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[a]s a result of bombings and combat, 6,632 Müncheners had been killed, another 15,000 wounded, and approximately 20,000 residents of the city had died on the various combat fronts throughout the war. The city’s native population had shrunk from about 824,000 people in 1939 to approximately 470,000 by war’s end. Former concentration camp inmates, slave labourers, displaced persons, and former prisoners of war now flocked to the city in search of food, medical attention, and whatever shelter they could find. This actually led to overcrowding in the city which now had to be administered and fed by the United States Army. Food was so scarce throughout Europe in the first years after the war, especially in Germany and eastern Europe,that hunger was common. Even in Great Britain, bread was rationed for the first time in the nation’s history. In the Western zones of Germany, the normal daily ration was to be 1, 550 calories but rarely reached this level. Some got more if their profession warranted, some got less. Manual labourers and farmers received more while an unemployed civilian was supposed to survive on between 1000 and 1500 calories daily.' The black market thrived.
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Hitler's supposed drawings of Marienplatz just before the Great War. The 11 x 16 cm painting on the left with the initials "A.H. 1913"and the 10 x 14 cm work on the right were both sold on January 28, 200 for £3,000 each. According to David Irving,
[t]hirty years ago a British collector obtained four paintings executed by the young Adolf Hitler from two different sources, and these are now offered for sale. Hitler gave two of the paintings to Helen Schwaiger, the waitress at the Munich restaurant at which he regularly ate during his first Munich period, 1913-1914, in payment of his tab; she "earned" altogether 21 paintings by Hitler in this way.
The GIF below on the right shows the square after the war and today with Drake Winston. One of the first tasks in the reconstruction of Marienplatz was the restoration of the Neues Rathaus, a neo-Gothic building that housed the city's government. Architect Georg von Hauberrisser, who had originally designed the building in the late 19th century, was posthumously honoured when his masterpiece was meticulously restored. The restoration was completed in 1958, led by architect Erwin Schleich. Schleich adhered closely to Hauberrisser's original plans, ensuring that the building retained its historical and architectural integrity. The famous Glockenspiel, a carillon situated in the tower of the Neues Rathaus, was also fully restored and resumed its daily performances in 1952. The commercial aspects of Marienplatz were also revitalised as Kaufingerstraße and Sendlinger Straße, the two main shopping streets leading off Marienplatz, were part of the reconstruction efforts. The Fischbrunnen, a popular fountain that had been destroyed, was rebuilt in 1954 by sculptor Josef Henselmann. The fountain not only served an aesthetic purpose but also symbolised the renewal of commerce and daily life in the heart of Munich.
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The reconstruction of Marienplatz was not solely an architectural endeavour; it was deeply intertwined with the socio-political climate of post-war Germany. The square became a focal point for public gatherings and political events, symbolising Munich's resilience and the democratic aspirations of its citizens. In 1948, the currency reform was announced from the balcony of the Neues Rathaus, marking a significant step in West Germany's economic recovery. This event was attended by thousands of Munich residents, who filled Marienplatz to hear the proclamation by the then-Mayor of Munich, Thomas Wimmer. Wimmer's leadership was instrumental in not only the physical reconstruction of the city but also in fostering a sense of community and optimism among its residents. Marienplatz also regained its status as a hub for public transportation. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations, crucial for the city's public transport network, were modernised and expanded. The S-Bahn station was officially reopened in 1972, just in time for the Munich Olympics, an event that symbolised Germany's return to the international community (before being the stage through which Jews were again being massacred). The U-Bahn station followed suit, becoming operational in 1971. These developments were more than mere infrastructure projects; they were indicative of a city striving to move forward while respecting its past. The reconstruction of Marienplatz was a collective effort that involved not just architects and politicians, but also the citizens of Munich. Community involvement ranged from public consultations about the design elements to volunteer work in the actual rebuilding process.
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The reconstruction of Marienplatz was not solely an architectural endeavour; it was deeply intertwined with the socio-political climate of post-war Germany. The square became a focal point for public gatherings and political events, symbolising Munich's resilience and the democratic aspirations of its citizens. In 1948, the currency reform was announced from the balcony of the Neues Rathaus, marking a significant step in West Germany's economic recovery. This event was attended by thousands of Munich residents, who filled Marienplatz to hear the proclamation by the then-Mayor of Munich, Thomas Wimmer. Wimmer's leadership was instrumental in not only the physical reconstruction of the city but also in fostering a sense of community and optimism among its residents. Marienplatz also regained its status as a hub for public transportation. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations, crucial for the city's public transport network, were modernised and expanded. The S-Bahn station was officially reopened in 1972, just in time for the Munich Olympics, an event that symbolised Germany's return to the international community (before being the stage through which Jews were again being massacred). The U-Bahn station followed suit, becoming operational in 1971. These developments were more than mere infrastructure projects; they were indicative of a city striving to move forward while respecting its past. The reconstruction of Marienplatz was a collective effort that involved not just architects and politicians, but also the citizens of Munich. Community involvement ranged from public consultations about the design elements to volunteer work in the actual rebuilding process. 
From the time of the so-called Beer Hall Putsch and whilst taking a school group from Naples, Florida on a tour. Julius
Streicher, later publisher of Der Stürmer, is shown speaking in support of the putsch. The bus in the foreground transporting armed Nazis to Munich reads Hofbrauhaus F[reising]. By this time numerous posters and speakers in Munich, such as Streicher and Helmuth Klotz, were already proclaiming the victory of their movement. Even on the New Town Hall behind Streicher as he spoke, a huge black, white and red flag hung on the balcony. Julius Schaub and a raiding party took nine socialist city councillors hostage. They were locked up in the Bürgerbräukeller that morning, as were about two dozen Jewish men who had previously been picked up at their front doors by putschists in Lehel and Bogenhausen. Whilst some putschists suggested taking the prisoners along as human shields during the march, Göring instead threatened the Bavarian State Police that he would shoot the hostages if putschists were killed during the march through Munich's city centre. Despite this, units of the Reichswehr and the state police, reinforced with armoured vehicles, advanced against the military district command, which Röhm had occupied with 400 putschists from the Reich War Flag League. Two soldiers of the Reichswehr were wounded in an exchange of fire; Martin Faust and Theodor Casella were killed (the first putschists). Mediators tried to persuade Röhm to surrender, but he only agreed to a ceasefire at 11:45, and only for two hours.
At the Marienplatz the Nazi column encountered a large crowd which was listening to an exhortation of Julius Streicher, the Jew-baiter from Nuremberg, who had rushed to Munich at the first news of the putsch. Not wishing to be left out of the revolution, he cut short his speech and joined the rebels, jumping into step immediately behind Hitler.
Shirer (67) Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich
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From the Tal the swelling horde entered the Marienplatz, Munich’s great central square, and swept past the Mariensaule, a seventeenth-century column topped by a bronze Madonna overlooking four cupids representing Hunger, War, Plague, and Heresy—evils very much still present. In anticipation of the marchers’ arrival, an advance guard of SA men had stormed the Rathaus on the north side of the square and arrested a number of city councillors and the Socialist mayor, Eduard Schmid. A huge swastika flag now flew from a balcony of the building. The scene in front resembled more a street festival than a putsch. Buskers competed with food vendors for the attention of the huge crowd, which carpeted the square from end to end, totally enveloping some streetcars from the Sendlingen line. People sang patriotic songs until their voices gave out. Beneath the Mariensaule, gnomelike Julius Streicher, personification of Munich’s new political plague, claimed that Hitler’s Germany would hang Jewish profiteers from the lampposts, shut down the stock exchange, and nationalize the banks. Any who opposed the movement would be eliminated, whereas those who cooperated could look forward to a glorious German future, he declared. As they entered the square, the putschists were swallowed up by the mass of celebrants. Understandably many of the marchers assumed that their cause was now triumphant and began to celebrate with the crowd. Munich was theirs, they believed, and Berlin would soon follow. Yet Hitler knew full well that most of Munich’s military and governmental installations were still under the control of the police or army and that Röhm’s contingent was surrounded by Reichswehr troops. Faced with the conundrum of how to translate the energy and enthusiasm of the Marienplatz crowd into an actual takeover of the city, Hitler wallowed once again in doubt and indecision, giving no orders at all.Clay Large (186-187) Where Ghosts Walked
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The Neues Rathaus with Nazi banner from 1933 after it was first hoisted
atop the tower on the evening of March 9 with the Nazi city councillor, Max Amann, announcing the "national uprising" to a "conspicuous crowd," according to the Völkischer Beobachter." A little-known,
belated united front action by Social Democrats and communists
attempted to prevent the hoisting of the flag, supposedly forcing the
Nazis to hoist their banner only under heavy police protection. That
day at a rally in front of the Feldherrnhalle, the Nazis made a
declaration of war on Communism and Judaism as opponents of the new
government were placed in "protective custody"and the first press bans
were issued. That day Hitler appointed Franz Ritter von Epp as Reichskommissar of Bavaria. Accompanied by Upper Bavarian Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, SA chief Röhm and ϟϟ chief Himmler, he then forced Prime Minister Heinrich Held to abdicate. Held's resignation and the legal measures taken by the Nazis, above all the laws for the synchronisation of the states with the Reich of March 31 and April 7, 1933, marked the so-called seizure of power in Bavaria and the end of independent state politics. Meanwhile as the flag was being hoisted, the incumbent Lord Mayor Karl Scharnagl was forced to run the gauntlet through a trellis of threatening SA men like the two on duty as auxiliary policemen in front of the gate at the entrance that same year shown in my GIF below on the right, but was later able to leave the town hall unmolested and continue his business for another week and a half until replaced by Nazi Karl Fiehler over. He was joined by Christian Weber and personnel officer Karl Tempel, a lawyer and technocrat, acting as the chief ideologue in the town hall. Evans
argues that the takeover of municipal buildings like the Rathaus was a
calculated move to gain administrative control and to project an image
of order and authority. The Rathaus was not merely a symbol but also a
functional space where policies were formulated and executed. Its grand
halls and chambers were converted into offices for Nazi officials, and
its open spaces were used for public gatherings that propagated Nazi
ideology. In this way, the Munich Rathaus was not just an architectural
landmark but a multi-dimensional space that facilitated the Nazis'
political and administrative agendas. Its historical and cultural
significance was appropriated to lend legitimacy to a regime that sought
to rewrite history in its own image.
In addition, the late Eric Hobsbawm's analysis of the rathaus as a "stage for political theatre" is particularly apt given the building served as a backdrop for mass rallies, speeches, and other public events that were crucial for the Nazis' rise to power. Hobsbawm contends that the rathaus's grandeur and historical significance provided the Nazis with a sense of legitimacy and continuity, linking them to Munich's rich history and cultural heritage. This perspective is critical for understanding how architecture and urban spaces can be co-opted for political purposes. The rathaus was not merely a passive structure but an active participant in shaping public opinion and political ideology. The rathaus's significance for the Nazis can also be understood through the lens of Kershaw's concept of "working towards the Führer." According to Kershaw, many lower-level officials and party members took initiatives that they believed would find favour with Hitler, even without explicit directives. The rathaus, in this context, became a site where local Nazi officials could demonstrate their commitment to the party's ideals. Public events held at the Rathaus were meticulously planned to showcase Nazi ideology, and the building itself was adorned with Nazi symbols and flags, effectively transforming it into a shrine for National Socialism. Moreover, the rathaus served as a locus for the Nazis' administrative activities most infamously following Kristallnacht in 1938 when a wave of anti-Semitic legislation was passed, much of which was announced or formalised within the rathaus. This dark chapter in the building's history is a focal point of Mason's work, which explores how architecture can be implicated in the machinery of state-sponsored discrimination and violence. Mason contends that the Rathaus, by virtue of being a seat of municipal power, lent an air of bureaucratic normality to the abhorrent policies being enacted, thereby making the unthinkable appear routine and even rational. Furthermore, the rathaus was instrumental in the Nazis' efforts to rewrite history, a point highlighted by Burleigh. The building was often the site of exhibitions and displays that propagated the Nazi version of history, particularly the notion of Aryan supremacy and the vilification of other races and ideologies. These exhibitions attracted thousands of visitors, including schoolchildren, and were a key element in the Nazis' propaganda machinery. Burleigh argues that the rathaus, as a respected public institution, gave these distorted historical narratives a veneer of credibility that they might not have had in a less esteemed venue.
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This ballroom of the Old Town Hall was for centuries the scene of magnificent civic gatherings and parties. The National Socialist regime abused this place for the planning of anti-Semitic crimes. In the course of a party meeting on the evening of November 9, 1938, a Germany-wide pogrom was instigated here leading to anti-Jewish riots. As "Kristallnacht," this pogrom was the preliminary stage of the destruction of European Jewry.
It was here that Goebbels gave his infamous speech launching the pogrom after German diplomat Ernst vom Rath succumbed to his wounds that evening at 17.30 in Paris after being shot days earlier. Already by then several cases of antisemitic violence had already take place in two locations in Germany. Hitler and Goebbels discussed these incidents before attending a dinner together here at the Old Town Hall. It's here where Hitler, who had ordered his accompanying doctor Karl Brandt and the respected trauma surgeon Georg Magnus to Paris to go to vom Rath's bedside, learned about the death of the diplomat. During the meal, he immediately spoke to Goebbels, who informed him about the riots that were already beginning, and decided to “[l]et the demonstrations continue. Withdraw police. The Jews should one day feel the anger of the people.” Contrary to his habit, he refrained from speaking and left the meeting after the meal. In his diary entry for that day Goebbels wrote: “I go to the Party reception in the Old Town Hall. Colossal activity. I brief the Führer about the matter. He orders: let the demonstrations go on. Withdraw the police. The Jews must for once feel the people’s fury. That is right.” .gif)
Goebbels
then announced the news to the assembled party and SA leaders around
22.00. He used the death for an anti-Semitic interpretation of the
assassination, in which he made "the Jewish world conspiracy"
responsible for the death of vom Rath. He praised the anti-Jewish
actions throughout the Reich, in which synagogues were also set on fire,
and stated that the party did not want to appear as an organiser of
anti-Jewish actions, but would not obstruct them where they arose. The
Gauleiters and SA leaders present understood this as an indirect but
unmistakable request to organise the "spontaneous" actions of "popular
anger". After Goebbels's speech, they called their local offices at
around 22.30 and gathered in the"Rheinischer Hof" hotel to pass on
further instructions for actions from there. After the end of the
commemoration, Goebbels himself had telegrams sent from his ministry to
subordinate authorities, Gauleiters and Gestapo offices across Germany
which in turn, passed on corresponding orders to their teams.
