headquarters and the documentation apparatus for controlling all aspects of life were located in Munich. Nazi organizations, such as the National Socialist Women's League and the Gestapo , had their offices along Brienner Straße and around the Königsplatz . The party acquired 68 buildings in the area and many Führerbauten (" Führer buildings") were built to reflect
8496-548: The Munich court, establishing Munich as a hub for late Renaissance music . During the rule of Duke William V Munich began to be called the "German Rome" and William V began presenting Emperor Charlemagne as ancestor of the Wittelsbach dynasty. Duke William V further cemented the Wittelsbach rule by commissioning the Jesuit Michaelskirche . He had the sermons of his Jesuit court preacher Jeremias Drexel translated from Latin into German and published them to
8614-558: The Munich magazine Die Jugend ( The Youth ). Prominent Munich Jugendstil artists include Hans Eduard von Berlepsch-Valendas , Otto Eckmann , Margarethe von Brauchitsch , August Endell , Hermann Obrist , Wilhelm von Debschitz , and Richard Riemerschmid . In 1905 two large department stores opened in Munich, the Kaufhaus Oberpollinger and the Warenhaus Hermann Tietz , both had been designed by
8732-851: The NSDAP. When the Heimtückegesetz ("insidiousness law") of 1934 secured its exclusive right to license manufacturers and tradesmen, the Reichszeugmeisterei became the Hauptamt VIII ("main office VIII") of the Beschaffungsamt der NSDAP ("NSDAP procurement office"), and given responsibility for the coordination of all procurement of uniforms and equipment projects. The RZM office defined design, manufacturing and quality standards, and published an authoritative colour chart for textiles. A RZM licence could be bought and by
8850-561: The architect Max Littmann . In 1911 the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter was established in Munich. Its founding members include Gabriele Münter . Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, life in Munich became very difficult, as the Allied blockade of Germany led to food and fuel shortages. During French air raids in 1916, three bombs fell on Munich. In 1916, the 'Bayerische Motoren Werke' ( BMW ) produced its first aircraft engine in Munich. The public limited company BMW AG
8968-580: The basis for the modern German city name München . The river Isar was a prehistoric trade route and in the Bronze Age Munich was among the largest raft ports in Europe. Bronze Age settlements up to four millennia old have been discovered. Evidence of Celtic settlements from the Iron Age have been discovered in areas around Ramersdorf-Perlach . The ancient Roman road Via Julia, which connected Augsburg and Salzburg , crossed over
9086-593: The building was almost finished by 1937. It was surrounded by accommodation blocks for the RZM workers. After World War II, United States forces occupied the complex, and the Reichsadler and the swastika were removed from the main building's façade. The main building became block no. 7 of the US- McGraw Kaserne . Since the withdrawal of US troops from Munich in the 1990s, the main building has been used by
9204-503: The center of a modernizing kingdom, and one of the king's first acts was the secularization of Bavaria. He had dissolved all monasteries in 1802 and once crowned, Maximilian Joseph generated state revenues by selling off church lands. While many monasteries were reestablished, Maximilian Joseph I succeeded in controlling the right to brew beer ( Braurecht ). The king handed the brewing monopoly to Munich's wealthiest brewers, who in turn paid substantial taxes on their beer production. In 1807
9322-588: The city council. Ludwig II nevertheless generated a windfall for Munich's craft and construction industries. In 1876 Munich hosted the first German Art and Industry Exhibition, which showcased the northern Neo-Renaissance fashion that came to be the German Empire 's predominant style. Munich based artists put on the German National Applied Arts Exhibition in 1888, showcasing Baroque Revival architecture and Rococo Revival designs. In 1900 Wilhelm Röntgen moved to Munich, he
9440-477: The construction of a Propylaia between 1854 and 1862. During the early to mid-19th century, the old fortified city walls of Munich were largely demolished due to population expansion. The first Munich railway station was built in 1839, with a line going to Augsburg in the west. By 1849 a newer Munich Central Train Station ( München Hauptbahnhof ) was completed, with a line going to Landshut and Regensburg in
9558-482: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
9676-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
9794-493: The diversity of the kingdom. The fields are now part of the Theresienwiese and the celebrations developed into Munich's annual Oktoberfest . The Bavarian state proceeded to take control over the beer market, by regulating all taxes on beer in 1806 and 1811. Brewers and the beer taverns ( Wirtshäuser ) were taxed, and the state also controlled the quality of beer while limiting the competition among breweries. In 1831
9912-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
