Munich History Timeline - Important Dates & People

Events in Munich History

Events 1 - 100 of 159

1285-10-12 180 Jews burn to death as synagogue in which they are hiding set ablaze by mob of Christians in retribution for alleged crime of "blood libel", ritualistic bloodletting from a kidnapped child, in Munich, Duchy of Upper Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire

German Beer Purity Law

1487-11-30 The first German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), is promulgated in Munich by Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria stating beer should be brewed from only three ingredients – water, malt and hops

"Idomeneo"

1781-01-29 Wolfgang Mozart's dramatic opera "Idomeneo" premieres at the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich, Germany

1852-03-25 Friedrich Hebbel's tragedy "Agnes Bernauer" premieres in Munich

1868-06-21 Wagner's opera "Meistersinger von Nuernberg" premieres in Munich
1869-09-22 Richard Wagner's opera "Das Rheingold" (the 1st piece of his "Ring" cycle) premieres in Munich, Germany
1870-06-26 Richard Wagner's opera "Valkyrie", second in his Ring Cycle premieres in Munich, featuring "Ride of the Valkyries"

Virchow's Anti-Darwinian Speech

1877-09-22 Rudolf Virchow delivers an anti-Darwinian speech to the Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians in Munich, where he speaks against the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools

Hidalla oder Sein und Haben

1905-02-18 Frank Wedekind's play "Hidalla oder Sein und Haben" (Hidalla, or Being and Having) premieres in Munich

Symphony of A Thousand

1910-09-12 Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony ("Symphony of A Thousand") premieres in Munich with 1028 musicians

Event of Interest

1920-02-24 Adolf Hitler make his first official speech as head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany

Annexation of Sudetenland

1938-10-01 Germany annexes Sudetenland (1/3 of Czechoslovakia) following the Munich Agreement

1939-11-08 Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler at Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich, Germany; timebomb planted by workman Georg Elser explodes 13 minutes after Hitler's departure kills 8
1940-11-08 RAF bombs Munich, Adolf Hitler promises "an attack on the capital of the Nazi movement would not go unpunished"
1942-08-05 British government cancels agreement of Munich
1942-09-29 French Government in exile of De Gaulle cancels agreement of Munich
1942-11-08 Adolf Hitler proclaims fall of Stalingrad from Munich beer hall
1943-02-16 Sign on Munich facade: "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student anti-Nazi resistance group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
1943-02-18 Members of student non-violent resistance group "White Rose" arrested by Nazis after distributing pamphlets in Munich, Germany
1944-07-19 500 15th US Air Force Liberators/Flying Fortresses bomb Munich vicinity

Event of Interest

1952-03-26 Friedrich Durrenmatt's "Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi" premieres in Munich

1958-02-01 Tommy Taylor scores 2 goals and Duncan Edwards 1, in Manchester United's 5-4 win vs Arsenal at Highbury; pair amongst 7 players killed 5 days later when team’s charter plane crashes at Munich airport
1958-02-06 21 dead in air crash at Munich-Riem Airport; 8 players and 3 staff are from the Manchester United football team

1966-04-26 International Olympic Committee votes to award German city of Munich the right to host the 1972 Summer Olympic Games
1969-07-07 German newspaper Der Spiegel reveals Bishop Defregger of Munich is a war criminal

Ballon d'Or

1969-12-23 Ballon d'Or: Milan midfielder Gianni Rivera wins award for best European football player ahead of Cagliari forward Luigi Riva and Bayern Munich striker Gerd Müller

1970-12-29 Ballon d'Or: Bayern Munich striker Gerd Müller wins award for best European football player ahead of West Ham United defender Bobby Moore and Cagliari forward Luigi Riva
1972-06-24 South African runner Danie Malan sets a new 1,000m world record 2:16.0 in Munich, Germany
1972-08-10 Finnish runner Lasse Virén wraps up the 5,000/10,000m double at the Munich Olympics; runs Olympic record 13:26.42 for the 5k gold medal
1972-08-26 XX Summer Olympic Games open in Munich, West Germany

World Record 100m Relay

1972-08-28 American 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of David Edgar, John Murphy, John Heidenreich & Mark Spitz swim a world record 3:26.42 to beat Soviet Union for the gold medal at the Munich Olympics

World Record 200m Medley

1972-08-28 Australian teenage swimmer Shane Gould sets a world record 2:23.07 to beat German Kornelia Ender in the 200m individual medley at the Munich Olympics; her first of 3 gold medals at the Games

