Stadtmuseum

Lonely Planet review

A rambling collection of collections, the Stadtmuseum is a fascinating attic of a museum that can keep you going for hours. The themed rooms range from brewing and photography to musical instruments, puppetry and the city's own tangled history. One hall spotlights the exquisitely carved and spritelike Morris Dancers, the medieval entertainers who once performed in the Altes Rathaus.

The film museum restores and shows vintage films nightly from its enormous archive. A separate Stadtmuseum exhibit, Nationalsozialismus in München (National Socialism in Munich) explores the darker corners of the city's role in Nazism after 1918. Set in a windowless hall among riveted steel plates, this powerful display taps a vast pool of photographs, propaganda posters, Gestapo uniforms, underground resistance papers and letters from concentration camp victims.