Welcome to Dachau – a Bavarian town with over 1200 years of history
The town of Dachau – just north of Munich – offers the ideal overnight location for visitors of the Messe München. The exhibition grounds are only 24 km from Dachau by car. Alternatively, public transportation (S2 from Dachau train station to Munich Main Station and transfer to U2 to Messe Ost or Messe West) is also available. Munich city center is conveniently reached from Dachau train station by local train. The choice of accommodations ranges from business Hotels to private guesthouses.
The town of Dachau, first mentioned in 805 as „Dahauua“, looks back upon a long and varied history. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the special light conditions over the damp landscapes of the Dachau Moors attracted many outdoor painters to Dachau. The names of many notable painters such as Max Liebermann, Carl Spitzweg or Lovis Corinth, are still connected with the town of Dachau.
This artistic period was followed by the darkest chapter in the history of Dachau. During World War I Dachau impoverished. And, with the erection of Germany's first Concentration Camp in 1933, the former artists’ colony now became the epitome of the inhuman NS terror.
Nowadays, the town of Dachau is an important central European memorial site as well as a place of learning and commemorating. The Concentration Camp Memorial Site but also numerous annual events on contemporary history, help to keep the memory of the past alive.
In recent years Dachau - with its picturesque Old Town - developed into an attractive cultural town. In the tradition of the artists’ colony, many artists live and work here again today. The Dachau Picture Gallery, high-quality classical concerts at Dachau Palace, open air concerts during the annual Dachau Music Summer as well as the traditional Bavarian Dachau fair each year in Mid-August or the Christkindl-market in Dachau's historic Old Town invite visitors to Dachau year-round.