"Many city dwellers have a need, many have made it a habit, to travel 'to the country' during the summer to breathe in the fresh air to their heart's content, to relax or to pass the time. The destination of the hike is often our lovely Alpine world. For many years I have also been rushing ... to the Bavarian mountains ... With its pleasant location, close to the capital and also the mountains, Murnau is one of the most visited summer resorts [...]" noted Johann Nepomuk Ingerle in his 1863 travel guide "Bavaria's Highlands between Lech and Isar". Due to its favorable location on the Staffelsee, Murnau had been recording increasing numbers of visitors since the middle of the 19th century. Thanks to various improvements in bathing facilities and with the help of the Beautification Association founded in 1886, the attractiveness of the place increased - as did the number of hotels, inns and private accommodation. The "List of summer guests staying in Murnau" soon contained well-known names such as Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej Jawlensky, Erma Bossi and Ödön von Horváth. The expansion of the Munich-Murnau-Garmisch railway line to Oberammergau at the beginning of the 20th century resulted in a large increase in visitor numbers. Now city dwellers could travel from Munich to the - in Ödön von Horvath's words - "pretty market" within 90 minutes. The main travel season was mainly summer. Well-off guests rented rooms in the spa house on the Staffelsee, where medicinal baths and drinking cures were carried out, or in prestigious establishments such as the Hotel Post, the Gasthof Seerose, the Bahnhofshotel and the Hotel Schönblick. Many summer vacationers also lived in private quarters that were rented out by Murnau residents as a full-time or part-time business. The number of private landlords was astonishingly high: after the turn of the century, private rooms or summer apartments were available in more than a third of the more than 300 Murnau houses. And even in winter, sporting activities such as ice skating, skiing and “Boandlrodeln” on Lake Staffelsee provided an incentive for tourists to come to Murnau.