Guten Tag from onboard the recently launched direct LTU flight between Miami and Munich! I’ve picked the capital of oompah-land as my first “GayBabelGram” not just because Muc’s one of Europes most attractive and fun cities, but because this was the month of the famous Oktoberfest. Yeah, we just missed this beer- apalooza this time around (in 2008 it’s Sept. 20-Oct. 5), but winter can be a great time to drop in, too — really! Airfares are at their lowest and there’s a world-famous Christmas Market (Nov 28-Dec. 24) that can even get a jaded Grinch like me grinning. And gay life? Up the wazoo, Schatzi — kinda ironic, because Bavaria, the south-Germany region of which Munich’s the capital, is a notoriously conservative bit of business run by right-wing Christian Democrats who make the country’s Chris-Dem prime minister, Angela Merkel, look like Hanoi Jane. On a recent tour of the town of Freising, the guide earnestly assured me that “most Bavarians are very Catholic, and revere the Virgin Mary,” just before rattling off the Freising-related history of Benny Rats—er, Pope Benedict—who was bishop here (though all is not lost—in the restaurant bathroom in the tiny lakeside town of Prien I did come across a condom machine next to another that sold “sex gags” at 2€ a pop).

But Munich is pretty darn progressive (the Social Democrats run city hall along with the Greens and the Pink List—a gay party, would you believe it?), as well as jam-packed with stuff to do both day and night. The old town’s Brothers Grimm architecture, oom-pah-pah beer halls and of course the huge, famous glockenspiel clock in the old town hall still charm the tourists, and apart from a plethora of churches and palaces, there are some super museums. Two of the most recent ones are the very interesting Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum) next to the handsome new synagogue and brand-new BMW World, a slick interactive ode to one of Bavaria’s most famous exports. I kick myself that on this trip that I never made it to the potato museum, and that they recently put a lid on the chamberpot museum after its owner died under mysterious circumstances. But sometimes, that’s just the way the pretzel crumbles.

This is a party-hearty town, too, and the fun starts even before noon at the many, many, many beer gardens and halls. For example, check out the world-famous Hofbräuhaus (sure it’s touristy, but you’ll still spot Bavarians in folk get-ups who come in from the boonies to lift a few with their Freunden) and the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower), in a park called the Englischer Garten (English Garden)—there actually is a big ol’ wood tower there, kinda-sorta pagoda-ish, where the oompah band serenades the drinkers. Joints like these can actually be pretty good for meeting people, because everybody’s sitting at long tables and as the suds flow, they can get pretty hopped up, singing and swaying like nobody’s business.

And by the way, after (maybe better make that before) a brewski at the the Chinese Tower, stop and get an eyeful at a nearby meadow in the English Garden where some locals still like to come to catch a spot of solar skinny dipping (one local friend of mine says, “the moment there’s one ray of sun around here, zip-zip, off come the clothes). Here nudity’s refreshingly no big deal at all—you see tits and asses on TV all the time, and FKK (Freikörperkultur, or “free body culture”) has more followers than a bitch in heat. On the other hand, it’s possible overdo it; an American was fined 200€ last summer for strolling around downtown Nuremburg (another Bavarian city) with his bratwurst hanging out ’cause he’d spottted nudies in some park and figured, “hey, why not?”

But for the most part, this laid-back attitude pretty much extends to sex, too. One of Germany’s household names is Beate Uhse, a widowed ex-Luftwaffe pilot (really) who in the 40’s and 50’s pedaled her bike through the postwar ruins of Flensburg selling marital aids (I like to think of her as the Fuckerware Lady). She leveraged that into today’s high-profile erotica retail empire, including shops like the fancy one on Munich’s downtown Sedlingerstrasse, whose merch ranges from mild (scented massage oils) to wild (pissing porn, bondage gear, and oh so much more). Specifically gay shops, BTW, include SpeXter and Bruno’s.

Both sex and partying really take off here after dark, though. Some of my non-Bavarian friends in Munich complain that the locals have a definite superiority complex over other Germans, but whatever—they’re certainly fun to hang with and pick up, and a lot of them do speak a certain amount of English (still, I guarantee you’ll still be the life of the party if you whip out our Gay German for Love + Hookups — see our BabelShop in the column at left). Things are definitely way out of the Schrank here—the gay Rosa Liste party helps run city hall, and a fag and a pair of dykes from different parties help keep things tasteful on the city council.