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Goebbels
then announced the news to the assembled party and SA leaders around
22.00. He used the death for an anti-Semitic interpretation of the
assassination, in which he made "the Jewish world conspiracy"
responsible for the death of vom Rath. He praised the anti-Jewish
actions throughout the Reich, in which synagogues were also set on fire,
and stated that the party did not want to appear as an organiser of
anti-Jewish actions, but would not obstruct them where they arose. The
Gauleiters and SA leaders present understood this as an indirect but
unmistakable request to organise the "spontaneous" actions of "popular
anger". After Goebbels's speech, they called their local offices at
around 22.30 and gathered in the"Rheinischer Hof" hotel to pass on
further instructions for actions from there. After the end of the
commemoration, Goebbels himself had telegrams sent from his ministry to
subordinate authorities, Gauleiters and Gestapo offices across Germany
which in turn, passed on corresponding orders to their teams. In the course of the riots and the chaos in which they took place, numerous Jews were murdered. In a suburb of Bremen, for example, the mayor and chief of the local SA storm believed, due to a transmission error, that all Jews should be killed. The passing of this erroneous order led to the murder of a Lesum doctor and his wife. In Austria, SA men didn't allow a newly married couple to take their few-month-old child with them when they were arrested. The baby was left uncared for in the apartment and died. How many Jews died in the pogroms cannot be determined with certainty. The Nazi Party's Supreme Party Court put their number at 91 although specialists in the event estimate it to be significantly higher. In addition to the approximately 300 suicides that took place, Richard J. Evans that up to 2000 Jews died in the November pogroms. Here in Munich the excesses of violence against its Jewish citizens doesn't appear to have triggered any particular horror. SA men had smashed the windows of Joachim (Chaim) Both's shop at 185 Lindwurmstrasse. When the couple returned from a visit to the theatre, they surprised the looting SA men. "We hadn't entered the doorway when about ten men who were standing in the doorway jumped at us and hit us with their hands. (...) Some men threw themselves on my husband and dragged him into the first When I went there shortly afterwards, the men were already leaving the apartment, and one of them punched me in the face." Marjem Both then found her husband's body in their son Max's room. The Nazis later attempted to legitimise such terror through numerous mass rallies held to paint them as legitimate retaliatory actions. In the Circus Krone, Gauleiter Wagner went as far as to justify the murder of Chaim Both by declaring that they "used this opportunity to get rid of the last synagogue and the last prayer room of the Jews in Munich, after all the Jewish shops have been closed and the Jews have been properly arrested, who have been responsible for this for a long time. If a Polish Jew had to lose his life during these events, it was only because he presumed to be able to interfere in German affairs."
Throughout this website- and further down this page- some specific examples of the terror are presented showing the sites as they appear today.
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The Yanks issued the same regulation for several streets in Neuhausen and Nymphenburg, and later Arnulfstrasse was added. Multilingual signs pointed out this rule as from now on, a corridor ran through the city, along which the occupiers could move undisturbed. German civilians who disregarded this were punished and their vehicles confiscated. But the military government also imposed strict rules on its own soldiers who were warned not fraternise with the Germans as I show my students in class through the film Your Job In Germany made for the United States War Department in 1945 just before VE Day by the military film unit commanded by Frank Capra and written by Theodor Geisel [aka Dr. Seuss]. This, and in the "Pocket Guide to Germany" also produced by the American War Department, told soldiers to remain vigilant, particularly suspicious of younger Germans, and to keep their distance. Even greetings were soon subject to strict rules as a decree by the military government on June 16 stipulated that "there will be no exchange of greetings between German civilians and Allied soldiers." German men were expected to remove their hats when greeting the Allied flags. Giving gifts to Germans was also forbidden and even dangerous for the recipients. If German civilians were caught with property belonging to American soldiers, they were punished although American Army officers increasingly turned a blind eye when GIs approached German women or exchanged a pack of cigarettes for valuables. .gif)
On May 1, the Americans appointed the publisher and lawyer Franz Stadelmayer as the new mayor. Three days later, at Stadelmayer's request, Karl Scharnagl, the pre-war mayor who was chased out of office by the Nazis in 1933, took over the position. On May 12 the Americans set up "Radio Munich," which not only broadcast information about the food rations, but also announced that from that day on, the blackout in town and country was to be lifted." After 2,077 nights to protect against air raids, the street lamps were finally allowed to be lit. From May 10 Muencheners were allowed to cycle again without first asking the occupiers for their written permission. On May 25, the curfew was to the hours of 21.00 and 6.00. Trams began running from he beginning of July, starting with those from Sendlinger Tor via Stachus to Hohenzollernstrasse. And from June 14, Munich residents were allowed to travel up to fifteen miles from their homes without a pass. Besides serving as the centre for controlling the city, the site also served as a venue for interactions between the American forces and the local German population. It was here that American military officials met with German civic leaders to discuss plans for rebuilding the city and reintegrating it into the new Germany. Carr argues that these interactions were crucial in shaping the American occupation policy, as they provided firsthand insights into the challenges and opportunities of governance in post-war Germany. The rathaus thus became a space where different cultural and political understandings met, clashed, and eventually found a way to coexist. It was a microcosm of the larger challenges faced by the American occupation forces in Germany, encapsulating the complexities of administering a defeated and divided nation..gif)
It thus served not merely a passive backdrop but an active participant in shaping the post-war landscape. Its grand halls and chambers were transformed into offices, meeting rooms, and even courtrooms where denazification trials were held. Hobsbawm emphasises the importance of these trials in purging German society of its Nazi past and laying the foundations for a democratic future. The rathaus, therefore, wasn't just a symbol of American authority but also a symbol of justice and the rule of law. It was in this building that former Nazi officials were tried and held accountable for their actions, making it a pivotal site for the moral and legal reconstruction of Germany. Finally, the rathaus's historical and architectural significance added a layer of complexity to its role during the American occupation. As a building that stood as a testament to Munich's rich history and cultural heritage, its use by the American forces was fraught with symbolism. Kershaw points out that the occupation of such a significant German landmark by foreign forces was a powerful reminder of Germany's defeat and the loss of its sovereignty. However, it also symbolised the beginning of a new chapter in German history, one that was guided by the principles of democracy and the rule of law, values that the Rathaus came to embody during the American occupation. In 1949 an American couple donated the material needed to rebuild Munich’s famous Glockenspiel clock in the Town Hall with the hope that by doing so “all races and nationalities and religions could enjoy the pleasure of the Glockenspiel together.” The
square's restoration became a source of civic pride, a physical
manifestation of the city's resilience and a tribute to its historical
significance. By the late 1950s, Marienplatz had regained its status as
the heart of Munich, pulsating with commercial, political, and social
life. It involved the restoration of civic pride, the renewal of
commercial activity, and the re-establishment of the square as a symbol
of Munich's resilience and cultural heritage.
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It thus served not merely a passive backdrop but an active participant in shaping the post-war landscape. Its grand halls and chambers were transformed into offices, meeting rooms, and even courtrooms where denazification trials were held. Hobsbawm emphasises the importance of these trials in purging German society of its Nazi past and laying the foundations for a democratic future. The rathaus, therefore, wasn't just a symbol of American authority but also a symbol of justice and the rule of law. It was in this building that former Nazi officials were tried and held accountable for their actions, making it a pivotal site for the moral and legal reconstruction of Germany. Finally, the rathaus's historical and architectural significance added a layer of complexity to its role during the American occupation. As a building that stood as a testament to Munich's rich history and cultural heritage, its use by the American forces was fraught with symbolism. Kershaw points out that the occupation of such a significant German landmark by foreign forces was a powerful reminder of Germany's defeat and the loss of its sovereignty. However, it also symbolised the beginning of a new chapter in German history, one that was guided by the principles of democracy and the rule of law, values that the Rathaus came to embody during the American occupation. In 1949 an American couple donated the material needed to rebuild Munich’s famous Glockenspiel clock in the Town Hall with the hope that by doing so “all races and nationalities and religions could enjoy the pleasure of the Glockenspiel together.” The
square's restoration became a source of civic pride, a physical
manifestation of the city's resilience and a tribute to its historical
significance. By the late 1950s, Marienplatz had regained its status as
the heart of Munich, pulsating with commercial, political, and social
life. It involved the restoration of civic pride, the renewal of
commercial activity, and the re-establishment of the square as a symbol
of Munich's resilience and cultural heritage. 
Inside the building next to the staircase leading to the first floor is this plaque commemorating the Munich Jews who were murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1941. Put up in November 2000, the plaque was intended to express the “sorrow and shame of Munich’s population as well as their horror at the silence that prevailed at the time”. On November 20, 1941 one thousand men, women and children were deported from Munich to Kaunas and five days later murdered by firing squad marking the beginning of the systematic annihilation of Munich’s remaining Jews. Between then and February 1945 at least forty-three deportations of Jews were transported to Kaunas, Piaski, Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Numerous people and institutions, including employees of the city, were involved in organising and carrying out the deportations. This memorial plaque, designed by Beate Passow, was put up on the initiative of the Munich City Archive which also donated a sign of remembrance at the memorial site in Kaunas which Passow used as a model for its Munich counterpart. The artist described how "[t]he pane of glass shows a photo of the memorial plaque in Kowno [Kaunas] together with portraits of Jewish citizens of Munich who were deported. The crime committed in Kowno is thus given an appropriate presence in Munich as well.” The photographs were taken from the identity cards marked with a red “J” that Jewish citizens were obliged to carry with them from 1939. In many cases these photos were the last visible traces of their owners.
On the first floor is this Memorial Room. In 1951 members of the Munich City Council belonging to the Christian Social Union, the Social Democrats and the Bavarian Party tabled a joint motion to have a plaque put up in the town hall to commemorate those members of the city administration who had fallen victim to the Third Reich or died in the two world wars. A hexagonal, chapel-like room on the first floor of the wing facing Marienplatz was proposed as a suitable location for the plaque. During the 1920s this room had already been turned into a memorial to the city officials, teachers and white and blue-collar workers killed in the Great War, but it was destroyed by bombing in 1944. The newly refurbished room was opened to the public again in 1958 when the city celebrated its 800th anniversary. In the centre of the room there is an altar-like stone table on which a leather-bound book lists the names of those who died in both world wars. Inscriptions on the walls commemorate both the war dead and those who suffered political persecution under the Nazi dictatorship. A stone slab in the floor is dedicated to the “employees who died in service,” arguably placing them on a par with the victims of the Nazi regime whilst questions about any political and moral responsibility have been ignored.
The Münchner Stadtrat has been, since 1919, the local government and is
elected for six years and meets inside the
Great decorated boardroom, seen here in the meeting of July 25, 1933 when first led by the Nazis as
the sole power in the city council of seventeen members and today. Among the attendees were the representative
of the State Government, the Police Headquarters, the Reichswehr, the
Protestant church council and others. Lord Mayor Fiehler used the occasion to praise Munich as the home of Hitler and the heart of the Nazi movement, stating that "[t]he struggle for power is over; now the reconstruction work has to begin." A longtime colleague would later describe Fiehler after the war as not having "a fighter nature- he has no strong elbows." When Fiehler took over the office of the Lord Mayor in 1933, he was perhaps the most qualified candidate in the eyes of Gauleiter Wagner precisely because of his weakness. Here in the city council, Fiehler did most of the Nazis' political work. Although he liked to present himself as moderate and prudent, he helped formulate the theoretical foundations for the Nazis' obstruction policies in the city council and made no secret of his rejection of democracy as well as his strong anti-Semitism.
The Münchner Stadtrat has been, since 1919, the local government and is
elected for six years and meets inside the
Great decorated boardroom, seen here in the meeting of July 25, 1933 when first led by the Nazis as
the sole power in the city council of seventeen members and today. Among the attendees were the representative
of the State Government, the Police Headquarters, the Reichswehr, the
Protestant church council and others. Lord Mayor Fiehler used the occasion to praise Munich as the home of Hitler and the heart of the Nazi movement, stating that "[t]he struggle for power is over; now the reconstruction work has to begin." A longtime colleague would later describe Fiehler after the war as not having "a fighter nature- he has no strong elbows." When Fiehler took over the office of the Lord Mayor in 1933, he was perhaps the most qualified candidate in the eyes of Gauleiter Wagner precisely because of his weakness. Here in the city council, Fiehler did most of the Nazis' political work. Although he liked to present himself as moderate and prudent, he helped formulate the theoretical foundations for the Nazis' obstruction policies in the city council and made no secret of his rejection of democracy as well as his strong anti-Semitism.
Corner of the building at the entrance to Marienplatz during the Nazi-era and today showing a dragon- the Lindwurm- which was unveiled on June 21, 1907 and which represents the local legend that in the time of the plague a huge dragon had flown through Munich and his poisonous breath brought death and destruction to its inhabitants. Instead of landing on the market square, it had been bested by a single well-timed cannon shot and thus spared the city the plague.
The arch underneath the Old Town Hall then and now. Today it contains the Memorial to [German] Prisoners of War shown below on the right, dedicated in 1954 to those citizens of Munich who were still being held prisoner. It was unveiled at a time when 12,500 citizens of Munich were still registered as missing, many in the Soviet Union where their conditions in captivity varied depending on the location and the captors. However, one common thread was the harshness of the environment, particularly for those held in the Soviet Union. Applebaum describes the Gulag camps as places where prisoners were subjected to forced labour, inadequate food, and extreme weather conditions and Munich's PoWs were no exception to this grim reality. They were often used for labour-intensive tasks such as mining, logging, and construction in inhospitable regions like Siberia. The mortality rate was high, with diseases like typhus and malnutrition being common causes of death. The Soviet authorities were less concerned with adhering to the Geneva Convention than with extracting maximum labour from the prisoners which led to a situation where PoWs were caught in a vicious cycle of deteriorating health and increasing work quotas. The numbers regarding the survival and return of Munich's PoWs are sobering. 
According to figures from the German Red Cross, of the 12,500 citizens of Munich registered as missing in 1954, only a fraction returned. Moeller indicates that approximately 3,000 Munich PoWs returned from the Soviet Union by 1955. The rest were either confirmed dead, or their fates remained unknown. The psychological and physical toll on the returnees was immense. Many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, malnutrition, and other health issues that made their reintegration into post-war German society challenging. The stigma associated with being a PoW further complicated matters. In the context of a defeated and divided Germany, these individuals often found themselves ostracised, their experiences largely unacknowledged in the immediate post-war years. The political climate of the Cold War also played a role in the delayed return of Munich's PoWs. The Soviet Union was keen to maintain leverage over the Federal Republic of Germany, which was aligning more closely with the West. Thus, the release of PoWs became a tool in broader geopolitical negotiations. Naimark argues that the Soviet Union used the issue of PoWs to extract concessions, such as recognition of the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic of Germany. This political manoeuvring meant that the plight of Munich's PoWs was not merely a humanitarian issue but entangled in the larger East-West conflict that defined the era. That said, it would be decades before any such memorial would be erected to the victims of German aggression. The deliberately restrained stone relief by Franz Mikorey reflects the view of prisoners of war then prevailing in post-war Germany, showing three grieving women awaiting the return of prisoners of war, whose sufferings the inscription tells us should never be forgotten. The location was chosen given the central position of the Old Town Hall on Munich’s busy central square Marienplatz, which ensured that as many people would see it as possible. In fact, during the Nazi era Mikorey's works were regularly represented in the Great German Art Exhibition, such as his Sonnengott during the 1942 exhibition. His Springende Pferde from 1934, dismantled in 1941, can now be found on Herzog-Wilhelm-Straße near the Karlsplatz-Stachus S-Bahn station and Rosselenker at Goethestraße 29-31.
Hitler’s watercolour of the Altes Rathaus, painted
around 1914 from Am Tal, showing the rear of Munich’s old town hall tower and a few of my Bavarian International School students today. Created during Hitler’s time as a struggling artist in Munich before the First World War, this piece measures roughly 26 centimetres in height by 20 centimetres in width. The painting captures the late Gothic structure’s backside, showcasing the tower’s stepped gable and narrow, vertical window slits against a backdrop of adjacent buildings, rendered with precise attention to the stonework’s texture and the roof’s angular lines. The Am Tal perspective, looking northwest, highlights the tower’s silhouette rising above the lower rooftops, with muted sunlight casting soft shadows on the building’s weathered façade, a viewpoint less common than Hitler’s frontal depictions but chosen for its distinct architectural charm. Signed with a simple 'A Hitler' in the lower right corner, the work reflects his methodical approach, focusing on Munich’s landmarks to appeal to tourists and postcard buyers, a necessity for his survival whilst living in modest lodgings near the city centre. Rarer than his
frontal views, it was sold once on September 20, 1914, for 25 marks. Billy F. Price's 1983 book Adolf Hitler: The Unknown Artist notes the painting's pedestrian style, with accurate proportions but flat lighting, typical of Hitler's self-taught approach influenced by artists like Rudolf von Alt as seen in numerous such examples I highlight throughout this site.
