Munich Originals: Photographs from the Karl Valentin Collection

What would Old Munich be without its eccentrics, Leuttratzers, Ratschkatteln, revolters, Gaudiburschen and folk singers. One of them, certainly one of the greatest, was Karl Valentin. Today he is known as a "cult humourist", but he was also a tireless, knowledgeable collector of photographs, drawings, posters, newspaper cuttings and postcards. Valentin coloured and retouched the images himself. In 2019, glass slides from his estate were rediscovered in the Stadtarchiv München (Munich City Archive). Valentin enthusiastically traced the contemporaries depicted and gave photographic lectures about them in pubs. This is why, in addition to the images, the focus is also on the lives of these "Munich originals".

The exhibition in the new "Mesnerhaus" near Kloster Seeon (Seeon Monastery), which has been renovated in keeping with its listed status, is a loving homage to Karl Valentin's view of figures such as Krenkel, Finessen-Sepperl, Kapellmeister Suzlzbeck and the "eternal wedding man".

Last edited on 13.03.2025