Buildings and building stone: Old Justice Building, Munich

Conglomerate in the Old Justice Building, Munich

This mostly brick building in Munich is the New Justice Building or court house (not to be confused with the Justice Palace next door to the left in this image). It's on Prielmayer Strasse between the train station and the Karlsplatz.

The building's large foundation stones are a coarse conglomerate (see the two images below). Munich lies on the plain of sediments shed off the Alps to the north, and these conglomerates represent gravels that were probably deposited by streams flowing north. The mass of sediment shed off the Alps after their uplift and deposited across the plain to the north is known to geologists as "molasse"; these conglomerates were part of that molasse.

The clasts are remarkably diverse. Their diversity reflects the diversity of rock types uplifted in the Alps, eroded from there, and subsequently mixed together downstream. In the lower image, note the clast above and left of center that consists of smaller clasts in a tan to brown matrix. It's a chunk of conglomerate, in a conglomerate!

A building in Munich of more historical interest with these molassic congomerates in its base is the Alter Hof, the home of Munich's Wittelsbach rulers before the Residenz was built. Just north of the Alter Hof are also some more modern buildings with the same stone.

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