City in Ruins /
Herbert List and the Photography of Ruins in Munich
21.11.2025–17.12.2025
black and white Photograph from 1945 picturing Munich's new city hall surrounded by ruins

© Herbert List, New City Hall, around 1945, gelatine development paper, Münchner Stadtmuseum

The Münchner Stadtmuseum's photography collection as a guest in at the Rathausgalerie

2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the war. To honor the occasion, the Münchner Stadtmuseum's photography collection is showing a selection of photographs from its holdings from the immediate post-war period. The centerpiece is a cycle of images of ruins that photographer Herbert List (1903 - 1975), who returned to Munich in 1945, captured on this his wanderings through the destroyed city. Prominent buildings such as the former Braunes Haus, the Glyptothek, the Academie, the Hofgarten, the Frauenkirche, the Marstall and the Wittelsbacher Palais are also pictured, as are destroyed sculptures and works of art in public spaces. In comparison with photographs by amateurs and professional, commissioned postcards and photo reports, List's particular approach becomes clear: having returned from exile in Greece, he was less interested in an objective documentation of the heavily destroyed city than in timeless artistic compositions that refer to his earlier dramatic stagings of ancient ruins.

The Münchner Stadtmuseum is closed until 2031 for extensive general refurbishment and is showing its interim program at external venues.

Opening on Nov 20, 2025, 7 p.m.

City in Ruins / Herbert List and the Photography of Ruins in Munich
Exhibition duration
21.11.2025–17.12.2025
continue
An art space
of the city of Munich