1972-08-28 North Korean shooter Ri Ho-jun wins the 50m rifle prone event at the Munich Olympics; his nation's first ever Olympic gold medal

Darling of Munich

1972-08-28 Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut becomes media darling at the Munich Olympics; wins gold in the teams all-round ; follows with 2 gold and a silver

1972-08-29 Sandy Neilson wins the blue ribband women's 100m freestyle gold medal in 58.59 at the Munich Olympics beating fellow American Shirley Babashoff and Shane Gould of Australia
1972-08-30 American women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Shirley Babashoff, Jane Barkman, Jenny Kemp & Sandy Neilson beats East Germany by just 0.36 to win gold at the Munich Olympics; world record 3:55.19
1972-08-30 Amidst Olga Korbut mania at the Munich Olympics, Soviet teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva wins the gymnastics individual all-round competition, her 2nd gold medal of the Games
1972-08-30 Australian teenage swimmer Shane Gould with a world record 4:19.04 for the 400m, wins her second of 3 gold medals at the Munich Olympics
1972-08-30 Japanese breaststroker Nobutaka Taguchi beats American pair Tom Bruce & John Hencken to win the 100m gold medal in world record 1:04.94 at the Munich Olympic Games
1972-08-30 Slalom canoeing is introduced at the Munich Olympics with East Germany winning all 4 events
1972-08-31 American 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of John Kinsella, Fred Tyler, Steve Genter & Mark Spitz swim a world record 7:35.78 to beat West Germany for the gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972-08-31 American super swimmer Mark Spitz wraps up the Olympic butterfly double with a world record 54.27 in the 100m in Munich, having already won the 200m in world record time 2:00.70
1972-08-31 Australian swimmer Gail Neall with a world record 5:02.97 wins the 400m individual medley gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972-08-31 Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut wins balance beam & floor exercise gold medals at the Munich Olympics; follows gold in the teams all-round
1972-09-01 An American sweep of the medals in the women's 200m butterfly at the Munich Olympics; Karen Moe takes gold in world record 2:15.57 ahead of teammates Lynn Colella and Ellie Daniel
1972-09-01 Australian swimmer Shane Gould wins the 200m freestyle in world record 2:03.56 at the Munich Olympics; her 3rd gold medal & 3rd world record of the Games
1972-09-01 Japanese gymnast Sawao Kato wins the parallel bars gold medal at the Munich Olympics, his 3rd gold of the Games including team & individual all-round victories
1972-09-01 Polish shooter Józef Zapędzki successfully defends his Olympic 25m rapid fire pistol title at the Munich Games with an Olympic record 595 points
1972-09-01 Valeriy Borzov of the Soviet Union runs 10.14 to beat American Robert Miller and Lennox Miller of Jamaica in the coveted men's 100m final at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-01 Welshman Richard Meade representing Great Britain and riding Laurieston grabs the equestrian individual and team 3-day event gold medals at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-02 American breaststroker Cathy Carr swims a world record 1:13.58 to win the 100m gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-02 American breaststroker John Hencken beats David Wilkie of Great Britain to win the 200m gold medal in world record 2:21.55 at the Munich Olympic Games
1972-09-02 East German sprinter Renate Stecher sets world record 11.07 to beat Raelene Boyle of Australia for the women's 100m gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-02 East German swimmer Roland Matthes wraps up the Olympic backstroke double with a world record 2:02.82 in the 200m in Munich, having already won the 100m in Olympic record time
1972-09-02 For the first time since the advent of the Modern Olympics in 1896, a non-American wins the pole vault gold medal; East German Wolfgang Nordwig clears 5.5m at the Munich Games
1972-09-02 French track cyclist Daniel Morelon successfully defends his Olympic sprint title beating Australian John Nicholson for the gold medal in Munich
1972-09-02 John Akii-Bua of Uganda with a world record 47.82 wins the 400m hurdles gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-03 American swimmer Keena Rothhammer has to swim world record 8:53.68 to beat Australian wonder-kid Shane Gould in the 800m at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-03 American swimmer Mark Spitz wins coveted 100m gold medal in world record 51.22 at the Munich Olympics; completes the freestyle sprint double having already won 200m in world record 1:52.78
1972-09-03 American women's 4 x 100m medley relay team of Melissa Belote, Cathy Carr, Deena Deardurff & Sandy Neilson swim world record 4:20.75 to beat East Germany for gold at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-03 Finnish runner Lasse Virén scores a famous victory in the 10,000m at the Munich Olympics in world record 27:38.35
1972-09-03 Great Britain's Mary Peters sets a new world record of 4801 points to win the Munich Olympics pentathlon gold by just 10 points from Heide Rosendahl of West Germany
1972-09-03 Swedish swimmer Gunnar Larsson wraps up the Olympic medley double when he sets world record 2:07.17 in the 200m I/M in Munich, having already won the 400m I/M
1972-09-04 16-year-old Ulrike Meyfarth of West Germany with a world record equalling 1.92m, wins the women's high jump gold medal at the Munich Olympics; youngest winner of individual athletics event in Olympic history
1972-09-04 American swimmer Melissa Belote with a world record 2:19.19 takes the 200m backstroke gold medal at the Munich Olympics; wraps up backstroke double having won the 100m in Olympic record time
1972-09-04 American swimmer Mike Burton sets a world record 15:52.58 to win the 1,500m gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-04 Italian diver Klaus Dibiasi wins his 2nd of 3 consecutive 10m platform gold medals the Munich Olympics
1972-09-04 Kenyan legend Kipchoge Keino follows his 1,500m gold in Mexico City with an Olympic record 8:23.64 to win the 3,000m steeplechase at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-04 Soviet sprinter Valeriy Borzov runs 20.00 to win the men's 200m gold medal at the Munich Olympics; wraps up the 100/200m double at the Games
1972-09-04 US 4 x 100m medley relay team of Mike Stamm, Tom Bruce, Mark Spitz & Jerry Heidenreich sets world record 3:48.16 to win gold at the Munich Olympics; Mark Spitz becomes 1st athlete to win 7 Olympic gold medals at a single Games
1972-09-04 Willem Ruska of the Netherlands wins gold medals in both the heavyweight & open class Olympic judo competitions in Munich; first judoka to win 2 Olympic gold medals at one Games
1972-09-05 11 Israeli athletes taken hostage and later killed by Palestinian Black September group at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-06 Summer Olympics resume in Munich, Germany after massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Black September Palestinian terrorist organization
1972-09-07 American athletes Vincent Matthews & Wayne Collett finish 1-2 in 400m at the Munich Olympics; acted casually on the medal stand, did not face the flag during anthem; banned from the Olympics for life
1972-09-07 American Rod Milburn with a world record 13.24 wins the 110m hurdles gold medal at the Munich Olympics; just 0.10 seconds ahead of Frenchman Guy Drut
1972-09-07 East German sprinter Renate Stecher runs a world record equalling 22.40 in the 200m final to repeat her 100m win over Australia's Raelene Boyle at the Munich Olympics
1972-09-07 Future world professional cycling road race champion Hennie Kuiper of the Netherlands wins the road race gold medal at the Munich Olympics in 4:14:37
1972-09-07 Nadezhda Chizhova of the Soviet Union throws a world record 21.03m to win the women's shot put at the Munich Olympics