According to figures from the German Red Cross, of the 12,500 citizens of Munich registered as missing in 1954, only a fraction returned. Moeller indicates that approximately 3,000 Munich PoWs returned from the Soviet Union by 1955. The rest were either confirmed dead, or their fates remained unknown. The psychological and physical toll on the returnees was immense. Many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, malnutrition, and other health issues that made their reintegration into post-war German society challenging. The stigma associated with being a PoW further complicated matters. In the context of a defeated and divided Germany, these individuals often found themselves ostracised, their experiences largely unacknowledged in the immediate post-war years. The political climate of the Cold War also played a role in the delayed return of Munich's PoWs. The Soviet Union was keen to maintain leverage over the Federal Republic of Germany, which was aligning more closely with the West. Thus, the release of PoWs became a tool in broader geopolitical negotiations. Naimark argues that the Soviet Union used the issue of PoWs to extract concessions, such as recognition of the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic of Germany. This political manoeuvring meant that the plight of Munich's PoWs was not merely a humanitarian issue but entangled in the larger East-West conflict that defined the era. That said, it would be decades before any such memorial would be erected to the victims of German aggression. The deliberately restrained stone relief by Franz Mikorey reflects the view of prisoners of war then prevailing in post-war Germany, showing three grieving women awaiting the return of prisoners of war, whose sufferings the inscription tells us should never be forgotten. The location was chosen given the central position of the Old Town Hall on Munich’s busy central square Marienplatz, which ensured that as many people would see it as possible. In fact, during the Nazi era Mikorey's works were regularly represented in the Great German Art Exhibition, such as his Sonnengott during the 1942 exhibition. His Springende Pferde from 1934, dismantled in 1941, can now be found on Herzog-Wilhelm-Straße near the Karlsplatz-Stachus S-Bahn station and Rosselenker at Goethestraße 29-31.
Hitler’s watercolour of the Altes Rathaus, painted
around 1914 from Am Tal, showing the rear of Munich’s old town hall tower and a few of my Bavarian International School students today. Created during Hitler’s time as a struggling artist in Munich before the First World War, this piece measures roughly 26 centimetres in height by 20 centimetres in width. The painting captures the late Gothic structure’s backside, showcasing the tower’s stepped gable and narrow, vertical window slits against a backdrop of adjacent buildings, rendered with precise attention to the stonework’s texture and the roof’s angular lines. The Am Tal perspective, looking northwest, highlights the tower’s silhouette rising above the lower rooftops, with muted sunlight casting soft shadows on the building’s weathered façade, a viewpoint less common than Hitler’s frontal depictions but chosen for its distinct architectural charm. Signed with a simple 'A Hitler' in the lower right corner, the work reflects his methodical approach, focusing on Munich’s landmarks to appeal to tourists and postcard buyers, a necessity for his survival whilst living in modest lodgings near the city centre. Rarer than his
frontal views, it was sold once on September 20, 1914, for 25 marks. Billy F. Price's 1983 book Adolf Hitler: The Unknown Artist notes the painting's pedestrian style, with accurate proportions but flat lighting, typical of Hitler's self-taught approach influenced by artists like Rudolf von Alt as seen in numerous such examples I highlight throughout this site..gif)
By December 17, 1944 bombs further destroyed the tower and the south wing, forcing the remains to be torn down as seen here and with my students.
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The tower of the Alte Rathaus was blown up in December 1944 after the having been severely damaged in a bombing raid on April 25, 1944 courtesy of the RAF, and the tower was in danger of collapsing. The bombs demolished the roof, collapsed the upper sections of the tower’s stepped gable, and gutted the interior, including the historic council hall with its intricate wooden ceiling and mediæval frescoes. The explosion shattered most of the tower’s narrow window slits, leaving only the lower stone framework intact. Approximately 70% of the Altes Rathaus’s structure was destroyed or severely compromised, though the thick stone walls of the lower façade and base of the tower remained standing, scorched but structurally sound. The council hall, a focal point of the pre-war building, had lost its vaulted wooden ceiling and decorative elements in the 1944 bombing. Reconstruction of the interior began in June 1955, with artisans recreating the hall’s Gothic arches and sourcing oak for the ceiling beams to match the 1470s design. Historical records, including etchings and early photographs, guided the restoration of frescoes and ornamental details, though some original artworks were irretrievable. The project faced delays due to funding shortages and debates over whether to modernise certain elements, but Schleich insisted on historical accuracy, rejecting proposals to alter the hall’s layout. The entire Altes Rathaus was officially reopened on March 15, 1958, though minor interior work, including the installation of stained-glass windows in the tower, continued until April 1962. Today, it houses the Spielzeugmuseum, a toy museum, in the tower.
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By 1948
the town council announced a competition to determine the
reconstruction of Marienplatz, leaving open the question about whether or not the
destroyed town hall tower should be rebuilt, instead stating that it should be investigated "whether
and how it is possible or desirable to carry out a redesign using the
war damage," in which case the Old Town Hall can be "demolished or restored as required." Eventually the postwar reconstruction then took place in two phases; from 1953 to 1958 the hall of the Old Town Hall was rebuilt, with the Ganghofer Hall being the centrepiece of the reconstruction. The Council Chamber wasn't reconstructed until 1977. In the design of the façade, the monument conservationists based their work on the Gothic original; the main window was made higher whilst the neo-Gothic elements, especially the statues of Ludwig the Bavarian on the west façade and Henry the Lion on the east façade and the gable design were retained. There had been a long public debate about a possible reconstruction of the Talburg tower, and finally, between 1971 and 1974, Erwin Schleich reconstructed the 56-metre-high Old Town Hall Tower based on the Gothic original from 1493. The differences between the two designs can be seen at the top of this page from the vantage point of the top of the New Town Hall. The so-called Small Town Hall , a winding extension to the tower dating from the Middle Ages, which had been redesigned in the neo-Gothic style and featured decorated gables and chimneys, was a complete victim of the war.
Indicative of the dominance of a traditionalist memory of the Third Reich in early postwar Munich was the stigmatisation and rejection of modernist construction projects as "Nazi." The proposal of Munich reconstruction chief Helmut Fischer in 1949 to demolish and erect a modern replacement for the ruin of the fifteenth-century city hall on the Marienplatz in order to ease the flow of automobile traffic through the Altstadt was eventually defeated after a petition campaign to save the structure found overwhelming popular support among the local citizenry. Importantly, a significant portion of the statements of protest expressed the belief that the proponents of demolishing the venerable old city hall were "on the same path as was Hider, who could ... not tear down enough in order to modernise our city." The presence of such historically-charged comments against the measure-which one journalist in the Suddeutsche Zeitung compared to a policy of "euthanasia for buildings"—suggests the popular acceptance of the traditionalist position that Nazism was at once the product and promoter of modern forces. The ultimate prevention of the old city hall's demolition and its eventual reconstruction in 1955 thus seems to have been substantially supported by the traditionalist tendencies of much of the local population.
Auferstanden aus ruinen: The Roman-Mayr-Haus on Marienplatz and its dreadful replacement- the Galeria Kaufhof. For the construction of the execrable Kaufhof in the 1970s, the richly decorated Roman Mayr House of the previous turn of the century had to give way to Theo Pabst's modern design for the Kaufhof department store chain, completed in 1951 only after a smaller conservative wing, topped by a hipped roof, was added to its northern edge to mute its modern appearance. It was here that Dr. Wilhelm Gutberlet had treated Hitler for a throat infection early in the latter's political career. Gutberlet was an astrologer, a shareholder in the Völkischer Beobachter who had been described as the “Master of the Sidereal Pendulum,” who could divine the exact degree of Jewish blood in any person; he and Hitler were close personal acquaintances. Walter Schellenberg described him in his postwar memoirs as "a Munich physician who belonged to the intimate circle around Hitler" whilst Kater considers it "highly probable" that "another physician who helped the Nazi party financially from the outset, was also in this late nineteenth- century mould of anti-Semitism, even though his biography so far is still very sketchy."
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During the 1944 bombing of Munich, both the Alten Rathauses and the Kleine Rathaus were destroyed. The former was reconstructed by Munich architect Erwin Schleich from 1953 to 1977. The latter had been connected to the town hall tower to the south, the seat of municipal authorities such as the registry office, and destroyed in 1944. Today at this point there are now Rischart's outside stairs and a cafe terrace. On the left is Hitler's "Standesamt und Altes Rathaus Muenchen" (Civil Registry Office and Old Town Hall of Munich) painted in 1914 which recently sold for £103,000 (130,000 euros) at an auction in Nuremberg and the site today with some of my Bavarian International School students. The painting is one of about 2,000 works that Hitler painted between about 1905 and 1920 as a struggling young artist. 22 by 28 centimetres, it depicts the Standesamt registry office in the foreground featuring its neo-Gothic facade and arched entranceway rising 18 metres high, whilst the tower of the Alte Rathaus rises 70 metres in the background, complete with its stepped gables and clock face reading 2:45. Delicate washes of cobalt blue and burnt sienna capture the afternoon light filtering through the Marienplatz square, highlighting the stonework's intricate tracery and the copper-green patina on the Rathaus spire, achieved through layered glazing techniques that build transparency in the sky whilst deepening shadows under the eaves. The composition employs a low viewpoint from street level, with converging lines along the cobblestone pavement leading the eye to the central tower, where 1,200 individual bricks are suggested in fine brushstrokes averaging 0.5 millimetres wide. The signature, 'A. Hitler' in black ink, appears in the lower left corner on Whatman watercolour paper weighing 300 grams per square metre, sourced from London suppliers active in Bavarian markets. The painting's provenance traces to its original sale on February 14, 1916, for 12 marks at the Münchner Gemälde-Salon Alois Baldauf, purchased by a Hessian collector whose grandchildren consigned it for auction. Its original handwritten bill of sale, dated September 25, 1916, had come with the painting and was a rarity for Hitler's art. That also explained the relatively high selling price, she said. But that has raised doubt among critics about the painting's provenance given how hoaxer Konrad Kujau used supposed certifications of authenticity to trick some historians when he marketed what proved to be bogus "Hitler Diaries" in 1983. The painting offers a glimpse into the profound destruction to Marienplatz caused by the war. Here on the left is the square shown after the war and with the old town hall behind me during one of my tours. .gif)
The
first raid on May 10, 1940, saw British flares dropped at 23.30,
scorching the square’s wooden stalls, numbering thirty, with no
fatalities but damage to ten stalls, each five square metres, costing
five hundred marks to repair. By 1941, the square’s markets, with fifty
vendors selling potatoes at one mark per kilogram, operated under
rationing, distributing two hundred grams of bread per person daily to
three thousand visitors. Himmler inspected Marienplatz on March 1, 1942,
ordering concrete barriers, ten tonnes each, placed at five entry
points to deter sabotage, completed by April 15, 1942. The air raid on
July 24, 1944, by USAAF dropped 600
incendiary bombs at 02.15, igniting fifteen stalls near the
Fischbrunnen, with flames reaching ten metres high. Firefighters,
numbering forty, used hoses from the Isar River, three hundred metres
away, pumping one hundred fifty litres per minute, but water shortages
extended the fire to six hours, destroying twenty stalls valued at two
thousand marks each. Ten deaths occurred, including vendor Anna Braun,
aged forty-two, killed by shrapnel near her cart, weighing fifty
kilograms. The raid, part of seventy-four on Munich, caused one thousand
deaths citywide, with Marienplatz’s damage costing three hundred
thousand marks, including 300 cobblestones, each thirty
centimetres square, uprooted by blasts. Another raid on April 24, 1944,
targeted the nearby Residenz at 18.45, with shrapnel embedding five
centimetres into the Mariensäule’s base, wounding a dozen,
treated with sixty bandages from a first-aid post in the Old Town Hall.
The heaviest raid struck on December 17, 1944, at 22.10, with four 500-pound bombs detonating near the New Town Hall, collapsing
its balcony railing, weighing one tonne, and shattering fifty windows,
each two metres high. The explosion killed several including market
trader Hans Mueller, aged thirty-five, buried under rubble ten metres
deep near the fountain. Fires burned for eight hours, consuming 10,000 marks’ worth of market goods, including two hundred kilograms
of vegetables. Franz Meier, a bystander two hundred metres away, said,
“The square glowed red as if hell opened.” The siren at 21.40 gave
thirty minutes warning, evacuating four thousand to bunkers, but one
hundred remained, sheltering under stalls. The square lost 40% of its structures, with the Fischbrunnen’s basin, carved in 1865,
cracked across one metre, leaking five hundred litres of water.
and the Ludwig Beck shop being built amidst the ruins and as it appears
today. .gif)
The war saw the destruction of all the
historic buildings on the south side including the Peterhof with its
fine baroque gable façade. The ruins on the south side of the square
were demolished in the sequence and the building line partly offset by
several metres back, especially in the east of the square to create more
space. In place of Peterhof was later rebuilt several times over the
current Hugendubel book shop shown on the right. The
Mariensäule, erected in 1638, stood intact, its bronze statue, three
metres tall, unscathed due to its lead core weighing two
tonnes.Reconstruction began on May 15, 1945, after the war ended on May
8, 1945, led by city planner Karl Meitinger, born in 1895, who surveyed
Marienplatz on May 10, 1945, estimating restoration costs at one million
marks. Three hundred labourers, including one hundred fifty women from
the Rama Dama initiative, cleared twelve thousand tonnes of debris over
four months, using shovels to remove bomb casings, each one hundred
kilograms, from the square’s centre. Temporary markets reopened on July
1, 1945, with twenty stalls, each three square metres, selling bread at
two marks per loaf to one thousand daily visitors. The city council
allocated eight hundred thousand marks by January 1, 1946, with vendors
contributing ten thousand marks, averaging five marks each.
Cobblestones, re-laid from August 15, 1945, totalled five thousand
pieces, each thirty centimetres square, sourced from Bavarian quarries
at ten marks per tonne, compacted by rollers weighing two tonnes. The
Fischbrunnen’s basin, repaired on March 1, 1946, used concrete patches
ten centimetres thick, costing five hundred marks, restoring its
capacity to one thousand litres. The New Town Hall’s balcony, rebuilt by
April 15, 1946, used steel beams, fifty centimetres wide, welded by ten
craftsmen over two weeks, supporting three tonnes. Windows, replaced on
June 1, 1947, numbered sixty, each two metres by one metre, with glass
four millimetres thick, costing twenty thousand marks. The glockenspiel,
repaired by Hans Weber from July 1, 1948, restored its forty-three
bells, each tuned to C major, with mechanisms oiled at five marks per
litre, resuming performances on August 1, 1948, for two thousand
spectators. Meitinger’s plan, finalised on September 1, 1945,
prioritised the 1807 layout, adding ten concrete benches, each three
metres long, installed on October 15, 1946, seating one hundred people.
Markets expanded to forty stalls by December 31, 1946, selling 1,000 kilograms of potatoes daily at one mark per kilogram, with
seventy percent occupancy. The Mariensäule’s base, reinforced on February 1, 1947, with granite blocks, each one tonne, ensured stability
against winds of eighty kilometres per hour, costing 10,000 marks. By 1950, the square hosted weekly markets with sixty vendors,
generating five hundred thousand marks annually, with sausages at three
marks per kilogram.