10030-708: The expansion of the S-Bahn (subway) in 2012 discovered shards of vessels from the 11th century, which prove again that the settlement of Munich must be older than the Augsburg Arbitration of 1158. The old St. Peter's Church near Marienplatz is also believed to predate the founding date of the town. In 1175, Munich received city status and fortification. In 1180, after Henry the Lion's fall from grace with Emperor Frederick Barbarosa, including his trial and exile, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria, and Munich
10148-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
10266-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
10384-463: The king abolished all ordinances that limited the number of apprentices and journeymen a brewery could employ. Munich's population had swelled and Munich brewers were now free to employ as many workers as they needed to meet the demand. In October 1810 a beer festival was held on the meadows just outside Munich to commemorate the wedding of the crown prince and princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen . The parades in regional dress ( Tracht ) represented
10502-528: The king's government introduced a cost-of-living allowance on beer for lower-ranking civil servants and soldiers. Soldiers stationed in Munich were granted a daily allowance for beer in the early 1840s. By the 1850s beer had become essential staple food for Munich's working and lower classes. Since the Middle Ages beer had been regarded as nutritious liquid bread ( fließendes Brot ) in Bavaria. But Munich suffered from poor water sanitation and as early as
10620-572: The middle of 1934 there were about 15,000 licensed manufacturing factories and craft producers, 1,500 tradesmen, 75,000 master tailors and 15,000 so-called "brown shops" in the German Reich. All pieces of equipment had to be labelled with a visible RZM copyright protection symbol and a product-assigned RZM number that contained encoded data about the textile sector, material group, producer number and year of production. All products were at first tested by World War I veterans and invalids, but after
10738-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
10856-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
10974-403: The north. In 1825 Ludwig I had ascended to the throne and commissioned leading architects such as Leo von Klenze to design a series of public museums in neoclassical style. The grand building projects of Ludwig I gave Munich the endearment "Isar-Athen" and "Monaco di Bavaria". Between 1856 and 1861 the court gardener Carl von Effner landscaped the banks of the river Isar and established
11092-526: The opportunity, building new houses, stalls, and sheds outside the city walls. After making an alliance with Napoleonic France, the city became the capital of the new Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806 with Elector Maximillian IV Joseph becoming its first king. The state parliament (the Landtag ) and the new archdiocese of Munich and Freising were also located in the city. The establishment of Bavarian state sovereignty profoundly affected Munich. Munich became
11210-593: The outbreak of World War II prisoners of war were used. Some equipment parts were also stored and shipped from the RZM in Munich. At first, before the RZM office building proper was finished, the RZM office was located in Schwanthaler Straße and later in offices of the former SA-Wirtschaftsstelle in Tegernseer Landstraße . The RZM building itself was built on the estate of the former Wagen- und Maschinenfabrik Gebr. Beißbarth OHG, which
11328-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
11446-426: The river Isar were located in current city areas of Munich and Landshut . The Duke of Saxony and Bavaria Henry the Lion founded the town of Munich in his territory to control the salt trade , after having burned down the town of Föhring and its bridges over the Isar. Historians date this event at about 1158. The layout of Munich city, with five city gates and market place, resembled that of Höxter . Henry built
11564-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
11682-608: The succession empowered the Palatinate branch within the House of Wittelsbach . In 1777 Bavarian lands were inherited by Karl Theodor . The new duke was disliked by the citizens of Munich for his supposedly enlightened ideas. In 1785 Karl Theodor invited Count Rumford Benjamin Thompson to take up residency in Munich and implement stringent social reforms. The poor were forced to live in newly built workhouses . The Bavarian army
11800-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
11918-413: The war all over the city. Following the war, there was a great increase in population and economic power during the years of Wirtschaftswunder . The city hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics . Today, Munich is a global centre of science, technology, finance, innovation , business, and tourism. Munich enjoys a very high standard and quality of living, reaching first in Germany and third worldwide according to
12036-660: The war, Munich was the location of multiple forced labour camps, including two Polenlager camps for Polish youth, and 40 subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp , in which men and women of various nationalities were held. With up to 17,000 prisoners in 1945, the largest subcamp of Dachau was the Munich-Allach concentration camp . Munich was the base of the White Rose , a student resistance movement . The group had distributed leaflets in several cities and following
