As the 20th century dawned, the city of Munich found itself at a high point in its cultural history. Capital of Bavaria, but often seen as provincial and parochial, it reinvented itself as a treasure house of art. Its proud promotion of its own artists and thinkers created a cultural impetus that drew in creative minds from across Germany and beyond, turning the city into a magnet for the esoteric and the avant-garde.Buzzing with a seething life of festivals and carnivals, theatres and cabarets, Munich became a haven and an inspiration to many: artists such as Paul Klee, Giorgio de Chirico and Marcel Duchamp, writers such as Thomas Mann and Stefan George, and political figures such as Lenin and Trotsky, spent time there. A succession of movements and breakaway groups took the limelight, from the innovative Munich Secession to the bold colours and expressive harmonies of Der Blaue Reiter: Kandinsky, Marc and Macke. This was also the birthplace of Jugendstil, the German version of Art Nouveau. The work of designers such as Peter Behrens, Hermann Obrist and Richard Riemerschmid became the very embodiment of Jugendstil's whiplash curves and elegant ornamentation.