Famous People from Munich

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 119

1336-07-25 Albert I, Duke of Bavaria and third son of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, born in Munich (d. 1404)
1554-12-17 Ernest of Bavaria, Prince-elector-archbishop of the Archbishopric of Cologne, born in Munich (d. 1612)
1573-04-17 Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1651)
1574-12-08 Maria Anna of Bavaria, Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire, born in Munich, Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1616)
1584-04-13 Albert VI, Duke of Bavaria, born in Munich (d. 1666)
1621-10-08 Maximilian Henry of Bayern, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Bishop of Hildesheim and Bishop of Liège, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1688)
1662-07-11 Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria and governor of the Spanish Netherlands (1691-1714), born in Munich (d. 1726)
1664-09-09 Johann Christoph Pez, German Baroque composer, born in Munich (d. 1716)
1703-09-03 Johann Theodor of Bavaria, Prince-Bishop of Regensburg, Freising and Liège, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1763)
1706-05-17 Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian, born in Munich (d. 1780)
1727-03-28 Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bayern (1745-77), born in Munich (d. 1777)
1765-03-27 Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologist, born in Munich (d. 1841)
1778-07-29 Carl Borromaus Neuner, German composer, born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria (d. 1830)
1794-04-09 Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute, born in Munich, Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1881)
1801-11-13 Amalie Auguste of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony, born in Munich (d. 1877)
1801-11-13 Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, Queen consort of Prussia (1840-61), born in Munich (d. 1873)

