Tom's Tours

10/08/2025

In May 1913, the last great royal event in European history took place as Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, the only daughter and favourite child of Kaiser Wilhlem II married Prince Ernest Augustus. Practically every crowned head of Europe was invited, and for those few days, Berlin was filled with the cream of European society. Emperors all the way down to mere Lords paraded themselves in their finest clothes and uniforms. On the outside, the wedding was meant to showcase the strength of the monarchical idea and the happy relationship between the various states. 1,200 guests alone were invited to the grand ball.

The truth was rather different. No amount of ostrich feathers or gold braid could hide the fact that Europe was evolving, often without their heads of state. Absolute monarchy was becoming a thing of the past. George V of England, Emperors of India, was a constitutional monarch with severely limited power. The social Democrats of Germany were the most powerful political party of Germany, and even the Tsar of Russia had to cope with a Duma.

Nor was the atmosphere friendly. This was only the second time in their lives. The three Emperor cousins were in the same place together, but it didn't make for a friendly gathering. Wilhelm II greatly believed in his talent for personal diplomacy, but everyone else found him exhausting at best and insufferable on an average day. Convinced his cousins George and his cousin were plotting, he did his best to keep them apart.

George and Nicholas enjoyed a warm relationship where politics was rarely discussed, but personal bonds meant little when their respective Empires were at warily eyeing each other other flashpoints like the balklans and the Indian frontier.

Despite the tensions, the wedding was seen as a great success, but by the next year, the three cousins were at war with each other. By 1918, Nicholas was murdered by the Bolsheviks and buried in an unmarked grave. Wilhelm fled into exile to the Netherlands. Only George survived with his crown intact, but he now found himself in a colder, more radical world than he had enjoyed in 1913.

03/07/2025

The Brunnenbuberl

This is perhaps Munich's most playful fountain. located just next to the Karlstor on Neuhauser Straße is easily passed by hundreds of tourists a day, but as its a little tucked away most, to their loss, miss it.

The fountain dates back to 1892, Munich's heyday as an artistic centre, and was created by local boy and successful sculptor Mathias Gastriger in the then fashionable Art Nouveau style. The fountain shows a naked child who has grabbed the fountain's water pipe. In return, the fountain's satyr spits water down on him in retaliation.

When Gastriger unveiled his fountain at the Munich International Exhibition of 1892, art critics loved its cheekyness and originality, and it went on to win many prestigious awards. Gastriger then donated the fountain to the city, thus causing an unintentional headache for the city authorities. The artistic community may have hailed it, but others hated it. The nakedness of the young boy was seen by many as obscene. Even the Prince Regent suggested adding a fig leaf to the statue. Other, more direct guardians of moral decency, favoured an approach involving a metal saw.

Eventually the fountain was placed in a park near today's Karlsplatz, after World War 2 the park was destroyed to make way for a main road so the Brunnenburbel was removed and moved to a new home on Neuhauserstrasse. Judging by the different images, they also changed the direction the Satyr spits his water as the older photographs show him hitting the boy on the face. Today, he just misses him. This was probably done to limit the splash radius now that the Brunnenburbel is in a smaller pond.

01/07/2025

The Birth of the Beer Gardens

Summer is here, and that means the beer gardens of Munich are open, much to the delight of tourists and locals alike.

This 200 (ish) year old tradition dates back to the beer breweries in Munich, digging large beer cellars by the river Isar. Beer likes cold environments for fermenting/lagering, and the rivers water effectively acted like a natural fridge to keep the beer cellars nice and cool. To aid this the brewers planted horse chesnut trees over the cellar because the thick foliage of the tree kept the ground shaded from the sun and the reletivly shallow roots of the tree didn't damage the cellars below.

Before long, the citizens of Munich began to swap their rather stuffy beerhalls in Munich and go to the new beer cellars to stand under the refreshing shade of the tree and drink a freshly tapped beer to cool down. For the beer brewers, it was win-win, but the various bars and beerhalls in Munich quickly began to petition the government to do something about these upstart beergardens who were costing them money.

