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Munich ) is the capital of the German federal state of Bavaria. After Berlin and Hamburg, Munich is Germany's third largest city as well as the largest city and leading economic center in Southern Germany. The city has a population of about 1.4 million (as of 2004). The Munich metropolitan area is home to around 3 million people. The city is located on the river Isar, at 48°08′N 11°34′E. The city's motto is "Die Weltstadt mit Herz" (The world city with a heart). The figure on Munich's coat-of-arms is the Münchner Kindl, the child of Munich (a monk).

table ) by the Welf Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. The village grew around St.Peter church next to a bridge, that Henry initially built over the river 'Isar'. To force traders to use his bridge (and, of course charge them for doing so) he destroyed a nearby bridge owned by bishop Otto von Freising (Freising). Therefore the bishop and Henry quarreled about the city before the emperor at a i held in Augsburg in 1158. Henry's spoliation was finally sanctioned with a yearly compensation for the bishop, Munich's trading-and currency rights were confirmed by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Almost two decades later in 1175 Munich was granted city status and fortified.

In 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the bishop of Freising. Otto's heirs, the Wittelsbach dynasty would rule Bavaria until 1918. In 1240 Munich itself was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, when the dukedom of Bavaria was split in two, Munich became the ducal residence of Upper Bavaria.

Duke Louis IV was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328, Munich was his residence. He strengthened her position by granting the city the salt monopoly, thus assuring her of additional income. In 1327 most of the city was destroyed by a fire but was rebuilt, extended and protected with a new fortification some years later. Since the citizenry several times revolted against the dukes a new castle was built close to the fortification from 1385 onwards. In the late 15th century Munich went to a time of revival of gothic arts, the Old Town Hall was enlarged and a new Frauenkirche constructed from 1468 onwards within only twenty years, the cathedral has become a symbol for the city with its two brick onion topped towers.

When Bavaria was reunited in 1506 Munich became capital of the whole of Bavaria. The arts and the policy were more and more dominated by the court. During the 16th century Munich was a center of German counter reformation but also of renaissance arts. Duke Wilhelm V created the Hofbräuhaus for brewing brown beer in 1589.

In 1623 during the Thirty Years' War Munich became electoral residence when Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria was invested with the electoral dignity but in 1632 the city was occupied by Gustav II Adolph of Sweden. Since also the pest broke out in 1634 and 1635 about one third of the population did not survive. After the war was ended Munich became quickly a center of baroque life.

In 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession it was under the control of the Habsburg family for some years since Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria made a pact with France. The occupation was leading to bloody uprisings of the people against the Austrian imperial troops. The coronation of his son elector Charles Albert as Emperor Karl VII in 1742 led to another Habsburg occupation. The city's first academic institution, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1759 by Maximilian III Joseph. From 1789 onwards, when the old medieval fortification was demolished, the English Garden was arranged, it is one of the world's largest urban public parks.

By that time, the city was growing very quickly and was one of the largest cities in continental Europe. In 1806, it became the capital of the new Kingdom of Bavaria, with the state's parliament (the i and the new archdiocese of Munich and Freising being located in the city. Twenty years later Landshut University was moved to Munich.

Many of the city's finest buildings belong to this period and were built under the reign of the king Ludwig I. These neoclassical buildings include the i was constructed in Perpendicular Style.

In 1839 the first railway line and in 1876 the tram were oppened. The Technical University of Munich was founded in 1868. In 1882 electric lighting was introduced to the country Munich, and the city hosted Germany's first exhibition of electricity, and in 1930 the first ever electrical television was showcased at the Deutsches Museum (founded in 1903) in Munich on Isar River. Inventors like Alois Senefelder, Joseph von Fraunhofer, Carl von Linde and Rudolf Diesel worked in Munich and the young Albert Einstein attended the Luitpold Gymnasium. In 1901 the Hellabrunn Zoo opened in the city.

The decades before World War I were a period of economic and cultural rising. Munich, especially Schwabing became the domicile of many artists and writers. Thomas Mann wrote about this period "Munich shone". Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group of expressionist artists established in Munich in 1911.

In 1916 during air raids, three French bombs fall on Munich. After World War I, the city was at the center of much unrest. In November 1918 on the eve of revolution, Ludwig III and his family fled Munich. After the murder of the first republican premier of Bavaria Kurt Eisner in February 1919 Communists took power establishing the Bavarian Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik) which was put down already on May 3 1919 by the militarist Freikorps, many of whom were later drawn to Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. In 1923 Hitler and his supporters, who then were concentrated in Munich, staged the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic and seize power. But the revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest and the temporary crippling of the Nazi Party, which was virtually unknown outside Munich. However, the city would once again become a Nazi stronghold when they took power in Germany in 1933. Because of its importance to the rise of Nazism, the Nazis called it i-buildings") were built around the Königsplatz, some of which have survived to this day.

In 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed in the city, ceding the mostly German speaking Sudetenland, previously a part of Czechoslovakia since the end of WWI, to Germany. It was signed by representatives of Germany, Italy, France and Britain. One year later, in 1939, Georg Elser failed with his attempt to assassinate Hitler while the latter was giving his annual speech to commemorate the Beer Hall Putsch in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich.