1808-08-30 Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, Mother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, born in Munich (d. 1892)
1811-11-28 Maximilian II of Bavaria, King of Bavaria (1848-64), born in Munich (d. 1864)
1812-07-15 Benno Adam, German animal painter, born in Munich (d. 1892)
1815-03-14 Josephine Lang, German composer, born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria (d. 1880)
1837-12-24 Empress Elisabeth of Austria, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1898)
1839-03-17 Josef Rheinberger, German organist, composer, and educator (Munich Conservatory, 1877-1901), born in Vaduz, Liechtenstein (d. 1901)
1839-07-09 Carl Baermann, German composer, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1913)
1845-01-15 Heinrich Vogl, German operatic heldentenor, born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria (d. 1900)
1845-08-25 Ludwig II, Mad king of Bavaria (1864-86), born in Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Germany (d. 1886)
1848-04-27 Otto I of Bavaria, King of Bavaria (1886-1913), born in The Residence, Munich (d. 1916)

1860-05-31 Walter Sickert, Danish-English painter (The Miner), born in Munich (d. 1942)

1869-03-05 Michael von Faulhaber, German cardinal (Archbishop of Munich who opposed Nazi regime), born in Heidenfeld, Bavaria (d. 1952)
1869-08-27 Karl Haushofer, German soldier and geographer, born in Munich, Bavaria (d. 1946)
1871-05-06 Christian Morgenstern, German poet (Ich und die Welt), born in Munich (d. 1914)
1873-12-18 Adolf Vogl, German composer, born in Munich (d. 1961)
1874-08-22 Max Scheler, German philosopher (Vom Umsturz der Werte), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1928)
1875-02-02 Annette Kolb, German author (Small Fanfare) and pacifist, born in Munich (d. 1967)
1875-12-02 Frank Reicher, German-American actor (King Kong, Son of Kong), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1965)
1877-09-13 Wilhelm Filchner, German explorer who led the German Antarctic expedition of 1911–12, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1957)
1881-02-14 Otto Selz, German psychologist, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1943)

1882-06-04 Karl Valentin, Bavarian comedian and film producer, born in Munich (d. 1948)
1884-06-13 Anton Drexler, German politician (founder of German Worker's Party (DAP), precursor to the Nazi Party), and mentor to Adolf Hitler, born in Munich (d. 1942)
1887-11-28 Ernst Röhm, German army officer and chief organizer of Adolf Hitler’s Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung, or SA; Brownshirts), born in Munich (d. 1934)
1891-05-22 Johannes R. Becher, German writer and politician, born in Munich (d. 1958)
1892-06-12 Ferdinand Schörner, German field marshal, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1973)
1894-11-02 Alexander Lippisch, German scientist and pioneer of aerodynamics, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1976)
1895-01-24 Eugen Roth, German poet, born in Munich (d. 1976)
1895-07-10 Carl Orff, German composer (Carmina Burana; Der Mond; Mozart Prize - 1969), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1982)
1897-07-05 Paul Ben-Haim [Frankenburger], Israeli composer, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1984)

Franz Beckenbauer (1945-2024)

1945-09-11 German soccer defender (103 caps; FIFA World Cup 1974; Bayern Munich 427 games; Ballon d'Or 1972, 76) and manager (FIFA World Cup 1990; Bayern Munich), born in Munich, Germany

1947-01-11 Tom Netherton, American pop and Christian music singer (Lawrence Welk Show), born in Munich. Germany (d. 2018)
1947-10-31 Frank Shorter, American marathoner (Olympic gold/silver-72, 76), born in Munich, Germany
1952-10-21 Brent Mydland, American rock keyboardist and vocalist (Grateful Dead, 1979-90), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1990)
1953-12-04 Jean-Marie Pfaff, Belgian soccer goalkeeper (64 caps; Beveren, Bayern Munich), born in Lebbeke, Belgium
1955-09-25 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, German football player (Bayern Munich), born in Lippstadt, West Germany

1960-07-17 Jan Wouters, Dutch football player (Ajax, Bayern Munich, PSV), born in Utrecht, Netherlands
1962-05-20 Sylvie Rauch, German nude model and actress, born in Munich West Germany
1963-05-29 Tracey E. Bregman, actress (Lauren-Bold & Beautiful, Days of Our Life), born in Munich. Germany
1963-09-18 Richard Weiss, American slalom single kayaker (Olympic 6th 1996), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1997)
1964-07-23 Nick Menza, American heavy metal drummer (Megadeth. 1989-98), born in Munich, West Germany (d. 2016)

Get Our Daily Email

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sLrToaCsnJGue6S7zGiaqK2eqb%2BqsdJonp6qnZa7unvBmq2aqpmWfK7BzaKaoQ%3D%3D