Museums
In 1903 Oskar von Miller assembled a group of engineers and industrialists, who chartered the Deutsches Museum. The Museum was built with the financial support of the German business and imperial nobility community, as well as the blessing of Wilhelm II, German Emperor. The Deutsches Museum had its grand opening in 1925; it is the world's largest museum of science and technology. The Deutsches Museum now operates three locations, with exhibition space at Flugwerft Schleissheim and a transportation museum near Theresienwiese. The original site in central Munich continues to expand its exhibits. Further transportation and technical museums include the MVG Museum and the BMW Museum.
There are several natural history museums in Munich. These include the Museum of Man and Nature, the Palaeontological Museum, the Museum Reich der Kristalle, the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection, the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, the Geologisches Museum München, the Botanische Staatsammlung München, and the German Hunting and Fishing Museum.
City guides published in the early 1860s directed tourists to Munich's architecture and art collections, which at the time were unique in Germany and are a legacy mainly of Ludwig I of Bavaria, with contributions from Maximilian II of Bavaria. After the first German art exhibition in the Glaspalast for an international audience in 1869, Munich emerged as a focal point for the arts. Men of distinction from around the world visited the Academy of Fine Arts under the directorship of Karl von Piloty and later Wilhelm von Kaulbach.
The city has several important art museums and galleries, many of which can be found in the Kunstareal. This neighborhood includes several of the galleries of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, most notably the three "Pinakotheken" (Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek, and Pinakothek der Moderne). The Alte Pinakothek contains works of European masters between the 14th and 18th centuries. Major displays include Albrecht Dürer's Self-Portrait (1500), his Four Apostles, Raphael's paintings The Canigiani Holy Family and Madonna Tempi as well as Peter Paul Rubens large Judgment Day. The Neue Pinakothek, like other German museums, was wholly reconstructed from 1974 until 1981. The Pinakothek der Moderne exhibits modern art, architecture, design, and works on paper. The principal focus of its permanent collection is Classical Modernism, but the displays are enhanced continuously with gifts from private collections. Also included in the Bavarian State Painting Collections are the Museum Brandhorst, a modern and contemporary art museum in the Kunstareal, and the Schackgalerie, an important gallery of German 19th-century paintings.
Several further museums are located in the Kunstareal neighborhood. The Lenbachhaus displays works of the movement Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a Munich-based modernist art. Another museum is the Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst (the State Collection of Egyptian Art). An extensive collection of Greek and Roman art is held in the Glyptothek and the Staatliche Antikensammlungen (the State Antiquities Collections). Works on display include the Medusa Rondanini, the Barberini Faun and figures from the Temple of Aphaea on Aegina for the Glyptothek. The Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, and the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke are also housed in the building of the former Munich Central Collecting Point at Königsplatz.
Elsewhere in the city are many other notable public art collections, such as the Haus der Kunst, the Bavarian National Museum, and the Villa Stuck. There are also several private collections and art exhibition spaces, such as the Goetz Collection, the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art, the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, and Lothringer13.
The Munich City Museum is located the old gothic arsenal building in the inner city and contains a variety of cultural collections and museums, such as the Munich Film Archive. The main museum building is closed for renovations and is scheduled to reopen in summer 2031. Across the Sankt-Jakobs-Platz from the city museum is the Jewish Museum Munich, located next to the Ohel Jakob Synagogue.
The Museum Five Continents is the second largest collection in Germany of artefacts and objects from outside Europe, while the Bavarian National Museum and the adjoining Bavarian State Archaeological Collection display regional art and cultural history. Throughout the city are several smaller museums focused on various historical and cultural aspects, such as the Sudeten German Museum, the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, the Deutsches Brauereimuseum, the Deutsches Theatermuseum, the Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum, and the Alpine Museum.
Several former residences of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria located in the city can be visited. The Residenz, the former royal palace, houses a museum, treasury, the Cuvilliés Theatre, and the Bavarian state coin collection. The royal family's former summer residence, the Nymphenburg Palace, also includes space for the Marstallmuseum and the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory. Just outside the city limits is an additional summer place complex, Schleissheim Palace.
Several museums and memorials attest to the city's complicated history under National Socialism. In May 2015, the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism opened to the public, and the memorial museum of the former Dachau concentration camp is just outside the city. The Erinnerungsort Olympia-Attentat further commemorates the victims of the Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics.
