Siegestor

It’s a short and scenic stroll down the Ludwigsstrasse to the Siegestor, a war-torn triumphal arch that tells much of Munich—and German—history. Commissioned by (the first and less mad) King Ludwig of Bavaria, the three-arched victory gate was completed in 1852 and originally dedicated to the glory of the Bavarian army in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, some two decades before German unification. From the north, the arch retains its regional pomp and pride, all classical columns and bas-relief carving, topped by the personified statue of Bavaria on lion-drawn carriage. But on the other side, facing up toward the Odeonsplatz, the top of the arch is a startlingly empty expanse of stone. After heavy bomb damage during World War Two, restoration efforts left this upper register intentionally blank, a bare-faced marker of destruction and guilt and a sharp qualifier to the glorifying military narrative of the arch’s original construction. Beneath the empty space are the words: “Dem Sieg geweiht, von Krieg zersört, zum Frieden mahnend,” “Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace.”