There are many things I like to do as a Local Guide: Helping tourists find their way through the large Olympic Area in Munich. Or giving some recommendations on which museum to visit. And I‘m always surprised how many people see the photographs I post and read the reviews I write.
But when I walk through Munich I often notice that there are signs and badges and monuments I did not really care about before I became a Local Guide. Now I usually take a second look – and often find that it‘s surprising and really worth doing so. Like the photograph above with the circle of red letters. I only noticed it about two months ago when I was in Schwabing, the part of Munich where there are many bars and where the students usually go out.
I had a second look at the letters and finally found a plague on the wall: It told me that this was a piece of art to commemorate Georg Elser. He was a carpenter who built a bomb in his workshop nearby to stop Hitler.
Elser failed and had to pay with his life. But he should be remembered. I found that hardly anybody knew this monument for Elser. Maybe because it was only lighted for a minute a day – the time the bomb was set to explode and kill Hitler.
So I decided to write a review about Georg Elser, the carpenter. And to post some photographs and a video on Google maps to make the monument – and the man – more popular.
Next time I came across a forgotten monument in my own district. It‘s a sculpture of prisoners of the not so far away Concentration Camp of Dachau who were forced on a deadly march in cold weather in the last days of World War II.
Though the monument is impressive – it is actually almost hidden between a junction and a parking lot. Sitting there with thousands of cars passing by every day. But nonetheless being almost not noticeable. This had to be changed …
There are so many of these people and places in Munich – even for just the last hundred years. Like Kurt Eisner. Actually a writer who took the heavy burden after World War I to be the first Prime Minister of our state of Bavaria. He was shot after only a few months in office by a man who later would be called a Nazi.
There are very few spots to commemorate Kurst Eisner. One is his silhouette on the sidewalk right in the spot where he was shot. Impressive, too, if you know what happened. Otherwise the metal structure for the silhouette looks a bit worn. And people – always in a hurry – just walk along. This had to be changed …
Or there is the great memorial exhibition for the “Weiße Rose” – students who gave their lives for fighting the Nazis. But this exhibition is hard to find in the guts of our university. So even my wife, who had been studying here, hadn’t found her way to it – and she is interested in such people and such history. So this had to be changed by writing a review, by posting photographs and a video. And I could also add a 360°-photograph. So now you can take a look at the exhibition even if you are not in Munich.
There are many more forgotten people and forgotten places in Munich. So I as a Local Guide do my best to shed a light onto the places that should be brought to public awareness. And to help remember the man and women who often gave everything to change the course of history.