Visiting Germany: Berlin or Munich?

So you want to go to Germany. That's great. Sometime every visitor to Germany needs to make a choice: Berlin or Munich. The question is asked very often. Berlin after all is the capital. It's important by its very nature. The city is huge (we're talking over 300 square miles here). As the capital of Bavaria, and part of the American section after World War II, Munich has a special relationship with Americans. It's a city, but it's often described as being a very large village.

If you tell the typical Berliner that you're going to Munich he or she (and I'm imagining the thirty something perpetual student: tall, shaggy hair, vintage clothes with a fondness for discussing philosophy over vegetarian meals) will most likely frown, asking if you actually like Munich.

Of course you like Munich: it has pastel colored buildings and good beer. The typical Berliner will then pause for a while, as if searching for some possible response to a person who has just confessed to liking the Rococo (think overdone) of cities.

"Well," he or she will say - because, unlike perhaps other North Germans, we mustn't forget that Berliners are primarily nice, "I would go there, but it's awfully expensive."

There. Now you feel like the typical bourgeois. And when you're young - and even when you're really, not so young at all - nobody want to be called bourgeois. Bohemian just sounds that much better.

"Don't you feel that Munich is terribly - clean?"

Believe me, this isn't a compliment.

As for those in Munich - well, they're not exactly unsuspicious of the Berliners either. Berlin is after all 1.) big and 2.) decidedly not clean. They speak about Berlin as people used to speak about NYC before Giuliani cleaned it up. In other words they think it's nice for a day, but they wouldn't want to live there.

Clearly there's a big rivalry between the two cities. Berlin and Munich are very different.

Berlin is enormous. It's filled with students. It has lots of unemployment, which means that things aren't very expensive there. See Checkpoint Charlie to learn how people tried (successfully and unsuccessfully) to cross over the border. Wander around Prenzlauer Berg to see the former East Berlin, and visit Friedrichshain for some cheap cocktails.

Munich is much smaller. It's also filled with students, but there's much less unemployment (in fact the city's quite wealthy), and things are very expensive there. Visit Marienplatz to see the former Town Hall, and go to the English Gardens and the Hofbräuhaus for some good beer.

Of course unless you're deciding between study abroad programs in each city, you don't really have to pick a favorite city. Visit both. But be prepared to answer the question about which you prefer. (A hint: just don't tell the Berliners you prefer Munich. And vice versa.) Sometimes secrets are good.