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81-494: The Septemberprogramm gained great notoriety after it was discovered by historian Fritz Fischer , who wrote that it was based on the Lebensraum philosophy as well as the Drang nach Osten nationalist movement of the 19th century, which made territorial expansion Imperial Germany's primary motive for war. This interpretation has been controversial. The modern consensus among historians

162-583: 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

243-799: A collection known as the "Kautsky documents". This large book was published in English in 1924 as Outbreak of the World War . A further book by Count Montgelas, The Case for the Central Powers , was published in London the following year.) In 1961, Fischer, who by then had risen to the rank of full professor at the University of Hamburg, rocked the history profession with his first postwar book, Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914–1918 (published in English as Germany's Aims in

324-670: 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

405-548: 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

486-530: 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, 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

567-475: A migration background from a foreign country. Munich's economy 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

648-592: 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

729-509: 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

810-619: 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,

891-520: 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

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972-516: A very high standard and quality of living, reaching first in Germany and third worldwide according to 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

1053-701: A war against the Dual Entente to create Mitteleuropa , a German-dominated Europe, and Mittelafrika , a German-dominated Africa. Though Fischer argued that the German government did not want a war with the British Empire , they were ready to run the risk in pursuit of annexation and hegemony. The American historian Klaus Epstein opined, in his review of Fischer's book published in October 1962, that Fischer instantly rendered obsolete every book previously published on

1134-490: A war aim the ethnic cleansing of Russian Poland and subsequent German colonization to provide Germany with Lebensraum (living space) led many to argue that similar schemes pursued by the Nazis in World War II were not due solely to Adolf Hitler's ideas but rather reflected widely held German aspirations that long pre-dated Hitler. Many German historians in the 1960s such as Gerhard Ritter , who liked to argue that Hitler

1215-537: Is difficult to single out Germany alone as "grasping for world power" when this was a centuries-old Western European tradition. It was not until after World War II that many European colonial subjects finally won their independence. Even after the conclusion of the Second World War, France refused to relinquish control over Indochina. Moreover, Fischer's timetable has also been criticized as inaccurate. Bethmann Hollweg's Septemberprogramm , outlining German war aims,

1296-410: 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

1377-620: 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

1458-526: Is that it was more of a discussion document, written well after the start of the war, and not a formally adopted government policy. The Septemberprogramm was a list of possible goals for Germany to achieve in the war: The Septemberprogramm was based on suggestions from Germany's industrial, military, and political leadership. However, since Germany did not win the war, it was never put into effect. As historian Raffael Scheck concluded, "The government, finally, never committed itself to anything. It had ordered

1539-565: 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 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

1620-759: The American Historical Association . Fischer was born in Ludwigsstadt in Bavaria . His father was a railway inspector. Educated at grammar schools in Ansbach and Eichstätt , Fischer attended the University of Berlin and the University of Erlangen , where he studied history, pedagogy, philosophy and theology. Fischer joined the Nazi Party in 1939, and left the Party in 1942. Fischer's major early influences were

1701-800: 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

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1782-670: The Bavarian dialect area , after the Austrian capital of Vienna . The city was first mentioned in 1158. Catholic Munich strongly resisted 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

1863-615: 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

1944-569: 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

2025-605: 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

2106-691: 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

2187-587: 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

2268-579: The Septemberprogramm as an informal hearing in order to learn about the opinion of the economic and military elites." In the east, on the other hand, Germany and her allies did demand and achieve significant territorial and economic concessions from Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and from Romania in the Treaty of Bucharest . Both treaties were annulled with the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended

2349-505: 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

2430-519: The city's metropolitan region is home to about 6.2 million people and is the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in 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

2511-565: The "Hitler of 1914". Fischer's arguments set off what is called the "Fischer Controversy" of the early 1960s when German historians led by Gerhard Ritter attempted to rebut Fischer. The Australian historian John Moses noted in 1999 that the documentary evidence introduced by Fischer is extremely persuasive in arguing that Germany was responsible for World War I . In 1990, The Economist advised its readers to examine Fischer's "well documented" book to examine why people in Eastern Europe feared