News of the beerhalls unhappiniess reached the royal ears of King Maximilian I Joseph in 1812 who then decreed that beer gardens could not sell food (except bread) and if people wished could bring their own food. This compromise allowed both beerhalls and beergardens to co-exist.

Today, this law about bringing your own foos still stands, and it's a common sight in the major beer gardens to see locals with full picnic hampers making their way to the beer gardens to enjoy a lazy summers lunch. Even without food, it is one of lifes great pleasures to sit in one of the many beer gardens in Munich, enjoying a lazy, sunny afternoon over a beer or two.

If you want to learn more and experience a traditional beer garden, please sign up to our history of beer tour.

11/06/2025

Lola Montez as the Inspirtation behind Irene Adler.

Famously, Irene Adler was to Sherlock Holmes 'The Woman'. The only woman who ever beat him and her photograph would take pride of place on his mantlepiece for the rest of his time at Baker Street.

Today, amongst Sherlock Holmes fans, there are a number of contenders for the inspiration behind the cleaver adventuress, and one of the main ones is Lola Montez.

In the story 'A Scandal in Bohemia', where Irene Adler is introduced, a central European King engaged Sherlock Holmes to steal a compromising photograph of him and Irene together. Holmes agrees but ultimately fails. It is Irene herself, who surrenders the photograph before fleeing the country with her new husband.

Like Irene, who is American and thus a foreigner in England, Lola was a foreigner in Bavaria and also like Irene Lola also graced the stage in Warsaw. Although Irene was an opera singer while Lola was a dancer. Both also had doomed affairs with monarches and either potentially (in Irene's case) or did cause (in Lola's) international incidents. Another link between them is a scandalous photograph. Irene's is of her and the King of Bohemia, but Lola was the first woman to be photographed smoking, plus the first white woman to have her image taken with a native American man.

Both women, by being independently minded and refusing to do what was expected of them defied modern conventions for women at the time much to the delight and horror of the middle classes who would read about their respective adventures.

If you want to learn more about Lola and her adventures then please come along on our tours.

15/04/2025

Bavarians on the Titanic

Today is the 113th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Striking an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic, she would sink, resulting in approx 1'500 deaths. Among those who died that night were two very different men, but both had their roots in Bavaria and died bravely.

Isidor Straus was born in 1895 in Otterberg (now Rhineland Palatinate), and his family had emergrated to America when he was a child. By the time of his journey on the Titanic, he has become the co-owner of the famous Macy's department store and served for a short time as a congressman. Travelling back to America from a holiday in Europe, Isidor was one of the wealthiest men on the ship.

When the Titanic was sinking, he refused to take a place in a lifeboat while there were still women and children on board. Famously, his wife Ida refused to leave the Titanic without him saying, 'I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so we will die together.' Due to their bravery and love, the story of the Straus' is commonly depicted on any portrayal of the sinking of the Titanic on film or TV. Most famously, the James Cameron 1997 version

Less well know and further down the social ladder was Fr. Joseph Peruschitz. Born in 1871 near Wolfratshausen, he followed a spiritual calling and became a monk in his early twenties. An academic at heart, his skills as a teacher had been reconised, and he was on his way to America to take up a teaching role, tipped even to be future headmaster.

Fr. Peruschitz also refused to leave the sinking boat and spent his last moments attending the spiritual needs of those left on board. He led rosary prayers, gave general absolution, and offered as much comfort as possible to the other passengers.

In memory of their bravery, Isador and Ida have memorials in Macy's and in Straus Park, New York, while Fr. Peruschitz has a plaque in the at Scheyern Monastery.

(If anyone knows any other Bavarians on the Titanic, let me know in the comments!)

11/04/2025

The Mouse in the Kloster Andechs

Do you see him? Half hidden in a crack under the altar, there is a tiny little mouse. Put there as a memorial to one of the kloster's quirkiest stories.

