Die Basilika in München

Title

Die Basilika in München

Description

View of the Basilika in Munich

ca. 1850

Artist

Poppel (1807-1882)

Poppel was a German copper and steel engraver, architectural draftsman, landscape painter and publisher. Johann Poppel first learned copperplate engraving from Johann Martin Friedrich Geißler at the Nuremberg Art School. Building on this, he learned steel engraving in 1829 from Professor Carl Ludwig Frommel in Karlsruhe, who ran a steel engraver there.

Historical Description

Munich- Munchen, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning "by the monks". It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat of arms. Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes. Black and gold — the colours of the Holy Roman Empire — have been the city's official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, the town became the country's sole capital in 1506. Catholic Munich was a cultural stronghold of the Counter-Reformation and a political point of divergence during the resulting Thirty Years' War, but remained physically untouched despite an occupation by the Protestant Swedes; as the townsfolk would rather open the gates of their town than risk siege and almost inevitable destruction. Like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. Having evolved from a duchy's capital into that of an electorate (1623), and later a sovereign kingdom (1806), Munich has been a centre of arts, culture and science since the early 19th century.