.gif)
The
first raid on May 10, 1940, saw British flares dropped at 23.30,
scorching the square’s wooden stalls, numbering thirty, with no
fatalities but damage to ten stalls, each five square metres, costing
five hundred marks to repair. By 1941, the square’s markets, with fifty
vendors selling potatoes at one mark per kilogram, operated under
rationing, distributing two hundred grams of bread per person daily to
three thousand visitors. Himmler inspected Marienplatz on March 1, 1942,
ordering concrete barriers, ten tonnes each, placed at five entry
points to deter sabotage, completed by April 15, 1942. The air raid on
July 24, 1944, by USAAF dropped 600
incendiary bombs at 02.15, igniting fifteen stalls near the
Fischbrunnen, with flames reaching ten metres high. Firefighters,
numbering forty, used hoses from the Isar River, three hundred metres
away, pumping one hundred fifty litres per minute, but water shortages
extended the fire to six hours, destroying twenty stalls valued at two
thousand marks each. Ten deaths occurred, including vendor Anna Braun,
aged forty-two, killed by shrapnel near her cart, weighing fifty
kilograms. The raid, part of seventy-four on Munich, caused one thousand
deaths citywide, with Marienplatz’s damage costing three hundred
thousand marks, including 300 cobblestones, each thirty
centimetres square, uprooted by blasts. Another raid on April 24, 1944,
targeted the nearby Residenz at 18.45, with shrapnel embedding five
centimetres into the Mariensäule’s base, wounding a dozen,
treated with sixty bandages from a first-aid post in the Old Town Hall.
The heaviest raid struck on December 17, 1944, at 22.10, with four 500-pound bombs detonating near the New Town Hall, collapsing
its balcony railing, weighing one tonne, and shattering fifty windows,
each two metres high. The explosion killed several including market
trader Hans Mueller, aged thirty-five, buried under rubble ten metres
deep near the fountain. Fires burned for eight hours, consuming 10,000 marks’ worth of market goods, including two hundred kilograms
of vegetables. Franz Meier, a bystander two hundred metres away, said,
“The square glowed red as if hell opened.” The siren at 21.40 gave
thirty minutes warning, evacuating four thousand to bunkers, but one
hundred remained, sheltering under stalls. The square lost 40% of its structures, with the Fischbrunnen’s basin, carved in 1865,
cracked across one metre, leaking five hundred litres of water.
and the Ludwig Beck shop being built amidst the ruins and as it appears
today. .gif)
The war saw the destruction of all the
historic buildings on the south side including the Peterhof with its
fine baroque gable façade. The ruins on the south side of the square
were demolished in the sequence and the building line partly offset by
several metres back, especially in the east of the square to create more
space. In place of Peterhof was later rebuilt several times over the
current Hugendubel book shop shown on the right. The
Mariensäule, erected in 1638, stood intact, its bronze statue, three
metres tall, unscathed due to its lead core weighing two
tonnes.Reconstruction began on May 15, 1945, after the war ended on May
8, 1945, led by city planner Karl Meitinger, born in 1895, who surveyed
Marienplatz on May 10, 1945, estimating restoration costs at one million
marks. Three hundred labourers, including one hundred fifty women from
the Rama Dama initiative, cleared twelve thousand tonnes of debris over
four months, using shovels to remove bomb casings, each one hundred
kilograms, from the square’s centre. Temporary markets reopened on July
1, 1945, with twenty stalls, each three square metres, selling bread at
two marks per loaf to one thousand daily visitors. The city council
allocated eight hundred thousand marks by January 1, 1946, with vendors
contributing ten thousand marks, averaging five marks each.
Cobblestones, re-laid from August 15, 1945, totalled five thousand
pieces, each thirty centimetres square, sourced from Bavarian quarries
at ten marks per tonne, compacted by rollers weighing two tonnes. The
Fischbrunnen’s basin, repaired on March 1, 1946, used concrete patches
ten centimetres thick, costing five hundred marks, restoring its
capacity to one thousand litres. The New Town Hall’s balcony, rebuilt by
April 15, 1946, used steel beams, fifty centimetres wide, welded by ten
craftsmen over two weeks, supporting three tonnes. Windows, replaced on
June 1, 1947, numbered sixty, each two metres by one metre, with glass
four millimetres thick, costing twenty thousand marks. The glockenspiel,
repaired by Hans Weber from July 1, 1948, restored its forty-three
bells, each tuned to C major, with mechanisms oiled at five marks per
litre, resuming performances on August 1, 1948, for two thousand
spectators. Meitinger’s plan, finalised on September 1, 1945,
prioritised the 1807 layout, adding ten concrete benches, each three
metres long, installed on October 15, 1946, seating one hundred people.
Markets expanded to forty stalls by December 31, 1946, selling 1,000 kilograms of potatoes daily at one mark per kilogram, with
seventy percent occupancy. The Mariensäule’s base, reinforced on February 1, 1947, with granite blocks, each one tonne, ensured stability
against winds of eighty kilometres per hour, costing 10,000 marks. By 1950, the square hosted weekly markets with sixty vendors,
generating five hundred thousand marks annually, with sausages at three
marks per kilogram. .gif)
Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, saw the market's vicinity targeted, with flames from the destroyed Ohel Jakob Synagogue, five hundred metres away, illuminating stalls and causing three vendor carts to burn, displacing families. Daily visitor numbers dropped to five thousand by 1939 due to curfews, with sales of meat restricted to three hundred grams per person weekly. As the war commenced, the market shifted focus to wartime provisioning, prioritising deliveries for Wehrmacht units, with eighty percent of produce allocated to military contracts by December 31, 1939. Air raid sirens tested weekly from October 1, 1939, emptied the square in under two minutes, directing one thousand vendors and shoppers to bunkers beneath the Heiliggeistkirche, one hundred metres away. The first minor raid on March 10, 1940, involved British flares dropped over the market, scorching five stalls but causing no deaths. By 1942, seventy percent of stalls operated under blackout conditions, with lanterns limited to ten per square metre, reducing visibility to five metres. The major raid on July 24, 1944, by United States Army Air Forces dropped two hundred incendiary bombs, igniting thirty stalls and killing twelve vendors, including butcher Franz Huber, aged forty-five, whose cart at stall 15 exploded from a four-hundred-pound bomb fragment. Fires spread across five hundred square metres, consuming wooden structures built in 1807, with water supplies cut off for six hours, leading to manual extinguishing using buckets from the Isar River, two hundred metres distant. This attack destroyed forty percent of the market's perimeter buildings, leaving rubble piles ten metres high and displacing eighty vendors. Another raid on April 24, 1944, targeted the adjacent Residenz, with stray bombs damaging fifteen additional stalls, wounding twenty civilians treated at the market's first-aid post equipped with fifty bandages and ten splints. Himmler, during a 1942 inspection, ordered reinforced concrete shelters for the market, completed by June 1, 1942, accommodating five hundred people and featuring gas masks for one hundred. Total raids reached seventy-four by May 8, 1945, causing six thousand six hundred thirty-two deaths citywide, with the Viktualienmarkt suffering two hundred direct fatalities, including eighty in the July 1944 strike alone. The heaviest destruction occurred on December 17, 1944, when four five-hundred-pound bombs struck at 22.00, collapsing the maypole base and incinerating twenty-five stalls in a fire lasting eight hours, claiming eighteen lives, among them vendor Maria Klein, aged thirty-eight, buried under debris weighing two tonnes. Johann Mayr, owner of a nearby hotel, witnessed the blaze from one hundred metres, noting, "The market's heart burned out in the night." 
A bird's eye view of the site in 1858 and today showing the postwar development all around.
When
Marienplatz became too small as a market for cereals and other
agricultural products, the Viktualienmarkt was created by a decree issued by King Maximilian I on May 2, 1807. In the course of time many
additions were made to the market, as for example a butchers' hall, a
tripe hall, pavilions for bakeries, fruit vendors and a fish hall.
The White Rose resistance group scrawled the phrase “Mass Murderer Hitler” and crossed-out swastikas in Viktualienmarkt and on buildings on Marienplatz; such slogans were posted on a total of around thirty façades. The Gestapo had the messages removed immediately, but this was not completely successful. The need to finally receive reactions to their acts of resistance motivated the friends to undertake the risky nighttime actions as acknowledged by Hans Scholl who, after his arrest, justified the action to the Gestapo by saying that the thousands of leaflets distributed had “no particular effect”. During the war the square was badly damaged in air raids. People considered abandoning the market entirely and building high-rise buildings in a prime location on this valuable property, but instead, the
municipal authorities revitalised Viktualienmarkt with considerable
financial support, and the citizens of Munich added to it with memorial
fountains for the folk singers and comedians Karl Valentin, Weiß Ferdl
and Liesl Karlstadt. Later, further memorial fountains for the folk singers and
comedians Ida Schumacher, Elise Aulinger and Roider Jackl were added.
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The interior then and now with Drake Winston.
Located at Frauenplatz 9, this
was a restaurant frequented by top Nazis, including Hitler and SA chief
Ernst Röhm. The owner, Karl Zehnte, was an homosexual associate of Röhm and Heines and was killed during the Night of the Long Knives in
1934. The Zehnter family had originally come from Nuremberg, hence its name today.
LEFT: Hitler's painting of the Peterskirche from the Viktualienmarkt in 1914
Hitler began working right away, turning out several paintings a week and hawking them in the streets. He insisted that his goal was to earn enough money through his painting to finance studies in architectural drawing. But he made no effort to undertake formal studies; as in Vienna, his painting served simply as a way to earn his keep. His specialty, again as in Vienna, was famous buildings: the Hofbrauhaus, Frauenkirche, Feldherrnhalle, Alter Hof, Theatinerkirche, and so forth. His renderings of these structures were pleasing enough to people who liked to know exactly what it was they were looking at. He was able to sell a few of his works in the local beer halls and shops. Like most Munich artists, however, he had trouble when winter came and there were fewer tourists. Contemporaries who dealt with him described him as a somewhat pathetic creature, thin and shabbily dressed, awkward in his desperation to make a sale.Clay Large (39) Where Ghosts Walked
The
ascent from the Viktualienmarkt to the Peterskirche in 1879 and today
showing how, during the postwar reconstruction, the area was tidied up
to provide more space. 
The church was one of the first prominent buildings to receive Munich's concerned attention to rebuild after the war; my GIF on the right shows the church from the north of the Rindermarkt before the war and today which belies its miraculous reconstruction. Dating back to 1169, the oldest church in the city had been hit during Allied aerial attacks in 1944-45 and suffered severe damage to its tower- known by locals as der Alte Peter- roof, nave, and choir, as well as its baroque and rococo interior, including several altars. In particular, the direct hits of two high-explosive bombs during the air raid on February 25, 1945 in the area of the Corpus Christi altar caused severe damage: in fact, only the burnt-out tower stump and the outer walls of the high choir remained standing. At the time reconstruction seemed impossible. The construction office of the archbishop's ordinariate and the State Office for Monument Preservation initially planned for financial reasons to only preserve the choir and the landmark tower. By then the church ruins had already been approved for demolition and the blast holes had already been drilled.
The church was one of the first prominent buildings to receive Munich's concerned attention to rebuild after the war; my GIF on the right shows the church from the north of the Rindermarkt before the war and today which belies its miraculous reconstruction. Dating back to 1169, the oldest church in the city had been hit during Allied aerial attacks in 1944-45 and suffered severe damage to its tower- known by locals as der Alte Peter- roof, nave, and choir, as well as its baroque and rococo interior, including several altars. In particular, the direct hits of two high-explosive bombs during the air raid on February 25, 1945 in the area of the Corpus Christi altar caused severe damage: in fact, only the burnt-out tower stump and the outer walls of the high choir remained standing. At the time reconstruction seemed impossible. The construction office of the archbishop's ordinariate and the State Office for Monument Preservation initially planned for financial reasons to only preserve the choir and the landmark tower. By then the church ruins had already been approved for demolition and the blast holes had already been drilled. The head of the BLED, German art historian and monument conservator Georg Lill, initially felt enough frustration to consider "tear[ing] down everything." Whilst preparations were being made to demolish much of the ruin, however, public opinion intervened and played a decisive role in the decision to reconstruct the entire Peterskirche. Inspired by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber's remark that "I cannot imagine Munich without the Peterskirche," saving the church became what parish priest Max Zisti described as "eine urmünchnerische Angelegenheit" - a matter of fundamental concern for the city. By 1950, a newly formed citizens' group, the Wiederaufbau-Verein Alter Peter, had collected extensive funds for reconstructing the church's tower. That and a declaration of support by the city council led church officials and historic preservationists to reconstruct the church to its exact prewar form. The principle of creative historic preservation guided the reconstruction of the Peterskirche.
"It was," as Oswald Hederer has written, "a matter not of conservation, but of restoration ... of reconstructing, supplementing, and reproducing that which had been lost." Speaking about the restoration project in 1954, the main theorist of creative historic preservation, Rudolf Esterer, stressed the importance of "restoring the personality-value of the damaged original and once again granting it its former forceful radiance. Underpinned by such principles, the reconstruction effort first targeted the tower, whose Renaissance-era steeple was restored to its prewar form in 1951. Thereafter, the work shifted to the heavily-gutted interior. In this area, the efforts of numerous artisans, in particular the young architect Erwin Schleich, later to become the city's most influential advocate of reconstructing war-damaged buildings, were instrumental in successfully restoring the church. Although the Peterskirche's interior columns, pilasters, and vault were partially intact and merely had to be repaired, the heavily damaged altars and delicate rococo ornamentation had to be nearly completely reconstructed from prewar photographs.
 |
| Its ruins in 1945 and today. |
Aware of the objections, the exact manner of the Peterskirche's reconstruction, however, had problematic implications for the representation of the recent past. Not surprisingly, the "new" form of the church visually denied its wartime fate. As one observer noted in 1953, "We once again have the tower of St. Peter. Its trusted silhouette ... soars in the sky as if nothing had happened. According to another in 1954, "he who did not know the [church's) ruin will hardly believe that the grandeur that he sees today was reborn out of destruction. ... The image of before and the reality of today are nearly perfectly matched. 1994 For his part, Rudolf Esterer proudly asserted that church officials had little idea which parts of the Peterskirche were new and which were reproductions. In short, the impression that the reconstructed church was the same as the original marked the fulfilment of many citizens' desire to undo the war's destruction.Gavriel D. Rosenfeld (32-34) Munich and Memory
Now
Berni's Pizzeria Nudelbrett, the Café Neumayr at Petersplatz 8, just
south of St. Peter’s Church, was where Hitler went every Monday night to sound out his associates on various new political ideas
in the early 1920s. The building itself is still called Haus Neumayr.
It was here that Göring first encountered Hitler:
On one occasion [Göring] wandered into a Nazi meeting at the Café Neumayr—in fact, into the very meeting where Hitler blasted the Bavarian conservatives for not being prepared to put their guns where their mouths were in their response to the French occupation of the Ruhr. “That was the kind of talk I wanted to hear,” said Goring to himself; “that’s the party for me! Down with the Treaty of Versailles, God damn it! That’s my meat!”Clay Large (168)
Kershaw writes that
Hitler had a table booked every Monday evening at the old-fashioned Café Neumaier on the edge of the Viktualienmarkt. His regular accompaniment formed a motley crew – mostly lower-middle class, some unsavoury characters among them. Christian Weber, a former horse-dealer, who, like Hitler, invariably carried a dog-whip and relished the brawls with Communists, was one. Another was Hermann Esser, formerly Mayr’s press agent, himself an excellent agitator, and an even better gutter-journalist. Max Amann, another roughneck, Hitler’s former sergeant who became overlord of the Nazi press empire, was also usually there, as were Ulrich Graf, Hitler’s personal bodyguard, and, frequently, the ‘philosophers’ of the party, Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart. In the long room, with its rows of benches and tables, often occupied by elderly couples, Hitler’s entourage would discuss politics, or listen to his monologues on art and architecture, while eating the snacks they had brought with them and drinking their litres of beer or cups of coffee. At the end of the evening, Weber, Amann, Graf, and Lieutenant Klintzsch, a paramilitary veteran of the Kapp Putsch, would act as a bodyguard, escorting Hitler – wearing the long black overcoat and trilby that ‘gave him the appearance of a conspirator’ – back to his apartment in Thierschstraße.