According to legend, Count Rosso of Andechs brought brought back a collection of relics from the Holy Land, which became part of the families' treasures. Later, in 1128, Count Berthold II ordered all his subjects to regularly attend a pilgrimage to his castle to venerate the relics. Thus, Berthold established the oldest pilgrimage in Bavaria.

After the fall of the House of Andechs and their castle in the 13th century, the relics were lost until 1388 when a service was taking place in the former castle chapel, and someone noticed a mouse scurrying along carrying a relic slip.

Excavations began, and soon, a wooden box containing the lost relics was discovered. The excitement caused by the rediscovery of the relics caused a boom in pilgrimages that continues to this day.

In memory of the mouse who was responsible for finding the relics, which include a piece of the Crown of Thorns, a little sculptured mouse was placed at the foot of the altar.

If you want to see the mouse and follow in the footsteps of the many pilgrims who have journeyed to Andechs over the centuries, please join us on one of our tours.

12/03/2025

The Crown of Princess Blanche

The crown of Princess Blance, daughter of King Henry IV, is the oldest English crown in existence and a masterpiece of gothic art.

It was mentioned in the archives in 1399 and was probably built around 1370-1380. Lavishly decorated in pearls, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds it was worn by Blanche on her marriage to Louis III Elector Palatine of the Rhine in 1402. An apprantly happy marriage it would be cut short by Blanche's early death six years later.

After her death the crown remained in the family, some of the jewels seemed to have been taken out and it was even pawned at one point to a monastary before it came to Munich in 1782 and had remained in the Residenz treasury ever since.

If you want to see it please come on my Residenz tour which includes the treasury as well as the palace.

24/02/2025

The birthday of the N**i party

On the 24th of February 1920, Adolf Hi**er, the young firebrand speaker of the far right German Workers Party, stood up to speak to the crowd of 2,000 who had gathered in the cavernous Festsaal of the Hofbräuhaus. Sadly, for Hi**er, most of the crowd weren't there for him, Hi**er was very much second billing that night. The star attraction was a right physician named Johann Dingfelder, and a large portion of the crowd were leftwing parties.

What Hi**er said exactly we don't know, but the themes rarely varied: the loss of the war, Versailles, the Jews, the Weimar Republic. All were common targets of his bile. What we also know is that a few times during the speech, Hi**er had to stop talking and duck for cover from flying beer steins that were being tossed at him by the crowd. A fight broke out with the leftists being kicked out so Hi**er could continue speaking.

The highlight of the speech was his announcement of the 'Twenty Five Points.' Effectivly the manifesto of the party and the party name would now he changed from the German Workers Party to the National Socialist German Workers Party.

It was an inauspicious start, and hardly anyone noticed at the time. There were much larger nationalistic political parties in Munich that made Hi**er and his cronies look rather amateurish. Nevertheless, Hi**er would soon emerge as the rising star of the far right in Munich and eventually swallow these other parties up in his burgeoning movement.

Later, this meeting in the Festsaal was reconised as the birth of the party and assumed a hughly important status to the N**is. On this date, Hi**er would always return to the Hofbräuhaus to give a speech and speak to the 'old fighters'. The propaganda machine portrayed it as Hi**er keeping true to his roots, meeting the old boys and not forgetting those who helped him in these early days. In reality, Hi**er found talking to these older N**is an ordeal as he felt they were always asking for handouts.

If you want to learn more about the rise of Hi**er please join us on one of our Third Reich tour.

**er

29/01/2025

Wheat beer/Weissbier

Sometimes I get asked about how wheat beer survived when the Purity law of 1516 effectively banned the use of wheat.

So although the Wittelsbach Ducal family of Bavaria did ban the brewing of wheat beer in 1516, thus saving the vital wheat crop for bread making for the commoners but the local lords it was a different story. A certain noble family called Degenberger had exclusive rights to the brew wheat beer, happily for the Wittelsbachs the Degenbergers died out in 1602 and the rights passed to brew passed to the Wittelsbachs.

