Eisbachwelle, surfing in the centre of Munich

Lean over the railing. Beneath the bridge, the water of the Eisbach, an artificial arm of the Isar, hits a stone step and forms a wave that never breaks or moves forward. Surfers jump onto it in turn from the banks and hold on for as long as they can. It is one of Munich’s most unexpected sights.

1A half-natural wave

The concrete blocks the city laid in the 1970s to calm the current created a surfable wave on only a few days a year. The surfers themselves stabilised it with rails and planks, and for decades they rode it in a legal grey area. In 2010 the city took over the area so that surfing could be allowed. But the wave is fragile: in April 2025, after the death of a surfer whose safety leash snagged on the bottom, it was temporarily closed; that autumn it disappeared after the riverbed was cleaned, and bringing it back has been a matter of debate. Today you may find it packed with surfers or completely calm.

A serious warning: swimming here is dangerous; the current is strong and there are blocks under the water.

2The English Garden

Behind it begins the Englischer Garten, one of the largest urban parks in the world, laid out from 1789 by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell at the suggestion of Benjamin Thompson, the future Count Rumford. Further in are the Chinese Tower and its beer garden.

The colonnaded building beside you is the Haus der Kunst, built between 1933 and 1937 as the “House of German Art”, one of the first monumental buildings of the Nazi regime. Today it is a centre for contemporary art.

3What to look for

• The wave and the line of surfers waiting their turn on the banks.
• The colour of the water, green and icy even in summer.
• The colonnade of the Haus der Kunst, beside the bridge.