The landmark in front of the town hall is being renovated – time to remember how and why it got its place. Because the origin is not quite so idyllic.
So so, the Marian column on Marienplatz is being restored, bronze figures are being cleaned, joints are being repaired, inscriptions are being rewritten. That’s beautiful and worthy of a landmark in the city, but at the same time it’s time to dispel a legend – a legend that the Catholic News Agency, among others, re-spread in its text on the renovation.
“The Peace Monument in front of the Munich City Hall was erected by Elector Maximilian I in 1638 as a thank you for the fact that Munich and Landshut were not destroyed in the Thirty Years’ War,” writes the agency. On the one hand, that is correct; the Latin inscription on the column says that Maximilian had it built “to preserve his homeland, the cities, the army, himself, his house and his hopes”. On the other hand, that is only half the truth.
The market or Schrannenplatz at that time was the center of bourgeois sovereignty in the city, with the (old) town hall as a symbol of self-government and the market freedom granted by the royal letter of favor of 1315 – the square was a “liberation” and thus outside the power of the respective reigning princes. The fact that Maximilian I disregarded these civil rights was a demonstration of power towards the people of Munich and their council: “Why am I, the duke, building on your square? Because I can.”
It was a clever move for Maximilian to have a statue of Mary moved from the Frauenkirche for the statue – if he had wanted to erect an equestrian statue of himself, the resistance would certainly have been greater. But the citizens could hardly defend themselves against a “Patrona Bavariae” if they didn’t want to be suspected of being godless fellows.
It’s hard to imagine a similar affront today – perhaps if Markus Söder decided to have a bust of Franz Josef Strauss (or Markus Söder right away?) set up in front of the SPD office in Oberanger. The column at Marienplatz, however, remains a symbol of idyllic Bavaria for most Munich residents and probably all tourists – although in reality it is a reminder that the waiter always trumps the servant here.