Guided Tours
Are you visiting Munich for the first time? or did you move here to live? or maybe you were actually born in Munich? If you are looking to get to know Munich, or to rediscover some well-known sights, you are welcome to join the morning city tours during the Various Voices Festival!
Start your festival day with one of our four tours through the centre of Munich! The guided tours start at different central points, are walked on foot and last one-and-a-half to two hours. To be in time for rehearsals and singing in the Gasteig, the tours will be held on Thursday until Sunday from 9:30 AM to 12:00 AM. All tours are available both in German and in English.
Tour 1: The Spirit of Munich
The centre of Munich has just the right size to be conveniently explored on an easy walking tour. Starting in the very heart of Munich, you will be made familiar with the city centre, get an overview and information on Munich’s many offerings and attractions and find your way to landmarks and shopping districts. We stroll across Munich’s world famous food market and see old St Peter’s Church and you will have the opportunity to take pictures of the Cathedral Church of Our Lady. Of course you won’t miss Munich’s most famous landmark: the Carillon on the town hall tower. All in all, a relaxed prelude for your time in Munich.
(Georg Reichlmayr und München Tourismus)
Tour 2: Historical Tour on the Nazi dictatorship in Munich
After World War I, Munich was the place where Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi Party. Munich became the base for his troops’ operations and therefore was named “Capital of the Nazi Movement” by Hitler himself. This tour gives you an insight into the political ambiance in Munich during the 1920s and 1930s, when crises, frustration and incertitude led to radicalism and allowed for Hitler’s reign of terror to be established. We will follow the route of the main propaganda parades, from the old town hall, where the ‘Night of Broken Glass’ started in November 1938 . You will also be given information on daily life under Hitler’s reign, on resistance activities, and on Jewish life in Munich, then and now.
(Georg Reichlmayr and München Tourismus)
Tour 3: Munich and Music
Mozart, Wagner, Orff, Michael Jackson: the musical life of Munich.
Whether chamber music, organ recitals or rock festivals, Munich offers a wide spectrum for music lovers. Since the late medieval cathedral was built, renowned musicians and organists have made their mark. Orlando di Lasso's compositions for the Jesuits are still regularly performed, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed two operas in Munich, and Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner were the great names of the 19th century. The tour takes you to the “hunting grounds” of great musicians, and shows you the opera houses and concert venues in the old town.
(Georg Reichlmayr and München Tourismus)
Tour 4: Lesbian and gay Life in Munich, yesterday and today
They were hunted as “sodomites”, mocked as “warm brothers” (faggots), and killed in the concentration camps. But Munich gay men have never let themselves be suppressed, and today they celebrate Gay Pride (in German known as CSD, “Christopher Street Day”) in Munich with the lesbians and the entire city in the Marienplatz.
They called themselves “sapphic” (women-loving) and "like-minded souls". They fought, together with the women of the first women's movement, for suffrage and emancipation. But it was only in the New Women's Movement, in the early 1970s, that they became audible and visible as “lesbians”.
Lesbian and gay life has always existed in Munich, but the traces are not easy to find. In our city tour we will show many unknown sides of Munich, reflecting the diverse queer life that has constantly reinvented itself, between persecution and self-awareness, in this city.
(Albert Knoll /Christine Schäfer - forum homosexualität münchen e.V.)
