Mariensaule- how it came to be...

I was told of this very nice story by one of the tour guides that I would love to share about  Mariensaule or Mary's column in Marienplatz, Munich.

The 30 years war lasted from 1608 to 1638, where the Swedish forces raped and pillaged various towns and cities. 

The locals were afraid for their lives and decided to build a wall around the city to defend themselves. However, before the wall was completed, the Swedish forces had already arrived at their doorstep. When they reached Munich, the forces, like several other people, fell in love with the city and did not want to destroy it. In exchange of not destroying the city, they asked the locals to give them 300,000 coins. Now the locals gave up a lot of their treasures but still could come up with only about 100000 coins. They went to the Swedish forces and requested that with this amount that they had collected, they would like to offer the forces their liquid gold - beer. The Swedes took their offer and left Munich without spilling a single drop of blood.

The locals decided to celebrate the victory by having a celebration at Marienplatz. Now the elector Maxmilian 1 had left Munich city when the Swedes had arrived. After hearing of their return, the elector rode back to the city with all his forces. The locals, though we're very angry that he had left the city in its hour of need and refused to let him celebrate with them. Max, though, was a clever man - he said to the locals 'I had gone with my forces to the highest of the mountain in the Bavarian Alps, so that I could be close to the heavens. And here I prayed to the God to save the city'. The locals, gullible that they were, believed him and in order to honour him, asked that his golden statue be placed at the Marienplatz. However there was no money left anymore to make the statue. Again came Max to the rescue, and he said that 'we should thank the one person who saved us all, and that is not me but Mary. Instead of erecting my statue, we should have a golden statue of Mary'. This statue of Mary was already with Max and he erected  column in Marienplatz and placed the statue in top of it.