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2592-562: 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

2673-459: 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

2754-658: 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

2835-455: The Course of History , Philip Bobbitt wrote that Fischer's publication made it "impossible to maintain" that World War I had been a "ghastly mistake" rather than the consequence of German policy. For most Germans, it was acceptable to believe that Germany had caused World War II , but not World War I, which was still widely regarded as a war forced upon Germany by its encircling enemies. Fischer

2916-473: The First World War ), in which he argued that Germany had deliberately instigated World War I in an attempt to become a world power . In this book, which was primarily concerned with the role played in the formation of German foreign policy by domestic pressure groups, Fischer argued that various pressure groups in German society had ambitions for aggressive imperialist policy in Eastern Europe, Africa and

2997-509: The Imperial German state saw itself besieged by rising demands for democracy at home and sought to weaken them through a policy of aggression abroad. Fischer was the first German historian to support the negative version of the Sonderweg ("special path") interpretation of German history, which holds that the way German society developed from the Reformation (or from a later time, such as

3078-595: 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

3159-543: The Middle East. In Fischer's opinion, the " September Program " of September 1914 calling for the annexation of parts of Europe and Africa was an attempt at compromise between the demands of the lobbying groups in German society for wide-ranging territorial expansion. Fischer argued that the German government used the July Crisis caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914 to act on plans for

3240-571: 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

3321-539: 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

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3402-538: 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

3483-418: The West German government and historical establishment, as it made Germany guilty for both world wars, challenging the national belief in Germany's innocence and converting its recent history into one of conquest and aggression. Fischer was named in The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing as the most important German historian of the 20th century. In 1984, he was elected an honorary member of

3564-509: 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

3645-458: 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

3726-503: 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

3807-491: 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

3888-422: 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

3969-430: 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

4050-429: The establishment of the German Reich in 1871) inexorably culminated in the Third Reich. In Fischer's view, while 19th-century German society moved forwards economically and industrially, it did not do so politically. For Fischer, German foreign policy before 1914 was largely motivated by the efforts of the reactionary German elite to distract the public from casting their votes for the Social Democrats and to make Germany

4131-532: 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

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4212-402: The fighting in World War I. Fritz Fischer (historian) Fritz Fischer (5 March 1908 – 1 December 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I . In the early 1960s Fischer advanced the controversial thesis at the time that responsibility for the outbreak of the war rested solely on Imperial Germany . Fischer's anti-revisionist claims shocked

4293-463: 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

4374-468: 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

4455-403: 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

4536-473: 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

4617-453: The origins of Nazi Germany predated 1914, and were the result of long-standing ambitions of the German power elite. In the 1950s, Fischer examined the Imperial German government archives – those that were extant and available at the time – relating to the First World War. (This had previously been done by Karl Kautsky , Professor Walther Schucking and Count Max Montgelas , whose findings were published at Charlottenburg in November 1919 in

4698-432: The popular explanations of National Socialism offered by such historians as Friedrich Meinecke in which Adolf Hitler was just a Betriebsunfall (an 'occupational accident', meaning 'a spanner in the works') of history were unacceptable. In 1949, at the first post-war German Historians' Congress in Munich , Fischer strongly criticized the Lutheran tradition in German life, accusing the Lutheran church of glorifying

4779-534: The proper historical context. They argue that Germany was not uniquely aggressive amongst European nations of the early 20th century, a time when Social Darwinist views of struggle were popular in Europe's ruling classes. Critics also contend that in the centuries following Columbus's voyages to America , the Western European countries including Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, etc. had already acquired vast overseas colonial possessions and spheres of influence long before German unification in 1871, so it

4860-471: The prospect of German reunification . Fischer and his analytical model caused a revolution in German historiography . His Primat der Innenpolitik heuristic, with its examination of the "inputs" into German foreign policy by domestic pressure groups and their interaction with the imperialist ideas of the German elite, forced a re-evaluation of German foreign policy in the Imperial era. Fischer's discovery of Imperial German government documents advocating as