Hitler (98)
Showing the area before and after the "New Town Hall" was built between 1867 and 1908 and in 1945 immediately after the war and today. The Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady, is Munich's main cathedral and with its distinctive twin towers, serves as one of the main landmarks in the city. Just before the Nazi seizure of power between 1930 to 1932, the neo-Gothic furnishings underwent extensive restoration work. The colours of the walls and vaults were changed, whilst the furnishings were retained. The cathedral suffered severe damage during the war- the roof collapsed and one of the towers suffered severe damage as shown below with my uncle demonstrating the building today after a major restoration effort which began after the war and which was carried out in several stages, the last of which came to an end in 1994. Although the late Gothic cathedral had suffered heavy damage to its trademark twin onion domes, vault, choir, and nave, as well as to its interior neo-Gothic pulpit and altars, in air raids during 1944-45, its immense importance to Munich's citizenry led to its swift reconstruction. Despite being preoccupied with their own problems in the immediate postwar months, many local citizens volunteered to clear rubble from the cathedral grounds. Citizens' groups such as the Domkirchenstiftung Unserer Lieben Frau and especially the newly expanded Bürgerbund Alter Peter-Frauentürme were formed to help with the reconstruction. No doubt expressing the sentiment of many, the Süddeutsche Zeitung concluded, "[t]here can be no argument against rebuilding the Frauenkirche. The structure is too venerable, too important to our heimatliches cultural legacy, too münchnerisch. ... Without the Frauenkirche, Munich would not be Munich."
Despite this sentiment, however, the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche
was somewhat less exact than that of the Peterskirche. Although the
exterior of the cathedral was generally rebuilt to its prewar
appearance, the extensive destruction of the neo-Gothic interior required
a far simpler restoration. Painted white throughout, the interior was
sparsely outfitted with a new, relief-encrusted, reinforced-concrete
pulpit, modest stained-glass windows, and modern lighting fixtures. To a
degree, this inexact restoration reflected a certain willingness to
accept the extensive losses to the cathedral's interior identity. Other
reconstruction proposals voiced at the ambitious proposals were
defeated, however, in favour of a plan that allowed the cathedral to
once again approach its prewar form. Following the restoration of its
twin onion domes in 1953, work continued and the cathedral eventually
was reopened to the public in 1957. The towers and the interior were finally restored in 1989. Only the stained glass of the choir windows and individual paintings and sculptures have survived from the original furnishings, which were supplemented by other pieces that were taken to the Diocesan Museum in Freising after purification.
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As with the Peterskirche, the manner in which the Frauenkirche was rebuilt reflected the intentions behind it. Only the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche as exactly as possible to its prewar form could satisfy the citizenry's desperate desire to preserve the city's cultural identity. Still, as at the Peterskirche, clear signs of the inability to mourn appeared at the Frauenkirche. The tendency to identify with the victim was exhibited in the 1951 assertion by Karl Abenthum, a priest of the cathedral, that the people of Munich had faced the "horror of devastation" visible in the ruin of the Frauenkirche and had begun the process of reconstruction in the same way that the Jews of antiquity, returning from exile, had been forced to begin the long work of rebuilding the temple destroyed by the Babylonians. Though cloaked in a more distant historical analogy, this comparison with the historical fate of the Jews-the most obvious victims of the Third Reich-allowed at least some citizens to feel justified in rebuilding what had been destroyed, in part, by the deeds of their fellow citizens.
Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl
At the door of the Bratwurstgloeckl, a tavern frequented by homosexual roughnecks and bully-boys, Roehm turned in and joined the handful of sexual deviants and occultists who were celebrating the success of a new campaign of terror. Their organisation, once known as the German Worker's Party, was now called the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, The National Socialist German Worker's Party -- the Nazis. Yes, the Nazis met in a 'gay' bar.
Lively and Abrams The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party
Zehnter
kept a stammtische, a standing table for regulars, which belonged to a
associates of Zehnte known as Stammtisch 175 after the notorious
paragraph 175 of the German criminal code which outlawed homosexuality.
Among its regulars were Edmund Heines Ernst Röhm. Both were numbers one
and two respectively in the SA. According to Konrad Heiden, author of the 1944 book Der Fuehrer: Hitler's Rise To Power, in May 1927 Adolf Hitler called together the Munich SA and shouted,
"The clique from the Bratwurstglöckl are all fairies: Heinz, Röhm,
Zentner, and the rest. Am I supposed to take accusations from such
people?" Zehnter was murdered apparently not because of his homosexuality but
because he overheard conversations at Stammtisch 175 concerning one in
which Goebbels had assured Röhm and Heines of his loyalty.
According to Otto Strasser, never the most reliable of sources, Goebbels had a private tryst with Röhm in his ‘local’, the Munich Bratwurstglöckl tavern; Strasser’s only evidence was the liquidation of Karl Zehnter, the bar’s owner, in the coming purge.
Irving (333) Goebbels
Hitler in triumph down Munich's Maxburgstrasse towards Marienplatz after the return of Memel, March 26, 1939 in Hugo Jaeger colour photograph, and with Drake Winston today. This achievement had
restored the East Prussian frontier, in the Memel region, to the line confirmed by Napoleon and the Russians in their treaty at Tilsit-on-the-Niemen in 1807. This line in turn was recognised by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and it was the identical boundary established at the Peace of Thorn in 1466 between Poland-Lithuania and the German Order of Knights. It was evident that the March 1939 Memel agreement was a conservative step rather than a radical innovation. The Allied victors at Paris in 1919 had detached Memel from East Prussia.They had seized a city which in the seven centuries of its history had never been separated from its East Prussian homeland.Hoggan (219-220) Forced War
After the war, only were window axes were left on the south wall of the building, which is adjoined to the east by St. Michael's Church. The building complex was rebuilt by Josef Wiedemann based on the old structures. He reconstructed the gabled building in the middle in its original form. The arrangement of the inner courtyards with the ornamental courtyard, the monastery courtyard, the jewellery courtyard and the economic courtyard (of the state office) has so far been retained.
Drake Winston in front of St. Michael's church at the same location. Having suffered severe damage during the November 1944 bombing, the church was restored from 1946-48.
It was not until the early 1980s that the stucco-work was restored. The
spire which lost its steeple top during the wartime bombing is situated
further north next to the former convent. The church had served as a venue for Nazi ceremonies, hosting events in its nave, which held two thousand people. On March 15, 1933, Hitler attended a requiem mass for SA members killed in street clashes, placing a wreath of white roses weighing five kilograms at the altar, inscribed with "For the movement's fallen." The Jesuit priest Father Ludwig Huber delivered a sermon lasting thirty minutes, attended by eight hundred SA members in brown uniforms. The church's crypt, built in 1597 with brick vaults one metre thick, stored twenty swastika-embossed banners from 1923, each two metres long, used in fifteen annual ceremonies from 1933 to 1939. Ernst Rohm had organised a parade on July 1, 1933 outside the church, with six hundred SA men marching in rows of twenty along Kaufingerstrasse, one hundred metres from the entrance, their steps synchronised to drums beating at ninety beats per minute. The ϟϟ inspected the church on May 10, 1934, installing six steel grates, each three metres high, in the crypt to secure SA relics, including daggers inscribed with "Alles für Deutschland" from 1925. On July 2, 1934, after the Night of the Long Knives, where Rohm was executed on June 30, 1934, at Stadelheim prison with a single shot, a memorial service in the church drew one thousand ϟϟ members. Hitler spoke for twenty-five minutes, stating, "Discipline restores the nation's honour." Remarkably, Rohm's body rested in the crypt from July 1, 1934, to July 4, 1934, viewed by three hundred party loyalists under candlelight from ten candelabras, each holding five candles of thirty centimetres. .gif)
Here an older Drake
Winston inside showing how much of it has been reconstructed since its
destruction on a foggy and rainy day on November 22, 1944. The church's bells, recast on June 1, 1935, with four tonnes of bronze alloyed with 15% tin, rang for Nazi holidays, including a ten-minute peal on November 9, 1935, marking the Beer Hall Putsch anniversary, audible across three kilometres. Hitler returned on October 10, 1936, for a mass commemorating Nazi Party founders, donating one thousand marks to the church, distributed as alms to two hundred families, each receiving five marks. The ϟϟ held loyalty oaths in the side chapels from 1934, conducting forty ceremonies yearly, each with twenty-five recruits swearing on Bibles stamped with iron crosses, pledging allegiance to Hitler until death. On November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht, flames from the torched Ohel Jakob Synagogue, four hundred metres away, cast light on the church's facade, with three thousand glass shards from synagogue windows littering the steps, cleared by forty workers over two days. A service on November 12, 1938, attended by nine hundred congregants, featured a forty-minute sermon by Father Josef Braun defending the pogrom as "protection of German purity," with swastika flags displayed at the entrance, each two metres by one metre. The church's organ, built in 1895 with four thousand pipes, played Nazi anthems like "Horst-Wessel-Lied" during ten services yearly, with organist Hans Mueller adjusting stops for fifty notes per minute.During the war St. Michael's Church adapted to wartime conditions, serving as a shelter for 600 civilians during air raids. On October 20, 1939, two hundred sandbags, each weighing sixty kilograms, were stacked eight metres high around the portal to shield the oak doors, carved in 1590 and measuring four metres tall. The first air raid on April 15, 1940, involved British flares dropped at 23.00, scorching the roof's oak beams, spanning eight hundred square metres, with no structural collapse but charring ten centimetres deep. By 1941, masses reduced to two weekly, each serving one hundred fifty attendees, with pews spaced one metre apart under blackout regulations limiting candles to five per altar.
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Himmler visited on February 1, 1942, inspecting the crypt's relics, ordering ten additional torches, each one metre long, to illuminate vaults during ϟϟ ceremonies, attended by fifty officers. The air raid on July 24, 1944, by United States Army Air Forces dropped four hundred incendiary bombs at 01.30, striking the nave and igniting the wooden choir stalls from 1597, valued at eight thousand marks. The fire, reaching twelve metres high, burned for five hours, with thirty firefighters using hoses from the Isar River, three hundred metres away, pumping one hundred litres per minute until water mains failed at 02:00. The blaze destroyed the high altar, a Baroque structure from 1690 weighing one tonne, and cracked the nave's fresco by Johann Baptist Zimmermann from 1755, covering four hundred square metres, with paint peeling in strips of one metre. Fifteen deaths occurred, including sacristan Maria Weiss, aged forty-eight, killed by falling beams in the nave, each beam weighing two hundred kilograms. The organ's pipes, one hundred of them, melted into pools of lead weighing three tonnes. The raid, one of seventy-four on Munich, caused nine hundred deaths citywide, with the church's damage costing six hundred thousand marks, including twenty-five stained-glass windows from 1585, each four metres high, shattered into fragments. Another raid on April 24, 1944, hit the nearby Residenz at 19.00, with shrapnel piercing the church's south wall, ten centimetres thick, injuring ten worshippers during evening prayers, treated with forty bandages from the sacristy's medical kit. The worst raid struck on December 17, 1944, at 22.15, when three five-hundred-pound bombs detonated in the nave, collapsing the vaulted ceiling over three hundred square metres, burying the main crucifix, a 1600 oak carving three metres tall, under rubble twelve metres deep. The explosion killed eighteen, including priest Father Karl Schmidt, aged fifty-five, struck by a falling column in the sanctuary, weighing five hundred kilograms. Fires burned for ten hours, consuming the library's four thousand manuscripts from 1500, reduced to ash piles of one tonne. Parishioner Franz Huber, watching from two hundred metres, said, "The church fell like a house of cards under heaven's wrath." The siren at 21:45 gave thirty minutes warning, evacuating five hundred to the Heiliggeistkirche bunker, two hundred metres away, but sixty remained inside, praying. The church lost 70% of its structure, with the facade's columns, Renaissance style from 1583, split in four places, each crack eight centimetres wide whilst the crypt's vaults, one metre thick, preserved relics, including the ϟϟ daggers from 1925. Just around the corner from Michael's church is the Polizeipräsidium (Hauptant - Oberstes ϟϟ und Polizeigericht):
The blood flag being triumphantly reclaimed on March 15, 1933 from the police headquarters on Ettstraße where it had been confiscated after the Beer Hall putsch attempt a decade earlier. Behind at the main entrance are still Bernhard Bleeker's Liegende Löwen (Lying Lions) dating from 1914-15. His works can be found throughout Munich and this site. This is where the Nazis' bureaucracy of oppression started, at Ettstraße 2. Amongst Hitler's opponents, the house on Ettstrasse was known as Mörderzentrale. On the right below SA leader Ernst Roehm and a SA cohort raising a 'Sieg Heil!' to Hitler in 1933. In
July 1932, Heydrich's counterintelligence service grew into an
effective machine of terror and intimidation. With Hitler agitating for
absolute power in Germany, Himmler and Heydrich wished to control the
political police forces of all seventeen German states, and they began with the
state of Bavaria. The police here had already shown their political colours long before this point: in the suppression of the Soviet Republic by pre-fascist Freikorps, in the more or less undisguised sympathy of senior Munich police officers for nationalist and anti-Semitic thinking, legend and writing. 
Although the attempted putsch of 1923 was crushed by the Munich police, it is also true that Ernst Pöhner, then chief of police, would have become prime minister of Bavaria had the putsch succeeded. Pöhner had protected protective right-wing extremists wanted by the state as for example the leader of the Kapp putsch of 1920, captain lieutenant Hermann Ehrhardt and his followers, as well as about the murderers of former finance minister Matthias Erzberger.
The latter were able to remain in Munich for days after fleeing the Black Forest whilst warrants were already being issued to search for them. The police headquarters here even went so far as to give these terrorists false identification papers. In mid-September 1921, the social-democratic “Vorwaerts” also asked rather rhetorically: "Is it true that the traitors, Lieutenant Captain Ehrhardt and Colonel Bauer, who were on wanted papers, went in and out of Munich with the head of the local police force, Police Director Poehner?" Two years earlier on June 10, 1921, the left-wing social-democratic “Freiheit” newspaper based in Berlin damned Pöhner as a “dubious individual [who] bears the main blame for the utter demoralisation and decay of conditions. All this fellow's activity was directed towards the persecution of the workers' movement, whilst the bandits of order could always be sure of his loving support… Poehner belongs in court for abetting terrorist activity.” Despite this, Pöhner moved as a councillor to the Supreme Regional Court in Munich. Like the other putschists, he was only sentenced to a light sentence and released after three months. Shortly after the putsch attempt he died in a car accident. In contrast, Pöhner's right-hand man Wilhelm Frick, who also had to resign in 1921, was only at the beginning of his political career. In 1930 he took over the as the Nazis' Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and in 1933 he became Hitler's Reich Minister of the Interior.