12154-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
12272-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
12390-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
12508-596: Was acquired by the NSDAP from the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank in 1934. Local architects Paul Hofer and Karl Johann Fischer were commissioned by the NSDAP Reichsleitung with the design of the RZM main building in the "new district" of Munich. Main construction management was overseen by Josef Heldmann. The huge construction was one of the first in Germany to be built using steel frame technology. Construction started in 1935 and
12626-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
12744-417: Was appointed Bavarian prime minister and immediately planned for the expulsion of all Jews who did not hold German citizenship. Chief of Police Ernst Pöhner and Wilhelm Frick openly indulged in antisemitism, while Bavarian judges praised people on the political right as patriotic for their crimes and handed down mild sentences. In 1923, Adolf Hitler and his supporters, who were concentrated in Munich, staged
12862-610: Was appointed as professor of physics. In 1901 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Prince Regent Luitpold 's reign from 1886 to 1912 was marked by tremendous artistic and cultural activity in Munich. At the dawn of the 20th century Munich was an epicenter for the Jugendstil movement, combining a liberal magazine culture with progressive industrial design and architecture. The German art movement took its name from
12980-598: Was completed in October 1939. On 8 November 1939, shortly after the Second World War had begun, Georg Elser planted a bomb in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, who held a political party speech. Hitler, however, had left the building minutes before the bomb went off. By mid 1942 the majority of Jews living in Munich and the suburbs had been deported. During
13098-421: Was completely rebuilt following a meticulous plan, which preserved its pre-war street grid, bar a few exceptions owing to then-modern traffic concepts. In 1957, Munich's population surpassed one million. The city continued to play a highly significant role in the German economy, politics and culture, giving rise to its nickname Heimliche Hauptstadt ("secret capital") in the decades after World War II. In Munich,
13216-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
13334-461: Was forced to abdicate in Munich and a short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic was declared. In the 1920s, Munich became home to several political factions, among them the Nazi Party . After the Nazis' rise to power, Munich was declared their "Capital of the Movement". The city was heavily bombed during World War II , but has restored most of its old town and boasts nearly 30.000 buildings from before
13452-526: Was founded in 1918, with Camillo Castiglioni owning one third of the share capital. In 1922 BMW relocated its headquarters to a factory in Munich. After World War I, the city was at the centre of substantial political unrest. In November 1918, on the eve of the German revolution, Ludwig III of Bavaria and his family fled the city. After the murder of the first republican premier of Bavaria Kurt Eisner in February 1919 by Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley ,
13570-509: Was handed to the Bishop of Freising . In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, when the Duchy of Bavaria was split in two, Munich became the ducal residence of Upper Bavaria . Duke Louis IV , a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the city's position by granting it the salt monopoly, thus assuring it of additional income. On 13 February 1327,
13688-514: Was responsible for the central supply of all kinds of uniforms, uniform parts and equipment to members of Nazi organizations. Further Zeugmeistereien were established in other German cities, and the quartermaster office in Munich was renamed to Reichszeugmeisterei , to identify it with its leading role. In 1930 the Zeugmeistereien were subordinated to Franz Xaver Schwarz in his position as Reichsschatzmeister ("national treasurer") of
13806-403: Was restructured, with common soldiers receiving better food and reassurances that they would be treated humanely by officers. Munich was the largest German city to lose fortification in the 1790s. In 1791 Karl Theodor and Count Rumford started to demolish Munich's fortifications. After 1793 Munich's citizens, including house servants, carpenters, butchers, merchants, and court officials, seized
13924-559: Was settled in favor of Duke Henry. The Augsburg Arbitration mentions the name of the location in dispute as forum apud Munichen . Although Bishop Otto had lost his bridge, the arbiters ordered Duke Henry to pay a third of his income to the Bishop in Freising as compensation. The 14th June 1158 is considered the official founding day of the city of Munich. Archaeological excavations at Marienhof Square (near Marienplatz ) in advance of
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