The current Wittelsbach Duke was Duke Maximilian I, a man tasked with rescuing the state finances from the financial disaster that his predecessor had bequeathed him. The rights to brew Wheat beer must have seemed like a heaven-sent gift. Quickly buying out the the Degenberger's old breweries, opening new wheat breweries across Bavaira and, most importantly establishing a a new brewery in 1607 in a small square in Munich called Platzl Duke Maximilian rapidly created a monopoly for himself. To guarantee customers the Duke passed laws insisting that all Munich landlords and brewhouses must serve his wheat beer.

Soon a huge amount of cash was flowing into the duke's coffers, so much so that wheat beer sales accounted for 30% of the state budget.

For the next two hundred years wheat beer was a vital source of revenue for the Wittelsbachs but by the late 1800s tastes were changing and wheat beer was no longer profitable and in 1872 the rights were sold to Georg Schneider, brewmaster of the Hofbräuhaus. Georg Schneider and his son bought a defunct brewery in central Munich and revitalised wheat beer. Today the Schneider family are still making wheat beer, as to the original Ducal wheat beer brewery its still there, now better known as the Hofbräuhaus. (The image is the HB in the late 1800s).

Today Wheat beer is an exceptionally popular drink in Bavaria and while Hofbräuhaus has the longest pedigree for brewing wheat beer and makes a very tasty one, the Schneider Wheat Beer Hall on Tal 7 is my favourite.

If you want to learn more please join on the History of Beer Tour

27/01/2025

24/01/2025

Das Studium der deutschen Künstler neuerer Zeit in Rom/ Study of German artists of modern times in Rome.

Anyone who goes to Italy these days will inevitably see people with cameras trying to capture the perfect image. City centres like Rome and Florence are filled with selfie taking visitors, and outside of the major cities, tourists will spend hours travelling to remote locations to discover a 'real italy so more pictures can be taken.

Such a phenonium is hardly new, Italy has always held a magnetic pull for travellers. Especially amongst the Germans. Perhaps the most famous tourist was Goethe, who, at the age of 37, seemed to have something of a mid-life crisis and smuggled himself to Italy without telling anyone of his plans. His 2 year holiday, which he later turned into a book detailing his adventures, inspired a whole new generation of Germans to follow in his footsteps.

Naturally, artists soon began to travel south, and in the romantic mindset of the mid-19th century, they were seeking the romantic 'unspoiled' Italy. (Not too dissimilar to today's tourists). Soon, it became a fairly common sight for italian families (preferably in a picturesque local dress), Roman ruins etc to be sketched and painted by these young German painters.

In this painting from 1848, the artist Wilhelm von Kaulbach gently mocks these pretentious yet ernest young men who are drawing locals in the middle of Rome. Clearly, the Italiens are just posing for the seemingly oblivious painters. It questions how much of the romantic image of Italy is genuine or simply laid on for tourists.

The painting is currently in the Sammlung Schack in Munich.

17/01/2025

Historical Conservators cleaning a chandelier in Nymphenburg.

Nymphenburg, like many other historical sites, has a large collection of furniture, paintings, fabrics, porcelain, etc. Such items are an integral part of the palace's history and must be protected at all costs.

A historic conservator's job is to do just that. Everyday floors must be hoovered, and all flat surfaces dusted at a bare minimum before the doors open to the public. Long-term measures include measuring and recording humidity, sunlight levels, and temperature, amongst other things. A constant level of vigilance is also required to spot early signs of mould appearing and insects munching their way through the collection. To do this, conservators utilise the latest scientific knowledge combined with specialised tools such as UV testers, humidity readers, fine brushes etc.

It can be a fine balance between making these sites as assemble as possible so everyone can enjoy them to limiting the damage the public do by breathing, touching, prodding and poking the collections or forgetting to turn of the flash on their cameras.

If you want to learn more about how these places are preserved, come on one of my Palace tours (Nymphenburg and the Residenz).