Münchner Stadtmuseum: information about exhibitions and guided tours

Why the Münchner Stadtmuseum is worth a visit:

The Münchner Stadtmuseum located in the city center presents everything about Munich’s past. It equally fascinates locals and tourists.

What to see? Music, Moriscan dancers and Münchner Kindl: in several permanent exhibitions and special exhibitions, you can discover old and new objects from various collection areas, such as applied art, urban culture, photography, graphics/paintings, advertising art and fashion.

What’s special? The Münchner Stadtmuseum is the largest municipal museum in Germany. In its historical building sections from different eras, it unites the most diverse collections under one roof. You can experience art and design as well as interesting cultural-historical and everyday items with many exciting current references.

Typically Munich! The city’s identity

Whether you are a tourist or Munich resident, everyone has a specific image of the Bavarian capital. In five chronological sections the exhibition presents Munich’s defining features, and explores how long they have been viewed as typical, and above all why they are inextricably associated with the city.

The permanent exhibition "Typically Munich!"

Over 400 exhibits provide an exciting insight into Munich's history. In the Moriskensaal, you can learn all about the founding, the city coat of arms, the Frauenkirche as a landmark, the Ratskeller and the tradition of the “Schäffler dance”. The famous Moriscan dancers by Erasmus Grasser, but also the copy of Sandtner's true-to-scale 16th century city model are special highlights.

In the further course, different historical epochs are illuminated: Munich as the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria, the late self-discovery as a bourgeois city in connection with the city's anniversary in 1858 and the cultural spirit of optimism around 1900. Afterwards, the focus is on more recent history with the National Socialist past and the subsequent reconstruction phase during the so called “Wirtschaftswunder” period.

The exhibition also dedicates a separate room to modern Munich from the 1970s to the present day. With all it’s typical features such as BMW and beer garden or the "laptop and lederhosen” spirit – referring to the combination of economic modernisation and the keeping alive of tradition.

The permanent exhibition "National Socialism in Munich"

Munich was the founding place of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and its headquater until 1945. The exhibition presents the city as the launchpad for the National Socialist movement. Further themes include the city's art and festivals, and the way they were harnessed to make the Nazi regime more palatable to the public, and the city's role as a media location and a venue for arms manufacturing. Munich as a center of persecution and resistance is another focus.

The Music Collection (closed in preparation for the general renovation)

For almost fifty years this collection has been located on the fourth floor of the Münchner Stadtmuseum with nearly 6,000 instruments and sound sources. It evolved from the private collection of Georg Neuner (1904-1962), whose notion of a "sound museum" still sums up the exhibit today. More than half of the current collection hails from outside Europe.

The permanent exhibition “Puppet Theater / Fairground Attractions” (closed in preparation for the general renovation)

Fancy a journey through puppet theatre history? Here you can get an insight into the different puppet techniques and the stories about the puppet makers and puppeteers. In addition, items from fairgrounds and funfairs are on display, including many originals from the The Munich Oktoberfest. For example, you can see shooting gallery inventory, carousel horses and even an original guillotine from the traditional Oktoberfest attraction "Beheading of a Live Person".

Münchner Filmmuseum and cinema

The Filmmuseum has been part of the Münchner Stadtmuseum since 1963. A wide range of films, from early black-and-white classics to modern independent films and documentaries are archived here, restored and made accessible to the public in various film series. All of the films are screened in their original format and language (with subtitles available in English or German).

Guided tours, events and children’s programme

In addition to the different exhibitions and collections the museum offers a regular program of activities.

• Guided tours: With short, themed and discussion-format guided tours, free audio-guide
• Combined exhibition and city tours are available
• Holiday programmes for kids in collaboration with the MPZ (Center for Museum Education) and Münchner Volkshochschule (adult education center)
• Film screenings at the Filmmuseum
• Workshops, open workshops and special activity days
• OpenWednesdayEvening!: Every 2nd Wednesday of the month selected exhibitions are open until 8 p.m.

Stadtcafé and museum shop

For almost 40 years, the Stadtcafé has been a special place in Munich. It opened in 1983 as a classic museum café at the Münchner Stadtmuseum. Here you can enjoy your beverages on the large terrace facing the Sankt-Jakobs-Platz or in the beautiful museum’s inner courtyard.

The servus.heimat museum shop is on the ground floor, on the same level as the lobby, and offers a selection of curated gifts and souvenirs. As well as catalogs for current exhibitions on display. A range of books and media for all ages, unusual gifts and designer items, and Münchner Stadtmuseum art postcards and posters can also be found here.

Tickets

• Dayticket all galleries: 7 Euro, reduced 3,50 Euro (students, retired visitors, disabled persons)
• Day ticket permanent exhibitions: 4 Euro, reduced 2 Euro (students, retired visitors, disabled persons)
• Children and young persons under the age of 18: Free admission

The Münchner Stadtmuseum online services

The Münchner Stadtmuseum also offers a wide range of services online:

• Virtual tour: Explore the permanent exhibition "Typically Munich!" including "Migration Moves the City – Changing Perspectives" on a 360-degree tour – with more in-depth resources on selected exhibition pieces, as well as audio information and extreme close-ups (additional information is available in German only).
• Online collection: Here you can find comprehensive artworks from almost all the main areas of the museum's collection in digital form.
• Videos: A small selection of the museum’s films are also available in English.

Renovation of the Münchner Stadtmuseums as of 2024

You can still visit the exhibitions in the Münchner Stadtmuseum until the 7th of January 2024. Afterwards, the museum will be closed for several years due to renovation work. Preparations for the general renovation of the historic building complex have been going on behind the scenes since January 2023.

Historical architecture

The huge area of the Münchner Stadtmuseum consists of two spacious inner courtyards framed by four highly different buildings. The oldest building, the historic armoury dating from 1500, faces Sankt-Jakobs-Platz. But the ensemble also touches the Rindermarkt square with the collection wing built by architect Gustav Gsaenger in the late 1950s and Sebastiansplatz with the replica of the medieval Marstall building from 1977.

The History of the Münchner Stadtmuseum

The Münchner Stadtmuseum was founded in 1888 on the initiative of the city archivist Ernst von Destouches. It was initially designed as a museum of local history. In addition to the originally mainly graphic collections, other objects were added over the years: furniture, fashion and everyday objects. Thus, the museum grew more and more and is today the largest municipal museum in the whole of Germany.