42 years ago, Rosi wrote a piece of Munich history – as a prostitute with the phone number “32 16 8” in the song “Scandal in the restricted area”. Spider Murphy Gang. Now Rosi is supposed to make headlines again in Munich. To be more precise, it is the giant Rosi that the Kraxl collective wants to set up in the pedestrian tunnel under Rosenheimer Straße in Ramersdorf from spring.
One of the largest freely accessible boulder walls in the world is hidden behind the name. Climbers should be able to train there free of charge on an area of 700 square meters. “It has what it takes to become a symbol of Munich,” Maximilian Gemsjäger is convinced. He is the founder of the Kraxl collective, which has meanwhile joined the German Alpine Association (DAV).
Maximilian Gemsjäger founded the “Kraxlkollektiv”.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Shortly before Christmas, the climbing friends said they received approval for their project from the city of Munich. From April, they want to turn the 100-meter-long underpass into a boulder landscape, says Gemsjäger. Routes of all levels of difficulty along different angles of inclination are planned – on both walls and on the ceiling.
In addition, seating and lockers are to be set up in the pedestrian tunnel near the Trambahnhäusl neighborhood meeting place. Artists also want to be given space, says Gemsjäger. The bouldering walls are to be designed with graffiti, and an area is reserved for an “artwork of the week”.
This is what the underpass currently looks like, which is soon to become a climbing paradise.
(Photo: Kraxl collective)
The Giant Rosi will be the third and by far the biggest project of the Kraxl collective. The start was made in May 2021 with the “Lolliblock”, which is still on the premises of the Sugar Mountain cultural center in Obersendling. He was followed by “Fat Hans” on the Theresienwiese, who moved under the Candid Bridge last summer.
For comparison: These two bouldering walls have a climbing area of 35 and 45 square meters respectively. The Kraxl collective originally wanted to set up a third freely accessible climbing club – the Magnificent Perla – in Neuperlach under the bridge on Albert-Schweitzer-Straße. But this plan has since been abandoned in favor of the project in Ramersdorf, says Gemsjäger.
The Giant Rosi is to be built there by July of this year, the financing of which has not yet been finally clarified. You have commitments from a foundation and the DAV who want to support the project. The 28-year-old announces that the next step will be to approach the city and the local district committee. The Kraxl collective he founded currently has around 20 volunteers who help with the design, construction, screwing and maintenance of the bouldering walls.
According to Gemsjäger, their goal is “to give people who cannot afford to enter a bouldering hall the opportunity to practice this sport”.