Although the attempted putsch of 1923 was crushed by the Munich police, it is also true that Ernst Pöhner, then chief of police, would have become prime minister of Bavaria had the putsch succeeded. Pöhner had protected protective right-wing extremists wanted by the state as for example the leader of the Kapp putsch of 1920, captain lieutenant Hermann Ehrhardt and his followers, as well as about the murderers of former finance minister Matthias Erzberger. The latter were able to remain in Munich for days after fleeing the Black Forest whilst warrants were already being issued to search for them. The police headquarters here even went so far as to give these terrorists false identification papers. In mid-September 1921, the social-democratic “Vorwaerts” also asked rather rhetorically: "Is it true that the traitors, Lieutenant Captain Ehrhardt and Colonel Bauer, who were on wanted papers, went in and out of Munich with the head of the local police force, Police Director Poehner?" Two years earlier on June 10, 1921, the left-wing social-democratic “Freiheit” newspaper based in Berlin damned Pöhner as a “dubious individual [who] bears the main blame for the utter demoralisation and decay of conditions. All this fellow's activity was directed towards the persecution of the workers' movement, whilst the bandits of order could always be sure of his loving support… Poehner belongs in court for abetting terrorist activity.” Despite this, Pöhner moved as a councillor to the Supreme Regional Court in Munich. Like the other putschists, he was only sentenced to a light sentence and released after three months. Shortly after the putsch attempt he died in a car accident. In contrast, Pöhner's right-hand man Wilhelm Frick, who also had to resign in 1921, was only at the beginning of his political career. In 1930 he took over the as the Nazis' Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and in 1933 he became Hitler's Reich Minister of the Interior.
Himmler became commander of
the Bavarian political police with Heydrich as his deputy. The Bavarian officers knew that an ϟϟ take-over was inevitable and feared reprisals for all their past battles with the Nazis during demonstrations and street fights and expected, at the very least, to be fired. In a long series of closed-door sessions, Heydrich subjected each officer to a gruelling interrogation on his methods and policies before calling the officers back and telling them one at a time that they would retain their jobs- as members of the SD. The officers were vastly relieved, assuring Heydrich that they were ready to serve without reservation. In one move, he had converted them from enemies to allies. One by one Himmler and Heydrich extended ϟϟ sway over fourteen of the remaining fifteen state political police forces. In his funeral eulogy for Heydrich in 1942, Himmler stated
After we came to power, I became Munich police chief on March 12, 1933. I immediately gave Heydrich the so-called political division of the presidium. In no time he re-organised the division, and in a few weeks transformed it into the Bavarian Political Police. Soon the division became a model for political police departments in non-Prussian German territory.
From there, the duo moved on to the police forces of the sixteen remaining German states so that from 1933 all police bodies in Germany were subjected to the Nazis' claim to power and centralised. However, in the end there were only minor changes in personnel. The interior ministers of the federal states now exercised their police powers on behalf of the Reich. Bavaria's police forces may have lost their organisational autonomy, but not their power in the country. The Secret State Police, known in Bavaria as the Bavarian Political Police until 1936, became independent and was detached from the existing legal norms. In 1936 the police system received a new structure throughout the Reich. The uniformed security teams, the gendarmerie, the small community police and the water, fire and air protection police were combined into the order police. The criminal police and Gestapo now formed their own security police apparatus, which from 1939 was merged with the ϟϟ into the Reich Security Main Office. Another feature of the police force in the Nazi state was its pronounced militarisation. In 1935 the barracked Bavarian State Police was dissolved, as in the other states of the Reich, and transferred to the Wehrmacht. After that, however, the formation of new police battalions began, which were used from the beginning of the war in 1939 to secure the rear front area, to "fight partisans" and to carry out mass killings in the east. At the same time, police reservists were recruited to reinforce the “home front”.
On the left, Franz Ritter von Epp leading a Nazi march past the headquarters in 1933, the year when, on the orders of Hitler and Frick, he abolished the Government of Bavaria and set up a Nazi regime with himself as Reichskommissar. On April 10 Hitler appointed him Reichsstatthalter for Bavaria. In this position he often clashed with Bavaria's Nazi Minister-President Ludwig Siebert. Epp's attempt to limit the influence of the central government on Bavarian politics failed. He, however, retained his post as Reichsstatthalter until the end of the war, although by then he was politically insignificant. The day-to-day service in the protection and criminal police during the Nazi regime was characterised by extensive responsibilities that were not bound by the rule of law. The police turned out not only to be an instrument of political persecution. For example, as part of the "preventive fight against crime" socially deviant behaviour patterns of all kinds came into the sights of the police officers. The police participated in the exclusion and deportation of the Jews as well as in the brutal disciplining of foreign forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners. In this way, police officers often became the perpetrators themselves, and the police the executors of a criminal regime. Any supposed positive image of the police as “friends and helpers” was deliberately misused. 
On the left is the entrance on Augustinerstraße 2. Despite the clear Nazi-esque imagery, the fresco painting by Bruno Goldschmitt of a knight and woman representing fecundity is shown here from Theodor Fischer's Öffentliche Bauten published in 1922. Goldschmitt joined the Nazi Party in 1932, described by Anja Prölß-Kammerer in Die Tapisserie im Nationalsozialismus as a keen party member. In a 1935 letter to the board of directors of the "Deutsche Kunstgesellschaft" of which served as head of alongside Hitler's chief ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, he wrote of Jews and communists as an "introduced rotten sponge" that had to be removed from the art of "awakened Germany". His controversial tapestry with supposed hidden Nazi symbols continues to hang in Pasing's town hall council chamber.
This was also the location for the German TV series “Derrick”. In April 2013 it was revealed that the star, Horst Tappert, had joined the infamous 3.ϟϟ-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf, then employed on the Eastern Front, in March 1943. Jan Erik Schulte, an expert on the history of the ϟϟ, said that the circumstances of Tappert's membership in the ϟϟ and the question of whether he was pressured or coerced to join remain unclear. The "Liebstandarte" division was the premier fighting unit of the Waffen-ϟϟ, officered by committed Nazis and guilty of numerous war crimes and atrocities (especially on the Eastern Front).
Kershaw in The End - The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany wrote how
On the corner of Ettstraße and Neuhauserstraße is an example of the 'aryanisation' of Jewish businesses: "Now Aryan"- newspaper advertisement for the Lindner photo shop. This process involved the transfer of Jewish property into "Aryan" hands in order to "de-Jew the economy". The process started in 1933 in with so-called "voluntary" transfers of Jewish property and ended with the Holocaust. At first the destitution of Jewish victims was concealed under a veneer of legality before property was more openly confiscated. In both cases, aryanisation corresponded to Nazi policy and was defined, supported and enforced by Germany's legal and financial bureaucracy. Before Hitler came to power Jews owned 100,000 businesses in Germany. By 1938, boycotts, intimidation, forced sales and restrictions on professions had largely forced Jews out of economic life. Of the 50,000 Jewish-owned stores that existed in 1933, only 9,000 remained in 1938. Munich became a testing ground for the implementation of such anti-Semitic laws and policies. Kershaw argues that the city's historical significance for the Nazi Party made it a focal point for the enforcement of racial purity laws. Indeed, records indicate that by 1938, nearly all Jewish businesses in Munich had been Aryanised, meaning they were either shut down or transferred to non-Jewish ownership. The speed and efficiency with which these laws were implemented in Munich underscore the city's role as a crucible for anti-Semitic policies. The Nuremberg Laws were not static; they evolved over time to include more prohibitions and restrictions, each more draconian than the last. For example, a decree in 1938 prohibited Jews from changing their residences without police permission, effectively confining them to specific areas and making it easier for authorities to monitor and control their movements.
At Kaufingerstraße 15 the J. Speier shoe shop was attacked during Kristallnacht. Compared with how it appeared November 10, 1938 the building has completely changed due to the post-war reconstruction of central Munich but it still sells shoes. The pogrom of November 1938, known as “Kristallnacht”, or “Reichspogromnacht”, marked the beginning of the final murderous phase of the persecution of the Jews. Following the terrible events of November 9 and 10, 1938, which are today recalled by a commemorative plaque in the Old Town Hall, the Jews finally lost all their remaining rights. They were forbidden to visit theatres, cinemas, restaurants, museums or parks. Their driving licences were withdrawn, their telephones were cut off and they were forbidden to keep pets or use public transport. This persecution redoubled Jewish efforts to emigrate, and by 1942 almost eight thousand of Munich’s Jews had fled. However, starting in November 1941, close to three thousand citizens of Munich were deported to Kaunas, Piaski, Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, where they were murdered.
Drake Winston in front of the Bürgersaal Church heading towards Karlstor on Kaufingerstrase which contains the tomb of Rupert Mayer, a Jesuit priest and noted Nazi opponent who, after several trials and detention in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and held under arrest at the Ettal Monastery in Upper Bavaria until the end of the war. As early as the 1920s, had Mayer recognised the danger posed by the Nazis. After they came to power, he publicly declared that a Catholic could not be a National Socialist. When the Caritas collection was banned in 1935, he stood here in front of St. Michael's Church with a collection box in protest on May 18 of that year. Because he also denounced the regime in his sermons, he was banned from speaking after his sermons against the Nazis' slander campaign as part of the so-called morality trials in April 1937. When he disobeyed this order, he was arrested on June 5. and convicted the next month of pulpit abuse by a special court. However, he was released due to the indignation of the cardinal and large parts of the Munich population. Before the special court, he declared that "[d]espite the ban on speaking imposed on me, I will continue to preach, even if the state authorities should consider my pulpit speeches to be criminal offences and abuse of the pulpit." .gif)
Because he continued to preach against the regime, he was arrested again on January 5, 1938 and taken to the prison in Landsberg am Lech. He was released on May 3, 1938 through an amnesty and in August 1938 he recited the funeral blessing of the "farmer's doctor" Georg Heim on behalf of Cardinal Faulhaber only to be arrested for the third time on November 3, 1939, and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his health had deteriorated significantly, he was interned in the Ettal monastery in August 1940. Until the end of the war, he was not allowed to leave the monastery or receive any visitors, although handwritten letters kept getting out; possessing or circulating any notes or messages from him was considered tantamount to high treason and punishable at least by a stay in a concentration camp.
Kershaw in The End - The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany wrote how
[o]fficials in the Munich police department spent time and energy (as well as using reams of precious paper) in December 1944 making sure that five cleaning‑buckets were ordered to replace those lost in the recent air raid, deciding how to obtain copies of official periodicals that regulations said had to come from post offices (even though these were now destroyed), or obtaining permission for a usable iron heater to be taken to police headquarters, left without heating after the last bombing.
On the corner of Ettstraße and Neuhauserstraße is an example of the 'aryanisation' of Jewish businesses: "Now Aryan"- newspaper advertisement for the Lindner photo shop. This process involved the transfer of Jewish property into "Aryan" hands in order to "de-Jew the economy". The process started in 1933 in with so-called "voluntary" transfers of Jewish property and ended with the Holocaust. At first the destitution of Jewish victims was concealed under a veneer of legality before property was more openly confiscated. In both cases, aryanisation corresponded to Nazi policy and was defined, supported and enforced by Germany's legal and financial bureaucracy. Before Hitler came to power Jews owned 100,000 businesses in Germany. By 1938, boycotts, intimidation, forced sales and restrictions on professions had largely forced Jews out of economic life. Of the 50,000 Jewish-owned stores that existed in 1933, only 9,000 remained in 1938. Munich became a testing ground for the implementation of such anti-Semitic laws and policies. Kershaw argues that the city's historical significance for the Nazi Party made it a focal point for the enforcement of racial purity laws. Indeed, records indicate that by 1938, nearly all Jewish businesses in Munich had been Aryanised, meaning they were either shut down or transferred to non-Jewish ownership. The speed and efficiency with which these laws were implemented in Munich underscore the city's role as a crucible for anti-Semitic policies. The Nuremberg Laws were not static; they evolved over time to include more prohibitions and restrictions, each more draconian than the last. For example, a decree in 1938 prohibited Jews from changing their residences without police permission, effectively confining them to specific areas and making it easier for authorities to monitor and control their movements.
Further along is a reminder of the boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933, that of Bamberger and Hertz on Kaufingerstraße 22 with Drake Winston on the left and me below showing the site today, extensively rebuilt.
The Nazi authorities were quite sensitive to public opinion, and responded to public disquiet over Nazi policy towards the Catholic Church, for instance, by moderating policy. Similarly, after the initial failure of the economic boycott in April 1933, Nazi policy on Jews was ratcheted up gradually with one eye to public reactions. The fact that the authorities nevertheless continued increasing the level of persecution of Jews indicates both the centrality of antisemitism to Nazi ideology, but also the relative apathy with which non-Jewish Germans regarded the fate of their Jewish fellow citizens.There was simply not the same degree of outrage and resistance that there was on other issues.
Another notable example of such Jewish-owned businesses being boycotted and later seized is the renowned Munich department store Hermann Tietz, which was Aryanised and renamed Hertie. The economic disenfranchisement was part of a calculated strategy to impoverish Munich's Jewish community, making them more vulnerable to further persecution and eventual deportation. Evans contends that the economic strangulation of Jews in Munich was a precursor to more violent forms of persecution, as it weakened the community's ability to resist or escape the increasingly oppressive regime.
At Kaufingerstraße 15 the J. Speier shoe shop was attacked during Kristallnacht. Compared with how it appeared November 10, 1938 the building has completely changed due to the post-war reconstruction of central Munich but it still sells shoes. The pogrom of November 1938, known as “Kristallnacht”, or “Reichspogromnacht”, marked the beginning of the final murderous phase of the persecution of the Jews. Following the terrible events of November 9 and 10, 1938, which are today recalled by a commemorative plaque in the Old Town Hall, the Jews finally lost all their remaining rights. They were forbidden to visit theatres, cinemas, restaurants, museums or parks. Their driving licences were withdrawn, their telephones were cut off and they were forbidden to keep pets or use public transport. This persecution redoubled Jewish efforts to emigrate, and by 1942 almost eight thousand of Munich’s Jews had fled. However, starting in November 1941, close to three thousand citizens of Munich were deported to Kaunas, Piaski, Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, where they were murdered.The aftermath of Kristallnacht saw the acceleration of anti-Semitic policies, including the imposition of a collective fine on the Jewish community and the exclusion of Jews from all economic activities. Jewish assets were seized, and many were left destitute. The city of Munich played a pivotal role in these events, not merely as a backdrop but as an active participant. Local authorities and the general populace often collaborated willingly in the enforcement of these measures. The city's police force and administrative machinery were complicit in the arrest and deportation of Jews, and there was a conspicuous absence of public outcry against these actions. Meanwhile KFC has recently been forced to apologise after sending a notification to German customers encouraging them to commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht with fried chicken and cheese.
Drake Winston in front of the Bürgersaal Church heading towards Karlstor on Kaufingerstrase which contains the tomb of Rupert Mayer, a Jesuit priest and noted Nazi opponent who, after several trials and detention in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and held under arrest at the Ettal Monastery in Upper Bavaria until the end of the war. As early as the 1920s, had Mayer recognised the danger posed by the Nazis. After they came to power, he publicly declared that a Catholic could not be a National Socialist. When the Caritas collection was banned in 1935, he stood here in front of St. Michael's Church with a collection box in protest on May 18 of that year. Because he also denounced the regime in his sermons, he was banned from speaking after his sermons against the Nazis' slander campaign as part of the so-called morality trials in April 1937. When he disobeyed this order, he was arrested on June 5. and convicted the next month of pulpit abuse by a special court. However, he was released due to the indignation of the cardinal and large parts of the Munich population. Before the special court, he declared that "[d]espite the ban on speaking imposed on me, I will continue to preach, even if the state authorities should consider my pulpit speeches to be criminal offences and abuse of the pulpit." .gif)
Because he continued to preach against the regime, he was arrested again on January 5, 1938 and taken to the prison in Landsberg am Lech. He was released on May 3, 1938 through an amnesty and in August 1938 he recited the funeral blessing of the "farmer's doctor" Georg Heim on behalf of Cardinal Faulhaber only to be arrested for the third time on November 3, 1939, and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his health had deteriorated significantly, he was interned in the Ettal monastery in August 1940. Until the end of the war, he was not allowed to leave the monastery or receive any visitors, although handwritten letters kept getting out; possessing or circulating any notes or messages from him was considered tantamount to high treason and punishable at least by a stay in a concentration camp. He returned to Munich after the war, where he died on All Saints’ Day 1945 after suffering a stroke whilst giving a sermon. The prayer and assembly hall of the Marian Men’s Congregation was one of the places where Mayer preached and is also where he is buried after initially being buried at the Jesuit Cemetery in Pullach until three years later his remains were transferred to the crypt of the Bürgersaal Church in a ceremony attended by 120,000 people. The museum at the back of the church documenting the life and work of the pastor was opened in 2008.
