Sigmund Weis School of Business London Program

Fall 2007

Michael Ruehle and Kyle Wertman

Munich Article

Guided Tour of Munich
BMW showroom/factory/Museum/Olympic Park
Klueber Lubrication
Hobrauhaus/Augustiner
Deutsch Museum of Natural Sciences
Dachau Concentration Camp
Shopping

Munich, although confronted with gloomy weather consisting of rain, snow, and wind, turned out to be an amazing trip and one that none of us will ever forget. As soon as our plane landed at the airport on Thursday morning, we could almost feel the amazing atmosphere and history from wars long ago. As soon as we arrived, we immediately were met by our guide, Gunter, who took us to our hotel and gave us our farewell. From there, we set out on a tour throughout the heart of Munich. All throughout the city, different groups of people were in groups chanting for their FC Bayer Munich football club, and ironically, so were the brave English rooting for their Bolton football club. The crowds were so immense and the noise of the chants so loud that we could barely hear our guide throughout the tour. We walked throughout the city passing many different Bratwurst stores, beer houses, churches, and other historical places. Munich is actually a newer city as approximately 60% of it was destroyed by World War II. After the tour ended, it was time to go experience the culture of Germany – eating bratwursts. Wow! What a great meal for all of us. We ate at a great place known as the Augustiner, which consisted of great food, beer, and Germans chanting and singing German songs. It was an amazing atmosphere. We packed it in as an early night as it had been a long day and the BMW tour was Friday morning, and we had to be up by 6:00 a.m. It was an overall great start to the first day in Munich.

Friday morning started early, as we had breakfast at about 7:00 a.m. and had to leave to go to the BMW factory at 7:30 a.m. I must admit that we were all excited to go see this company tour as BMW is a world-wide leader as a premium car manufacturer. We arrived at BMW early in the morning with a great day planned. As we split up into groups, we went around the new, futuristic building of the BMW Welt. There were so many interesting things to do such as doing a videogame-like test drive of the M3 series, look at how the engines were made, check out all of the car designs, and so much more. The building had just opened to the public the weekend before we got there, so we thank Dr. Bussard and all of the Susquehanna staff involved in helping getting us in there. After awhile in the building, we decided to venture off to Olympiak Park. It was amazing to see places where events took place such as the pool and the track. After returning to the Welt building, we watched a short film as we began our factory tour of BMW and then went to the factory across the street to take the tour. It was remarkable how they made their automobiles, how the robots and machines were used instead of manual labor, how many assembly lines they had, and how much effort was put into the final line where they tested each car from inside and below. After the BMW tour, we left and went to Klueber Lubrication, a tour that was set up thanks to Mr. Cecchini and Dr. Bussard. We first had a nice lecture on the company and product and then split into three groups and took a nice tour of the factory. We learned how they manufactured different kind of lubricants for different machinery. Also Klueber had a building that concentrated on testing their products and also testing the products of other companies.

At night, we all had a great time going to the Haufbrauhaus, a famous beer hall in Munich. It truly is a great time and the food and beer are marvelous. There is typical German music that is played live while everyone sings and dances – what a fun time. For others, their time was spent visiting a Mexican bar and singing karaoke. There is honestly no way to have a bad time in Munich.

While certain people visited Austria or traveled to other places in Munich or outside of Munich, we went to the Deutsche Museum, the world’s largest science and technical museum. It was a great museum with so many different areas of interest that we could not have come close to seeing it all in one day.

On Sunday, we decided to make it a more historical day by visiting the concentration camp Dachau. It was a real moving experience to be standing on the grounds of such a horrific place where so many innocent lives were taken during World War II. We say the gas chamber and the ovens they used to kill people. Also we say a film used to go back and show you the experiences of the prisoners in Dachau.

The final day was left to go shopping and buy items such as beer steins, das boots, flags, shirts, other apparel, and many more shopping items as souvenirs. A nice safe trip followed the shopping and touring around Munich, and we all left with a great experience of Germany.