Munich was the city where the White Rose (German: i), a group of students that formed a resistance movement from June 1942 to February 1943, was based. The core members were arrested following a distribution of leaflets in Munich University by Hans and Sophie Scholl.

The city was very heavily damaged by allied bombing during World War II, the city was hit by 71 air raids over a period of five years. After American occupation in 1945, Munich was completely rebuilt following a meticulous and, by comparison to other war-ravaged German cities, a rather conservative plan which preserved its pre-war street grid.

Munich was the site of the 1972 Summer Olympics, during which Israeli athletes were assassinated by Palestinian terrorists (see Munich massacre), where terrorist gunmen from the Palestinian "Black September" group took hostage members of the Israeli Olympic team. A rescue attempt by the West German government was unsuccessful and resulted in the deaths of the Israeli hostages, five of the terrorists, and one German police officer.

Several games of the 1974 World Cup were also held in the city. It was the stage of the German triumph against the Netherlands in a legendary final. In 2006 it will again be host to several games, including the opening match of the next FIFA 2006 World Cup.

In 1992 Munich’s new airport was inaugurated and the inauguration of the Neue Messe, the new exhibition centre on the site of the former airport of Riem, took place in 1998.

The current Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising on June 29, 1951. Ratzinger served as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

Munich is a popular tourist destination and has been described as Germany's "secret capital". Center of the city is the i, an ornate clock with almost life-sized moving figures that show scenes from a medieval jousting tournament as well as a performance of the famous "Schäfflertanz" (roughly translated "Barrel-makers' dance").

The i ("Dom zu unserer Lieben Frau" - Cathedral of Our Lady) is the most famous building in the city center. This is Munich's central cathedral and is famous for the brass onion domes that top the twin towers. The domes were added in the 16th century not matching the gothic -mix. The original design asked for pointed towers like the dome of Cologne but those where never built for lack of money. At first glance the two towers appear to be the same but in actual fact one is slightly taller than the other. Unlike most buildings in Munich's old town, the towers of the Frauenkirche (but not the church itself) survived the war intact, making them more than 500 years old. The Frauenkirche's towers (99 meters or 325 feet) are also the measurement for a new rule which limits the in the city. This rule was passed in November 2004 by the people of Munich in a referendum organized by Georg Kronawitter, a former SPD mayor, against the will of the political parties in the city's parliament ("Stadtrat") who feared that it would harm the city's attractiveness to investors.

Three gates of the demolished medieval fortification have survived until today, the i is a basilica in Italianate high baroque which had a major influence on Southern German baroque architecture. The i was built almost simultaneously by Johann Michael Fischer and might be the most remarkable church out of the inner city. Among the baroque and neoclassical mansions which still exist in Munich is the beautiful i Munich owns one of Europe's most significant interior decoration museums. The palace was built in 1385 and gradually expanded and contains also the treasury and the splendid rococo i where several operas of Richard Wagner had premiere under the the patronage of Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Four grand royal avenues of the 19th century with magnificent official buildings remind on the kingdom of Bavaria, the i group of artists, many of which can be seen at the Lenbachhaus. A profound collection of Greek and Roman art is provided by the i is one of Europe's major art and cultural history museums.

Other famous tourist attractions include the i - a garden park roughly in the center of the city that contains a nudist area, jogging tracks and bridle-paths).

The i with its stadium was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics which were held in Munich. The Olympic buildings are famous for their design, which was inspired by dew-covered cobwebs. Visitors can be elevated on top of the Olympic Tower (i), which is also an important radio and TV broadcasting tower.

The 2006 World Cup, however, will not take place in the traditional i

Perhaps Munich's most famous attraction is the Oktoberfest, a 2-week-long fair with many rides and several very large tents. The Oktoberfest was first held October 12, 1810 in honor of the marriage of crown Ludwig to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festivities were closed with a horse race and in the following years the horse races were continued and later developed into what is now known as the Oktoberfest. Despite its name, Oktoberfest actually begins in September. It lasts two weeks and always finishes on the first Sunday in October unless the German national holiday on the 3rd of October ("Tag der deutschen Einheit" - Day of German Unity) is a Monday or Tuesday - then the Oktoberfest still opens for these days.

"BMW Headquarters building (one of the few buildings that have been built from the top to the bottom) and the bowl shaped BMW museum" BMW Headquarters building (one of the few buildings that have been built from the top to the bottom) and the bowl shaped BMW museum

Lying on the plain of the Voralpenland, the Munich agglomeration sprawls unhindered by geography. Several smaller traditional Bavarian cities are today part of the Munich suburbia and are worth a visit when the main Munich sights are exhausted.

Munich is one of the centers of the "new" German economy as a center for biotechnology, software and other service industries. The city is home to the global headquarters of German insurance companies Allianz and Munich Re, the car manufacturer BMW, the truck manufacturer MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, the technology firms Siemens and Infineon Technologies, as well as the German headquarters of McDonald’s and Microsoft. Lufthansa has opened a second hub at Munich's Franz Josef Strauss International Airport. In addition to this, Munich is home to many publishing houses, second only to New York City. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the largest German language daily newspapers, is published in Munich.