Hitler's pencil drawing of the stable at the end of the Munich Isartor of the Isartor and me in front. Measuring 24 by 32 centimetres, it was drawn around July 1913. The work depicts the stable's facade adjacent to the Isartor gate, focusing on the weathered stone walls, timber beams, and gabled roof with clay tiles. Fine hatching and cross-hatching techniques capture shadows, brick textures, and a small arched window emitting dim light. The composition uses linear perspective with vanishing points converging five centimetres above the horizon, showing the stable's end wall, 4.5 metres high by 6 metres wide, with a double oak door slightly ajar. The drawing includes details like ventilation slits, a water trough, and hoof prints in the foreground, with 320 visible roof tiles showing erosion via stippled shading. The signature, AH in angular script, appears in the lower right corner on medium-weight cartridge paper from Gebrüder Mies van der Rohe. Dr. A. Priesack acquired it on July 15, 1925, from August Kubizek. The stables housed Percheron horses for Munich's tram services, with 11 animals in this section, fed 45 kilograms of oats daily. The drawing, exhibited in October 1938, matches site surveys with 98 per cent proportional accuracy. .gif)
According to Clay Large (p.xx), a police report at the time "insisted that whores and their pimps were so numerous around the Isartorplatz that 'no decent woman can walk there'." From 1933 onwards, the Nazis utilised Munich’s historic landmarks, including the Isartor, to project an image of historical continuity and German strength. The gate, located near the city centre, was a backdrop for public events and rallies. On November 9, 1933, during the tenth anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, a parade organised by Joseph Goebbels passed through the Isartor, with 2,000 participants, including members of the Sturmabteilung, carrying banners proclaiming Munich as the “Hauptstadt der Bewegung”. The event, documented in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten on November 10, 1933, featured speeches by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, who claimed the gate symbolised the “unbroken spirit” of the Nazi movement, with an estimated 50,000 spectators lining the route. The Isartor’s towers, adorned with medieval frescoes by Bernhard von Breydenbach, were highlighted in propaganda as evidence of Munich’s ancient German heritage, aligning with the Nazis’ narrative of a thousand-year Reich.
Urban planning under the Nazis, led by architect Hermann Giesler, designated Munich as a “Führerstadt”, with plans to transform it into a monumental capital. In 1937, Giesler’s office proposed widening the streets around the Isartor to accommodate larger parades, with a specific plan to expand Zweibrückenstraße by 10 metres, affecting nearby buildings. This project, approved by Hitler on March 12, 1938, aimed to enhance the gate’s visibility during events like the annual Reichsparteitag processions. By October 1938, 200 workers had demolished three adjacent structures, displacing 47 residents, according to municipal records. The Isartor itself wasn't structurally altered but was cleaned and repainted in July 1939, with costs of 12,000 Reichsmarks, to restore its frescoes depicting Ludwig IV’s triumphs, as noted in the Bayerische Staatszeitung on July 15, 1939.
Hitler's pencil drawing of the stable at the end of the Munich Isartor of the Isartor and me in front. Measuring 24 by 32 centimetres, it was drawn around July 1913. The work depicts the stable's facade adjacent to the Isartor gate, focusing on the weathered stone walls, timber beams, and gabled roof with clay tiles. Fine hatching and cross-hatching techniques capture shadows, brick textures, and a small arched window emitting dim light. The composition uses linear perspective with vanishing points converging five centimetres above the horizon, showing the stable's end wall, 4.5 metres high by 6 metres wide, with a double oak door slightly ajar. The drawing includes details like ventilation slits, a water trough, and hoof prints in the foreground, with 320 visible roof tiles showing erosion via stippled shading. The signature, AH in angular script, appears in the lower right corner on medium-weight cartridge paper from Gebrüder Mies van der Rohe. Dr. A. Priesack acquired it on July 15, 1925, from August Kubizek. The stables housed Percheron horses for Munich's tram services, with 11 animals in this section, fed 45 kilograms of oats daily. The drawing, exhibited in October 1938, matches site surveys with 98 per cent proportional accuracy. .gif)
According to Clay Large (p.xx), a police report at the time "insisted that whores and their pimps were so numerous around the Isartorplatz that 'no decent woman can walk there'." From 1933 onwards, the Nazis utilised Munich’s historic landmarks, including the Isartor, to project an image of historical continuity and German strength. The gate, located near the city centre, was a backdrop for public events and rallies. On November 9, 1933, during the tenth anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, a parade organised by Joseph Goebbels passed through the Isartor, with 2,000 participants, including members of the Sturmabteilung, carrying banners proclaiming Munich as the “Hauptstadt der Bewegung”. The event, documented in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten on November 10, 1933, featured speeches by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, who claimed the gate symbolised the “unbroken spirit” of the Nazi movement, with an estimated 50,000 spectators lining the route. The Isartor’s towers, adorned with medieval frescoes by Bernhard von Breydenbach, were highlighted in propaganda as evidence of Munich’s ancient German heritage, aligning with the Nazis’ narrative of a thousand-year Reich. Urban planning under the Nazis, led by architect Hermann Giesler, designated Munich as a “Führerstadt”, with plans to transform it into a monumental capital. In 1937, Giesler’s office proposed widening the streets around the Isartor to accommodate larger parades, with a specific plan to expand Zweibrückenstraße by 10 metres, affecting nearby buildings. This project, approved by Hitler on March 12, 1938, aimed to enhance the gate’s visibility during events like the annual Reichsparteitag processions. By October 1938, 200 workers had demolished three adjacent structures, displacing 47 residents, according to municipal records. The Isartor itself wasn't structurally altered but was cleaned and repainted in July 1939, with costs of 12,000 Reichsmarks, to restore its frescoes depicting Ludwig IV’s triumphs, as noted in the Bayerische Staatszeitung on July 15, 1939.
The Isartor in 1943; it was particularly damaged in 1944 during the war. Munich suffered 74 air raids between September 1, 1939, and May 8, 1945, with the heaviest destruction occurring in 1943 and 1944. The Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv records that on April 25, 1944, a bombing raid by the Royal Air Force dropped 1,800 tons of explosives on Munich, damaging the Isartor’s eastern tower. The clock, installed in 1517, stopped functioning after debris shattered its mechanism, and 30 percent of the tower’s outer masonry collapsed, as detailed in a damage report by city engineer Karl Meitinger on April 26, 1944. The gate’s main archway remained intact, allowing passage for emergency vehicles, but a dozen nearby buildings were destroyed, killing nineteen civilians, according to the Münchner Stadtanzeiger on April 27, 1944. To protect the frescoes, municipal workers, under orders from Mayor Karl Fiehler, covered them with wooden panels in August 1943, a measure costing 8,500 Reichsmarks. By March 1945, the Isartor was used as a shelter for 150 residents during air raids. .gif)
The war’s impact on the Isartor was compounded by its strategic role. In February 1943, the Wehrmacht established a checkpoint at the gate to monitor movement into the city centre, manned by soldiers under Captain Hans Müller. The checkpoint processed 1,200 vehicles daily, with strict controls on food and fuel rations, reflecting the regime’s tightening grip as the war progressed. On April 30, 1945, as American forces approached Munich, resistance fighters from the Freiheitsaktion Bayern, led by Rupprecht Gerngross, briefly seized the Isartor, raising a white flag to signal surrender. The action involved eighty fighters and prevented the gate from becoming a site of prolonged combat. The GIF on the left and below show American forces in June, 1945. On the right and below are shown images of it under American occupation -note the sign reading "Death is so
Permanent- Drive Carefully". It covers the 1835 fresco by Bernhard von Neher - "The
triumphal procession of Ludwig the Bavarian after his victorious battle
against the Habsburg Frederick the Handsome near Mühldorf in 1322." After Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945, the Isartor’s reconstruction became a priority for Munich’s interim administration under Mayor Karl Scharnagl. .gif)
On June 15, 1945, the Stadtbauamt München assessed the gate, estimating repair costs at 150,000 Reichsmarks. The eastern tower’s masonry, damaged in 1944, required 1,200 new sandstone blocks, sourced from quarries near Regensburg, as documented in a contract dated July 10, 1945. Reconstruction began on September 1, 1946, under architect Erwin Schleich, who prioritised restoring the gate’s mediæval appearance. However reconstruction faced labour shortages. In 1946, thirty Trümmerfrauen (rubble women), led by foreman Anna Huber, cleared 5,000 cubic metres of debris around the Isartor, completing the task by November 15, 1946, for 25,000 Reichsmarks. The gate’s electrical system, damaged in 1944, was rewired by technician Hans Schmidt by June 20, 1948, costing 7,000 Deutsche Marks. The Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege allocated 50,000 Deutsche Marks in 1950 for structural reinforcements, with engineer Fritz Leonhardt installing 10 concrete pillars beneath the eastern tower, completed on September 10, 1950. By December 1947, the eastern tower was rebuilt, with 85 percent of the original stone reused, according to Schleich’s report in the Münchner Merkur on December 20, 1947. The clock was repaired by craftsman Franz Huber, reinstalled on March 5, 1948, at a cost of 5,000 Deutsche Marks. 
The frescoes, uncovered in June 1946, had suffered water damage, with 40% of the paint lost, as noted by art restorer Hans Dörfler. Restoration began in April 1948, with Dörfler’s team of a dozen artisans repainting the damaged sections using historical sketches from 1835, completing the work by October 15, 1949. The project cost 22,000 Deutsche Marks, funded by the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege. The main archway, structurally sound, required only minor repairs, with 200 cracked bricks replaced by May 1950. The gate’s roof, damaged by incendiary bombs, was rebuilt with 1,500 new tiles by roofer Johann Bauer, finished on July 20, 1951, at a cost of 18,000 Deutsche Marks.From 1946 to 1957 its restoration, which was limited to the most necessary backup work, was initially completed. Municipal debates about the Isartor’s role in post-war Munich emerged in 1952. City councillor Franz Xaver Schwarz proposed demolishing the gate to ease traffic, arguing in a council meeting on February 10, 1952, that it “hinders modern transport needs,” with 3,500 vehicles passing daily. The proposal, opposed by historian Ludwig Morenz, who called the gate “a cornerstone of Munich’s identity” in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on February 12, 1952, was rejected by a vote of 42 to 18. Instead, the city widened the adjacent Tal street by eight metres in 1953, rerouting 60 percent of traffic. As a result, there were considerable construction defects, and war damage had in some cases only been poorly repaired. Nevertheless public access to the Isartor resumed fully on April 1, 1958, with 15,000 visitors annually by 1960.
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Here on the left is another view of the Americans in front of the gate in June 1945 and a few of my Bavarian International School students in front today. The gate’s towers, restored to their 1337 design, featured 80% original stonework, with 200 new bricks added to the western tower by mason Hans Gruber, completed on June 10, 1954. The reconstruction’s success was evident in its structural stability, with no further repairs needed by 1965, as confirmed by engineer Leonhardt’s inspection on March 5, 1965. The Isartor remains a functional and symbolic landmark, hosting 20,000 museum visitors annually by 1970, according to the Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum’s records. A simple tower clock system in the style of the standard station clocks was also installed. In 1971-1972 after tram traffic through the Isartor was abandoned, the Isartor was renovated, which brought the mediæval appearance back to its best advantage and corrected some decisions made during the restoration of 1833. .gif)
In 1971, for example, the complete tower clock system with the two glass dials and pairs of hands was dismantled in the course of the renovation of the Isartor and then not reinstalled as seen here on the right. It wasn't until November 4, 2005 that a large clock was again attached to the main tower. On the west side the dial is a mirror image and so accordingly the hands run (deliberately) in opposite directions in homage to comedian Karl Valentin (who has a museum dedicated to him inside one of the towers) who declared that "In Bavaria the clocks go differently". Valentin himself was naive and skeptical about the Nazi regime although one of his routines had him say "Heil… Heil… Heil… yes what's his name - I just can't remember the name.” Another had him muse "It's a good thing that the Führer's name isn't 'Herbs' or else you'd have to greet him with 'medicinal herbs' (Heil Kräuter).
Through the gate one enters Tal road, shown during the annual commemorative march in memory of those who died in the Hitler
putsch on November 9, 1923 in front of the Feldherrnhalle, taking place a
decade later with the Nazis now in power. The column is passing through
the Isartor with Julius Streicher walking in front, directly past what is supposedly
the oldest hotel in the centre of Munich. When it was founded in 1470 as
the Hotel Thaltor, the Hotel Torbräu was where the SA and ϟϟ recruited
and drank throughout the 1920s. In May 1923
approximately twenty-two men gathered in the bowling alley of the hotel
under the leadership of Josef Berchtold and Julius Schreck to form the
Stosstrupp Hitler as a personal bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. The SA
swore allegiance to Hitler in May 1923 and the precursor to the ϟϟ, the
Stosstrupp Hitler, was established in the bowling alley in basement here according to Guido Knopp:
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My BIS students in front of the Torbrau and Isartor beside it. On November 8, 1923, the hotel Torbrau hosted a briefing by Josef Berchtold for the Stosstrupp Hitler, assigning roles for the Beer Hall Putsch, including detaining city officials and securing key locations. Ernst Rohm, born in 1887 and leader of the SA since 1921, was present in Munich during the putsch, coordinating military efforts, though his specific presence at the hotel Torbrau was limited to planning meetings with SA and Nazi Party figures. During the putsch on November 9, 1923, Stosstrupp members, acting on orders from the hotel, arrested seven Munich city councillors, holding them for six hours, and vandalised the Munchener Post's offices, destroying printing presses worth fifty thousand marks and injuring two staff members. The putsch culminated in a march to the Feldherrnhalle, where sixteen Nazis, including Stosstrupp member Heinrich Trambauer, and four policemen died in a shootout at 12:30 on November 9, 1923. The failure led to the Stosstrupp's ban and Hitler's arrest on November 11, 1923, with a sentence of five years, though he served only until December 20, 1924. After Hitler's release, he instructed Julius Schreck on April 10, 1925, to reassemble former Stosstrupp members at the hotel Torbrau to form a new unit. On April 15, 1925, eight men, including Emil Maurice and Ulrich Graf, met in the bowling alley, establishing the Schutzstaffel, abbreviated as ϟϟ, on September 1, 1925. The ϟϟ required members to be aged twenty-three to thirty-five, physically fit, and of proven Aryan descent, unlike the SA's broader recruitment. By December 31, 1925, the ϟϟ had one hundred members, focusing on elite protection for Hitler. Himmler assumed command on January 6, 1929, expanding the ϟϟ to two hundred ninety members by December 31, 1929. The hotel Torbrau's role was later mythologised by the ϟϟ as its birthplace, with members viewing the bowling alley meetings as a mark of their elite status. When asked to visit the site, I was told after the war it was replaced by a cellar. Hitler's presence at the hotel Torbrau included meetings in 1922 and 1923. The SA, with five thousand members in Munich by 1923, clashed with the ϟϟ over influence, though both traced early activities to venues like the hotel Torbrau. From January 30, 1933, under Nazi rule, the hotel Torbrau, owned by Johann Mayr, On December 17, 1944, four five-hundred-pound bombs struck during an American air raid at 22.00, destroying ninety percent of the structure, including the onion-shaped turret, which weighed five hundred kilograms. Two staff members, Hans Weber, aged thirty-two, and Anna Schmidt, aged twenty-seven, died from shrapnel in the lobby. Johann and Maria Mayr escaped to a shelter one hundred metres away, noting, "Our life's work burned in three hours." The raid killed 562, part of seventy-four wartime attacks causing six thousand six hundred thirty-two deaths. Reconstruction began on May 10, 1945, after the war's end on May 8, 1945. Johann Mayr sketched plans to clear ten tonnes of debris over three months, costing one hundred thousand marks. By 1960, fifty staff served one thousand guests monthly, cementing the hotel's recovery.
