The scale of this museum is only really evident from the air. The extensive site comprises two spacious interior courtyards that are framed by four unusually diverse buildings. The oldest of these, the historic armory built in 1500, faces St.-Jakobs-Platz. The collections annex, which was designed by Gustav Gsaenger at the end of the 1950s, extends to Rindermarkt; the medieval royal stables – which were reconstructed in 1977 – reach as far as Sebastiansplatz. Both in terms of its physical magnitude and the scope of its collections, it is Germany’s largest municipal museum. The value of its collections is beyond calculation.

In addition to the numerous temporary exhibitions, the Münchner Stadtmuseum has been organizing an array of regular events since its early days. These, of course, begin with the Film Museum’s cinema with its changing daily program of films, some of which come from the museum’s own stocks but the majority from major archives and cinematography collections around the world. In the Film Museum, films are restored to the highest professional standards, with much of this conservation work concentrated on German silent movies from the 1920s.