Englischer Garten, Munich

The D&O Diary is on assignment in Europe this week, with a first stop in the Bavarian city of Munich. Munich is such a comfortable, walkable place, with rich history, interesting local traditions, and a vibrant arts culture. Munich is one of my favorite places to visit and I was glad to be back again to enjoy the city.

The primary purpose of my visit to Munich was to participate as a speaker at Munich Re’s annual Casualty Claims Days event. The meeting was held offsite in Munich Re’s recently refurbished classroom and event building. The conference was well-organized and well-attended and I enjoyed being a part of it. My thanks to Li Hanxing and Rainer Hanselmann of Munich Re for inviting me to attend, to Jenny Sofia Hoegen of Munich Re for all of her assistance in coordinating my attendance and participation, and to everyone at Munich Re for being such good hosts while I was in Munich.

I delivered a presentation on the Hot Topics in D&O. The audience was engaged and lively and the session was very intereactive. I always feel that if I am having a good time the presentation must be going well, and I had a good time making this presentation.
For an afternoon activity on the first day of the event, we took a tour of Munich’s Lenbackhaus Museum, a city museum with a collection of 20th century art, most of it created by artists while living in Munich. For anyone visiting Munich anytime soon, I highly recommend this museum. The collection is rich, diverse, and interesting, and it is beautifully displaying in bright, open space.
The most interesting part of the museum’s collection is the art from the Der Blaue Reiter group, a collection of artists working in Munich just prior to World War I. Their art is interesting, as is the story of the artists’ collaboration and association. This picture shows a painting by Franz Marc, one of the members of the group. The group derived its name from the title of this painting (Der Blaue Reiter).
In the evening on the event’s first day, we went for dinner to the Löwenbräukeller, an authentic Bavarian beer hall.
The beer hall’s architecture features vaulted ceilings, traditional wood paneling, and decorative Bavarian motifs that reflect a rich heritage and sense of old-Munich charm.

I was also fortunate while I was in Munich to have dinner with my friends Rainer Schadel and Matthias Kandlbinder, both of Munich Re. They took me for dinner to the famous Spatenhaus an der Oper restaurant, opposite Munich’s grand Opera House (which can be seen in the background in this picture). At dinner, we enjoyed regional Bavarian cuisine, including dishes served with the local seasonal specialty, Weißer Spargel (white asparagus).
Although I had a full schedule while in Munich, I did have a little bit of time to look around while I was in town. Among other things, I had the chance to visit the Munich Residenz, the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria. The palace, which is enormous and which takes several hours to tour, was heavily damaged in World War II and mostly has been restored. This picture shows just one of the palace’s many wings.
This is the Antiquarium (the Hall of Antiquities), inside the Residenz. The Hall was built in the late 16th century by the Duke Albert V. It is one of the few spaces within the palace that was not particularly heavily damaged during WWII. It is only one of several vast halls within the massive palace.
The Dianatempel within the Hofgarten, the garden of the Munich Residenz. The temple was built in the early 17th century at the time of Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria.
Although I really enjoy touring the historical sites, my favorite thing to do in Munich is to walk through the Englischer Garten (English Garden), the massive public park to the east of the city’s historic district that was built in the late 18th century. This picture shows the Kleinhesseloher See, a large water feature toward the park’s Northern end.
This is the Eisbach, a long canal and side arm to the Isar RIver that flows — as a swiftly flowing stream — through the English Garden.

I really do enjoy Munich and I would gladly have stayed there longer, but I was soon off to other destinations. As I noted at the outset, Munich really is one of my favorite places to visit.