Unterföhring is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat of the district gove ...

. It lies adjacent to the northeast side of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, and is one of the nearest

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

s to Munich's central district.

History

Before the establishment of

around 1158, an important crossing existed over the river

Isar The Isar () is a river in Austria and in Bavaria, Germany. Its source is in the Karwendel mountain range of the Alps. The Isar river enters Germany near Mittenwald and flows through Krün, Wallgau, Bad Tölz, Munich, and Landshut before reaching ...

, the ''Föhringer Brücke''. Unterföhring was mentioned in documents for the first time in 1180 as an independent place (inferius Feringin). Unterföhring was part of the Prince-Bishopric of Freising. Since the

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

of 1803 the place belongs to

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. In the course of the administrative reforms in Bavaria the today's municipality was created with the municipality edict of 1818.

Economy

Unterföhring is one of the most important media centers of Germany. The 1950s saw the settlement of the RIVA photometric companies. In 1962 the Bavarian broadcaster ( BR) and

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

took over RIVA Studios. In 1972, Taurus films, the later Kirch Group, was founded. Since 2000, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is also based here. In addition,

Sky Deutschland Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland). It provides a collection of basic and premium digital su ...

and Vodafone Deutschland, the largest cable operators in Germany, have their headquarters in the city. One of the largest independent film production companies in Germany, the

Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft The Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft (NDF) is a German film production company headquartered in Unterföhring near Munich, with locations in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. ndF is one of the largest independent film production companies in Germany. It ...

, has their head offices here. Unterföhring is also the location of MX1 (previously

SES Platform Services SES Platform Services GmbH (previously ASTRA Platform Services GmbH, later MX1, now part of SES Video) was a subsidiary company of SES (owner and operator of the Astra satellites) based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. From its headquarters in Unterf ...

, now part of SES Video) which provides signal processing and distribution for television and radio stations, and broadcast data services. Besides media enterprises, major insurance companies are situated east of the rapid-transit railway line S8 in the trade area of Unterföhring. The largest employer is

Allianz Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...

SE with approximately 6,000 workers. Another employer is the AGIS Allianz Dresdner Information Systems GmbH, an IT service provider and subsidiary of Allianz SE, with a large computing center. Other subsidiaries of the Allianz company are also located in Unterföhring. Also in the vicinity is Swiss Re Life, Unicredit and Health Germany, part of the

Swiss Re Swiss Re Ltd is a Swiss reinsurance company founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by gross premiums written. Swiss Re operates through around 80 offices in 29 countri ...

family of companies, with approximately 600 employees. Owing to the many corporate enterprises, the municipality is free from debt and even has accumulated a large reserve.

Sports

Unterföhring is the smallest community in Germany with an own

Rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club. The

RC Unterföhring The Rugby Club Unterföhring is a German rugby union club from Munich district, currently playing in the 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga and with a second team in the Verbandsliga Bayern. It is based in Unterföhring, the closest suburb to Munich city centre ...

e.V. was founded in 2012 and already fields two XVs in the 2nd Bundesliga and in the Verbandsliga Bayern. After its promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2017 it became the first club in German rugby history to ever come from a village and play in Rugby-Bundesliga. Paying foreign players has helped keeping the team in the 2nd Bundesliga.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unterfohring Municipalities in Bavaria