The “scene” is centered around Gärtnerplatz, a square anchoring a low-slung area several blocks south of the medieval city center (sometimes called the Gärtnerplatzviertel or Glockenbachviertel). Besides a cultural center, there are bars and clubs catering to everything from twinks to bears to leather to trendoids (more than a few still with darkrooms), and I found a kind of epicenter to be a café/bar/Internet point called KraftAkt (Thalkirchnerstrasse 11), where a lot of people start out their evenings. You’ve got at least three bath houses, the biggest and best of which is located right in a traditional-meets-mod hotel and bar/restaurant complex called the Deutsche Eiche (Reichenbach- strasse 13, 49-89/23.11.66; $$). Actually, it’s not just great, but also historic, dating back to 1864—and as of the 1950’s it became a gay/boho hangout attracting the likes of filmmaker Rainer Fassbinder and Queen rocker Freddie Mercury. It was developed into what it is today by Dietmar Holfzapfel, a jolly ex-teacher who was the first local Schwule (look it up in Gay German) to get married to his partner when such things became legal in Germany in 2002. And BTW, if you’d rather line up a date or two ahead of time, the best site is probably GayRomeo, run out of Amsterdam but with more than 15,000 members in Munich (and that’s a lotta wurst). Another cool bit of business not to miss if you’re here in the summer is a trip to Flaucher island in the Isar River, on whose north end the boys go to strip down and lie around on a pebbly “beach.” If you really want to see everything in full roar, make your reservations now to be here this coming July 12-13 for the local gay pride, Christopher Street Day, or next Sept. 20-Oct. 5 for the gay Oktoberfest events.

Hotel-wise, for fag-friendly and convenient to the scene, after the Deutsche Eiche I really like the minimalist- sleek, 54-room Hotel Advokat (Baaderstrasse 1, 49.89/21.63.10; $$) and the mix of old and new at the 38-room Hotel Olympic (Hans-Sachs-Strasse 4, 231.890; $$-$$$). Several blocks away, and also near the downtown shopping district, the 70-unit Carat-Hotel (Lindwurmstrasse 13, 49.89/23.03.80; $$-$$$) is another good choice. And a bit farther afield (but still an easy hop via Munich’s swell subway, the S-Bahn) the 106-room K+K Hotel am Harras (Albert-Rosshaupter- Strasse 4, 49.89/74.64.00;l $-$$$) and the Hotel Nymphenburg (Nymphenburger Strasse 141, 49.89/12.15.970; $$), with 44 sometimes funkily painted rooms, are also welcoming.

For more budget-priced digs, try the convenient and gemütlich Pension Seibel (Reichenbachstasse 8, 49.89/23.19.180; $-$$), right near the Deutsche Eiche. And, if you’re not stuck on “full-service” and/or are looking to drop as little as $40-$50 nightly, you’ll also get to live a little bit more like a native (not to mention with a tad more, ahem, privacy) by booking your own apartment or a room (B&B-style) in someone else’s, through a pair of gay-run agencies, Enjoy Bed & Breakfast and Peter Harke’s Gay Tourist Office Munich, which also provides tours and other services.

Eating and drinking in Munich, meanwhile, has gone way beyond schnitzel, wurst, and Weizebier in recent years. On the Schwule culinary front, besides the excellent traditional German/international menu at the Deutsche Eiche, the panini and updated German fare at Café Selig (Hans-Sachs- Strasse 3, 23.88.88.78), the lighter, contemporary eats at Kr@ftakt, I’m defititely a fan of both the hip feel and mod Thai/continental fare at Morizz (Klenzestrasse 43, 201.67.76) and the Deco style and more traditional grub (including the delish curry wurst)—not to mention the WiFi—at Villanis (Kreuzstrasse 3b, 260.79.72).

There are too many bars and clubs to go into in detail, but favorites worth noting start with the mod café-loungey Selig (see above); the friendly, more old-fashioned scene across the street at Nil (Hans-Sachs-Strasse 2, 26.55.45); the fun, campy atmosphere (but plenty of hotties, too, I promise) at the inimitable Prosecco (Theklastrasse 1, 23.03.23.29); and the edgier, harder-core vibe at Bau (Mullerstrasse 41, 26.92.08). The ladies will want to check out Café Glück (Palmstrasse 4, 201.16.73), while the big late-night boogie spot for everyone is the basement New York (Sonnenstrasse 25, 59.10.56). There’s plenty of sex-club-type action, too, (like Duplexx, with cubicles, glory holes, etc.) as well as regular parties from gay line dancing to sex parties from vanilla to esoteric (spanking or diapers, anyone?).

For more of these and other gay specifics (including parties and events happening during your visit), check out the info sites I list below. For homo specifics, try sites such as RosaMuenchen.de, GayMunich.de, Sergej-Magazin.de, and MLC-Munich.de. More general info’s at the Munich tourist office website.

Gute Reise!

Yours truly,

Dave

This entry was posted on 10.22.2007 at 10:09 pm by Dave and is filed under BabelBlog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.