4941-426: 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

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5022-443: The standard Hegelian - Rankean opposition typical of the pre-1945 German historical profession, and as such, Fischer's early writings bore a strong bent towards the right. This influence was reflected in Fischer's first books, biographies of Ludwig Nicolovius , a leading 19th-century Prussian educational reformer and of Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg , the Prussian Minister of Education between 1858 and 1862. In 1942, Fischer

5103-434: The state at the expense of individual liberties and thus helping to bring about Nazi Germany . Fischer complained that the Lutheran church had for too long glorified the state as a divinely sanctioned institution that could do no wrong, and thus paved the way for National Socialism. Fischer rejected the then popular argument in Germany that Nazi Germany had been the result of the Treaty of Versailles , and instead argued that

5184-417: The subject of responsibility for the First World War and German aims in that war . Fischer's position on German responsibility for World War I has become known as the "Fischer thesis". The book was preceded by Fischer's groundbreaking 1959 article in the Historische Zeitschrift in which he first published the arguments that he expanded upon in his 1961 book. In The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and

5265-443: 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

5346-488: 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

5427-445: The world's greatest power at the expense of France, Britain and Russia. The German elite that caused World War I was also responsible for the failure of the Weimar Republic , which opened the way for the Third Reich. This traditional German elite, in Fischer's analysis, was dominated by a racist, imperialist and capitalist ideology that was little different from the beliefs of the Nazis . For this reason, Fischer called Bethmann Hollweg

5508-401: Was an expert on the Imperial era, his work was important in the debate on the foreign policy of the Third Reich . In his 1969 book War of Illusions ( Krieg der Illusionen ), Fischer offered a detailed study of German politics from 1911 to 1914 in which he offered an analysis of German foreign policy based on the Primat der Innenpolitik (primacy of domestic politics). In Fischer's view,

5589-417: 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

5670-437: 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

5751-409: 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

5832-469: 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,

5913-492: 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 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

5994-521: 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 ,

6075-598: Was given a professorship at the University of Hamburg and he married Margarete Lauth-Volkmann, with whom he fathered two children. He served in the Wehrmacht in World War II . After his release from a POW camp in 1947, he went on as a professor at the University of Hamburg , where he stayed until his retirement in 1978. He was made an honorary member of the American Historical Association in 1984. After World War II, Fischer re-evaluated his previous beliefs, and decided that

6156-552: 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,

6237-668: Was just a Betriebsunfall of history with no real connection to German history, were outraged by Fischer's publication of these documents and attacked his work as "anti-German". Fischer's allegations caused a deep controversy throughout the academic world, particularly in West Germany . His arguments caused so much anger that his publisher's office in Hamburg was firebombed. His works inspired other historians, such as Gerhard Ritter , to write books and articles against his war-aims thesis. Many critics claim that Fischer placed Germany outside

6318-659: Was not produced until after the war had begun and was still going well for Germany. At the same time, other powers had been harboring similarly grandiose plans for post-war territorial gains. Since its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, France was committed to a path of revenge against Germany and the reacquisition of Alsace and Lorraine . Russia, too, had long-standing, explicit war aims. Munich Munich ( / ˈ m juː n ɪ k / , MEW -nik ; German : München [ˈmʏnçn̩] ; Bavarian : Minga [ˈmɪŋ(ː)ɐ] )

6399-403: 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

6480-550: 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

6561-690: Was the first German historian to publish documents showing that the German chancellor Dr. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg had made plans in September 1914 (after the war began) to annex all of Belgium, part of France and part of Russia . Fischer suggested that there was continuity in German foreign policy from 1900 to the Second World War, implying that Germany was responsible for both world wars. These ideas were expanded in his later books Krieg der Illusionen ( War of Illusions ), Bündnis der Eliten ( From Kaiserreich to Third Reich ) and Hitler war kein Betriebsunfall ( Hitler Was No Accident ). Though Fischer

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