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Residenz Museum

Exhibition "Destruction and Reconstruction"

For almost six hundred years the Munich Residenz escaped war damage. Though it had been hit by disastrous fires in the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, these were as nothing compared to the effects of bombing in the Second World War. This placed the very existence of the former residence and seat of government of Bavaria's rulers at risk

The palace was first hit by bombs on 18 March 1944. Then, in the night of 24/25 April 1944, virtually the entire Residenz was destroyed, along with a large part of Munich city centre. Of 23,000 square metres of roofing only 50 remained intact. Nearly all the upper-storey rooms were gutted, while the bombs caused the ceilings of many ground-floor rooms, including the Antiquarium, to collapse. Further destruction and damage occurred before the end of the war in May 1945.

An office had already been set up on 25 May 1944 to safeguard what remained of the building and its contents, to rescue works of art and catalogue them, and to prepare for reconstruction. The reconstruction issue was hotly debated among experts and by the public. In the end, the outstanding historical and cultural value of the complex as a Gesamtkunstwerk , its crucial importance to the city's urban fabric and the fact that most of the moveable works of art had been removed to safety during the war made reconstruction seem not only desirable, but also imperative.

Reconstruction was the responsibility of the Munich Residenz Architectural Office, a panel of architects, draughtsmen and building surveyors answerable to the Bavarian Administration of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes. They were aided in their difficult task by the expertise of the art historians employed at the Administration of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes and by the skill of the sculptors, painters, gilders, joiners, stucco-workers, locksmiths and so forth in the workshops specially set up by the Administration.

Reconstruction and restoration of the palace rooms went hand in hand with conservation of surviving works of art, which was likewise carried out largely in the workshops of the Administration of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes. The aims behind the rebuilding of the Residenz went beyond reconstruction pure and simple: the complex was to become a major cultural venue in the heart of the city, a place in which concerts were given, plays performed and other events mounted. The spaces for this had to be incorporated in the planning measures.

 

You will find the most important stages in the reconstruction of the Residenz listed at Munich Residenz / History.

Due to restoration works the exhibition "Destruction and Reconstruction" can't be visited.

 

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