Art & culture in upper Bavaria

The “blue land”

The land around the Kochel Lake, the moor, the mountains, the lakes. Franz Marc and his artist colleagues Gabriele Münter –  and Wassily Kandinsky found inspiration in the area. Those now world-famous artists, who co-founded the “Blaue Reiter” artist group, spent many years in Kochel am See, Murnau and Sindelsdorf.

Franz Marc felt at home here, and this is where he created most of his works and also received important impulses for his special understanding of art. The Loisach moor between Kochel and Murnau was the incubator of Munich Modernism, which formed around Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky.

“Kochel Lake by boat“, “Waterfall at the Kochel” for example, are some titles of Kandinsky’s landscape studies, and Gabriele Münter painted “Grave crosses in Kochel” in the cemetery, where Franz Marc was laid to rest years later.

Visit the Blaue Land between Kochel and Murnau and experience the domains of these well-known artists. Let the same impressions come to you as came to Franz Marc and his friends. Hike through the Loisach Valley on the trail of the “Blaue Reiter” and discover it for yourself.

The Franz Marc walk through Kochel

Follow in the footsteps of Franz Marc. The new app-based audio guide uses a clearly laid out map to take you to 10 stations where you can learn interesting facts about the artist and his paintings. Discover the places where Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky and other Expressionists got their inspiration for famous works.

iOS App Download / Android App Download / >> Tour description

Franz Marc Museum

The museum was opened in 1986 and it was founded to portray the life and work of Franz Marc in the landscape that shaped him as a painter. Since 2008, Franz Marcs paintings and drawings has been presented even better in a new building. Parallel to the special exhibitions, the museum is showing important works from its collection by Franz Marc, the “Blue Rider“, the “Brücke“, Paul Klee, and German and French post-war abstraction.

>> www.franz-marc-museum.de (Kochel 1 km)

TIP: From the hotel you can reach the Franz Marc museum within a 10 minutes walk.

Franz Marc Museum, Foto: Doris Leuschner

Schlossmuseum Murnau

The Schlossmuseum shows, among other things, an extensive collection of paintings, drawings and prints by Gabriele Münter as well as works by the artists of the “Neue Künstlervereinigung München” and the “Blauer Reiter” (including works by Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej Jawlensky, Franz Marc , Heinrich Campendonk).

>>www.schlossmuseum-murnau.de (Murnau 18 km)

© Schloßmuseum Murnau, Bildarchiv

Münter-Haus in Murnau

The residential house in of Gabriele Münter in Murnau was the inspiration and starting point for a new artistic movement of Expressionism. It was a meeting place for the avant-garde and a refuge for artists: Franz Marc, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, August Macke and Arnold Schönberg came to visit regularly, as did collectors and gallery owners. The almanac “Der Blaue Reiter” was also to be created here.

>> www.muenter-stiftung.de (Murnau 18 km)

Walchenseemuseum

16 exhibition rooms house local history collections from the areas: Walchensee, Kochelsee, Jachenau, Kesselberg and Herzogstand.

In addition, rooms have been set up with graphic works by the famous painter Prof. Lovis Corinth, who lived temporarily in his house in Urfeld from 1918 to 1925 and who created the important Walchensee pictures. 220 graphics (pencil drawings, etchings and lithographs) by Lovis Corinth and his wife Charlotte Berend-Corinth can be seen in three rooms.

A room was also dedicated to the famous nuclear physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Werner Karl Heisenberg, who acquired the former house of Corinth in 1939.

>> www.walchenseemuseum.de (Walchensee 9 km)

Museum Penzberg – the Campendonk collection

The collection is focused on the work of Heinrich Campendonk (1889-1957) the youngest of the Expressionist Blue Riders. With the opening of the new house, the museum received around 200 of his works. The diverse work of Campendonk is permanently documented: oil paintings, watercolors and ink brush drawings, graphics and glass windows as they are installed in the stairwell. The reverse glass pictures of Campendonk form a special feature, which gave the museum team the impetus for an intensive scientific research of this rather unknown group of works by many modern artists.

>> www.museum-penzberg.de (Penzberg 17 km)

Foto: Stefan Geisbauer