citylikeyou — Massmann Wohnheim — Munich by Alexandra Gerber

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Munich / Place

I have been accepted as guest in a community house for students.One hundred people live here, most of them are here since ages and have never moved out. And indeed, sometimes I felt like in a cruise boat where if I wanted I could have spend months in without needing to go out. This place is almost like a city in the city, where you get a daily backer delivery, where the fridges are always refilled with beers, and a massive bank of films and music is available through the intranet network. Everything is organised. For that they have some in house politics, ruled by “democraticaly” elected ministers. So you have the plant minister, the kitchen minister, the toilet-paper minister, the cooking-herbs minister…I know it sounds silly but it is very serious for them. I see that as a very typical German place. Somehow.

Address
Massmann Wohnheim, Maßmannstraße 77, Munich, Germany

Designer

Current city: London

Other cities: Munich

gmail.com

For the last six months, I have been a strange tourist in Munich. I came here to work in a studio and had not so much time to visit it properly. But I partly came in Germany because I was interested in its specific creative approach: it’s precision and rigorousity. In it’s system culture in a way. And indeed it’s a very intellectual society, ruled by color codes and order. It was definitely funny to see that these things are visible in many daily aspects of life. Or maybe it’s just me wanting to see them… Very soon, I will move to London - where I would like to do some freelance work, in product, furniture and space design.

More Places in Munich 12

Munich / Bar

It is a big room furnished with dark and massive-wood chairs, a good number of billiard tables, and walls full of random objects and portraits. Everything is nice about it. And especially the deep atmosphere created by this mix wood and the green light reflected by the billiard carpet. If you go there early in the morning you get a large coffee served on a Formica plate with a biscuit. Before 11a.m., it seems to be just a quiet Tearoom where only grannies meat for a Bretzel. But the first players arrive, and by the end of the afternoon it full. It’s quite a joy full place and you can always get a chance to play a round.

Munich / Attraction

The White Rose was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The ‘monument’ isn’t really a monument. The leaflets show up as tiles embedded in the pavement in front of the university, and commemorate the movement brilliantly. Poignant and moving.

Munich / Bridge

I'm partial to this spot because I lived right across it for over a year and owe several beautiful evenings to it. Grab a beer or a gluhwein (depending on what time of the year you've landed here) from either of the two kiosks, each at the ends of this bridge, walk from the side closer to humboldtstrasse down to the river and read a book, cycle along the river, have a picnic on a lush green spot with friends or just bask in the sun. Or do none of these and soak in the view from the bridge.

Munich / Attraction

There are two lion statues standing at the entrance of the Public Treasury building. The first time I passed this site, I was quite surprised to see more that one persons passing by them, rubbing there nose as if they would be little doggies. Even bikers hold on to give them a little stroke. For some reasons rubbing their noses is meant to give you good luck. Looking at how the material got polished, I can imagine how people are sensitive to myths or just superstitious. So am I... now each time I pass there, I do the same.

Munich / Park

Bang in the center of the city, the quite bucolic English garden is also an internationally renown spot for surfers. The maybe four meter large river that crosses it creates just under a bridge, one single and endless wave. What means that all year long, even when it’s snowing, you can see guys in wetsuit queuing to ride it. It’s so surreal.