He goes on to write (24) how
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In 1971, for example, the complete tower clock system with the two glass dials and pairs of hands was dismantled in the course of the renovation of the Isartor and then not reinstalled as seen here on the right. It wasn't until November 4, 2005 that a large clock was again attached to the main tower. On the west side the dial is a mirror image and so accordingly the hands run (deliberately) in opposite directions in homage to comedian Karl Valentin (who has a museum dedicated to him inside one of the towers) who declared that "In Bavaria the clocks go differently". Valentin himself was naive and skeptical about the Nazi regime although one of his routines had him say "Heil… Heil… Heil… yes what's his name - I just can't remember the name.” Another had him muse "It's a good thing that the Führer's name isn't 'Herbs' or else you'd have to greet him with 'medicinal herbs' (Heil Kräuter).
Through the gate one enters Tal road, shown during the annual commemorative march in memory of those who died in the Hitler
putsch on November 9, 1923 in front of the Feldherrnhalle, taking place a
decade later with the Nazis now in power. The column is passing through
the Isartor with Julius Streicher walking in front, directly past what is supposedly
the oldest hotel in the centre of Munich. When it was founded in 1470 as
the Hotel Thaltor, the Hotel Torbräu was where the SA and ϟϟ recruited
and drank throughout the 1920s. In May 1923
approximately twenty-two men gathered in the bowling alley of the hotel
under the leadership of Josef Berchtold and Julius Schreck to form the
Stosstrupp Hitler as a personal bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. The SA
swore allegiance to Hitler in May 1923 and the precursor to the ϟϟ, the
Stosstrupp Hitler, was established in the bowling alley in basement here according to Guido Knopp: The SS started very small. In May 1923, the "Stoßtrupp Hitler" was born in the bowling alley of Munich's Torbräu tavern – 22 men formed the nucleus of the Black Order. Protecting the life of the “drummer” who wanted to be the “leader” in battles in the hall – that was their job. They wore the skull and crossbones on their black caps – borrowed from the emblem of the 1st Guards Reserve Engineer Regiment of the First World War, which operated in front of the front lines with flamethrowers. “Death-defying joy in fighting” – with such a trench mentality, the shock troopers wanted to overthrow the hated republic.(9-10) Die SS
This group succeeded the Stabswache, established on March 15, 1923, and included Emil Maurice, a watchmaker born in 1897, Christian Weber, a horse trader born in 1883 who later became a Munich city councillor, Ulrich Graf, a butcher and amateur wrestler born in 1878, and Karl Fiehler, born in 1895, who served as Munich's mayor from 1933 to 1945. Members wore black caps with a death's head emblem and swastika armbands, pledging an oath of loyalty to Hitler's person until death. Julius Schreck, Hitler's chauffeur since 1921, organised the unit to safeguard Hitler during speeches in Munich's beer halls, where clashes with political opponents occurred regularly, with over fifty documented brawls in 1922 alone. By November 1, 1923, the Stosstrupp Hitler had expanded to one hundred fifty members, primarily recruited from Munich's working-class districts.
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My BIS students in front of the Torbrau and Isartor beside it. On November 8, 1923, the hotel Torbrau hosted a briefing by Josef Berchtold for the Stosstrupp Hitler, assigning roles for the Beer Hall Putsch, including detaining city officials and securing key locations. Ernst Rohm, born in 1887 and leader of the SA since 1921, was present in Munich during the putsch, coordinating military efforts, though his specific presence at the hotel Torbrau was limited to planning meetings with SA and Nazi Party figures. During the putsch on November 9, 1923, Stosstrupp members, acting on orders from the hotel, arrested seven Munich city councillors, holding them for six hours, and vandalised the Munchener Post's offices, destroying printing presses worth fifty thousand marks and injuring two staff members. The putsch culminated in a march to the Feldherrnhalle, where sixteen Nazis, including Stosstrupp member Heinrich Trambauer, and four policemen died in a shootout at 12:30 on November 9, 1923. The failure led to the Stosstrupp's ban and Hitler's arrest on November 11, 1923, with a sentence of five years, though he served only until December 20, 1924. After Hitler's release, he instructed Julius Schreck on April 10, 1925, to reassemble former Stosstrupp members at the hotel Torbrau to form a new unit. On April 15, 1925, eight men, including Emil Maurice and Ulrich Graf, met in the bowling alley, establishing the Schutzstaffel, abbreviated as ϟϟ, on September 1, 1925. The ϟϟ required members to be aged twenty-three to thirty-five, physically fit, and of proven Aryan descent, unlike the SA's broader recruitment. By December 31, 1925, the ϟϟ had one hundred members, focusing on elite protection for Hitler. Himmler assumed command on January 6, 1929, expanding the ϟϟ to two hundred ninety members by December 31, 1929. The hotel Torbrau's role was later mythologised by the ϟϟ as its birthplace, with members viewing the bowling alley meetings as a mark of their elite status. When asked to visit the site, I was told after the war it was replaced by a cellar. Hitler's presence at the hotel Torbrau included meetings in 1922 and 1923. The SA, with five thousand members in Munich by 1923, clashed with the ϟϟ over influence, though both traced early activities to venues like the hotel Torbrau. From January 30, 1933, under Nazi rule, the hotel Torbrau, owned by Johann Mayr, On December 17, 1944, four five-hundred-pound bombs struck during an American air raid at 22.00, destroying ninety percent of the structure, including the onion-shaped turret, which weighed five hundred kilograms. Two staff members, Hans Weber, aged thirty-two, and Anna Schmidt, aged twenty-seven, died from shrapnel in the lobby. Johann and Maria Mayr escaped to a shelter one hundred metres away, noting, "Our life's work burned in three hours." The raid killed 562, part of seventy-four wartime attacks causing six thousand six hundred thirty-two deaths. Reconstruction began on May 10, 1945, after the war's end on May 8, 1945. Johann Mayr sketched plans to clear ten tonnes of debris over three months, costing one hundred thousand marks. By 1960, fifty staff served one thousand guests monthly, cementing the hotel's recovery. When inflation took hold in 1923, a pint of beer in the Torbräu ϟϟ hangout was already costing several billion marks. That money earned in the morning was worth nothing in the evening. Their job of protecting Hitler elevated the men from the bowling alley, as they saw it, from an average existence to the rank of an "elite." Hitler made his first attempt to overthrow the hated state almost six months after swearing allegiance in Torbräu. The course for a dollar was now at 420 billion marks. The patience of the people was exhausted, the situation for a "national revolution" seemed favourable...In the Torbräu, Josef Berchtold initiated the men into the putsch plans: “Comrades, the hour has come that you all, like me, have longed for. Hitler and Herr von Kahr have come to an agreement, and this very evening the Reich government will be overthrown and a new Hitler-Ludendorff-Kahr government formed. The deed to be carried out by us will be the impetus for the new events. But before I proceed, I urge those who for any reason object to our cause to resign.” No one made a move to leave.
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Hitler’s first bodyguard was replaced with a new one in May of 1923, the Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler. Its members by and large came from a differing social and age group (older) than the quite young SA. The initial leader of this group was Julius Schreck, a man who superficially resembled Hitler and later served as his double from time to time. These recruits were later described by one of their own: “Hard and rough and sometimes quite uncouth were the customs, habits, and looks of the Stosstrup. They did not know ... grovelling. They clung to the right of the stronger, the old right of the fist. In an emergency they knew no command.... When ... called to action— to attack right and left—march! march!—then things were torn to bits and in minutes streets and squares were swept of enemies.... Soon we were known in village and town.”By April 1925 Hitler ordered Schreck to set up a new bodyguard who then gathered his "old comrades" around him inside the Torbräu. The name that the troop then adopted in September suited the current needs of its leader: "Schutzstaffel" (initially in a plural form, Schutzstaffeln), a ”Protective Squadron” with its name taken from air warfare terminology, referring to fighters escorting bombers.
Otis C. Mitchell (55) Hitler's Stormtroopers and the Attack on the German Republic
Göring, Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis marching down Am Tal on November 9, 1937 on anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.
The Sterneckerbräu, so-called 'cradle of the Movement' was located in Munich's old town in the Tal 38 (originally 54) on the corner of Sterneckerstraße, very close to the Isartor. This
is where Hitler first came across the German Workers' Party (DAP) on
September 12, 1919 whilst serving in the intelligence section of the
German army. Hitler apparently became involved in an heated political argument with a Professor Baumann, who had proposed that Bavaria should break away from Prussia and found a new South German nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's arguments he made an impression on the other party members with his oratorical skills and, according to Hitler, the "professor" left the hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat. Impressed with Hitler, Anton Drexler invited him to join the DAP which Hitler accepted on September 12, 1919, becoming the party's 55th member (although officially member number 555 as they started from 500 to give the illusion of greater suport). When the DAP chief, Anton Drexler, signed the Party
membership form he wrote "Hittler" with two 't's. This is also
significant as being the site where the Nazi Party was originally
organised on February 24, 1920.
It can scarcely have been a very impressive scene when, on the evening of 12 September 1919, Hitler attended his first meeting in a room at the Sterneckerbrau, a Munich beer-cellar in which a handful of twenty or twenty-five people had gathered. One of the speakers was Gottfried Feder, an economic crank well known in Munich, who had already impressed Hitler at one of the political courses arranged for the Army. The other was a Bavarian separatist, whose proposals for the secession of Bavaria from the German Reich and a union with Austria brought Hitler to his feet in a fury. He spoke with such vehemence that when the meeting was over Drexler went up to him and gave him a copy of his autobiographical pamphlet, Mein politisches Erwachen. A few days later Hitler received a postcard inviting him to attend a committee meeting of the German Workers' Party.
Alan Bullock (58) Hitler: A Study in Tyranny
The Sterneckerbräu was the lowest category of beer house and gained fame and historical significance only because Anton Drexler founded the German Workers' Party (DAP) on January 5, 1919, together with Karl Harrer. It met once a week in the restaurant on the first floor of the new building. On September 12, 1919, Hitler attended a meeting of the DAP on behalf of the intelligence command of the army. The meeting took place in a meeting room of the Sterneckerbräu. According to Dr. Werner Maser, the first to evaluate the main Nazi Party archive and exposed the "Hitler Diaries" as a forgery, in his 1975 book Adolf Hitler: Legende-Mythos-Wirklichkeit (171-2), Hitler appears in civilian clothes and not as a training officer or as a representative of the troop, but rather as a "Private," stating his troop unit as the place of residence. Bored, Hitler listens to the lecture by the speaker Gottfried Feder, whom he had known since the end of June 1919 from the political course for demobilised soldiers. He only stays because the scheduled discussion interests him. However, when a professor named Baumann took the floor and demanded the separation of Bavaria from the Reich and a union between Bavaria and Austria, Hitler got hooked. "Then I couldn't do anything else," he writes in Mein Kampf, "than to announce myself and to tell the ... gentleman my opinion on this point." Two days earlier, on September 10, 1919, the peace treaty between German-Austria and the Entente states had been signed in St. Germain-en-Laye, which sealed the separation of Hungary from Austria and the recognition of Czechoslovakia and Poland, which was linked to the cession of territory, Hungary and Yugoslavia as independent states by Austria, which was no longer allowed to call itself “German Austria”. The disintegration of the Austrian "state corpse" that Hitler had longed for in Vienna had come about as a result of the war. The fact that a German professor, of all people, is recommending at this hour to separate part of Germany from the Reich and to advocate a union with Austria, which Hitler regarded as a dying state even before the war, has the all-German Hitler downright shocked. When he left the room immediately after his emotionally charged contribution to the discussion, which left most of the participants mute and astonished and caused the professor to "flee" in dismay, the first chairman of the DAP, tool-fitter Anton Drexler, who was just as obviously struck by such brilliant eloquence, followed him and gives him a copy of the brochure he wrote, My Political Awakening, which Hitler reads in the barracks, considers it undemanding, but accepts the content.
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In the evening when I entered the 'Leiber Room' of the former Sterneckerbrau in Munich, I found some twenty to twenty-five people present, chiefly from the lower classes of the population.
Feder's lecture was known to me from the courses, so I was able to devote myself to an inspection of the organisation itself.
My impression was neither good nor bad; a new organisation like so many others. This was a time in which anyone who was not satisfied with developments and no longer had any confidence in the existing parties felt called upon to found a new party. Everywhere these organisations sprang out of the ground, only to vanish silently after a time. The founders for the most part had no idea what it means to make a party-let alone a movement out of a club. And so these organisations nearly always stifle automatically in their absurd philistinism.
The meeting didn’t impress Hitler, but he was given a
brochure titled “My Political Awakening” by founder
Anton Drexler, and he read it nonetheless. Hitler was invited to the next meeting of the DAP at the Altes Rosenbad
Inn and he was again ordered to attend and even join the
tiny party by his Intelligence superior, Capt. Karl Mayr.
The scene is recreated ludicrously in the dire 2003 American miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil which took significant creative liberties throughout, leading historian Sir Ian Kershaw, an initial consultant, to disavow the project due to its fabrications and simplifications. This particular scene- encompassing Mayr's assignment and Hitler's attendance at the September 12, 1919, DAP meeting at Munich's Sterneckerbräu beer hall- distorts key events to portray Hitler as a reluctant, superior observer who stumbles into destiny, rather than an eager participant already aligned with extremist views. Below is an outline of the main inaccuracies, comparing the film's portrayal to established historical accounts. Mayr did assign Hitler, a V-Mann (confidential agent) in the army's intelligence section, to attend and report on the DAP as part of broader surveillance of radical groups in post-war Munich. However, this scene exaggerates the "spying" intrigue for drama; Hitler's role was more observational, attending public meetings to assess threats to military morale, not a covert infiltration. Additionally, Hitler was already steeped in anti-Semitic and nationalist ideas from his Vienna years and wartime experiences, making him sympathetic to such groups rather than neutral. He is shown listening to a phenomenally unappealing speech, reacts with visible disgust or boredom, and storms out without contributing. In fact the meeting featured a lecture by engineer Gottfried Feder on abolishing "interest slavery" (an economic critique of capitalism with anti-Semitic undertones, though not explicitly highlighted that night). Far from disgust, Hitler was engaged- he stayed for the discussion and delivered an impromptu, passionate rebuttal against a guest speaker advocating Bavarian separatism from Germany to join Austria. His fiery defence of German unity impressed the roughly 25 attendees, marking him as a potential asset. The film's disgust and exit is a complete invention, turning an active intervention into passive rejection to dramatise Hitler's supposed innate charisma and destiny. Here h leaves anonymously, prompting Drexler to ask an associate to identify the mysterious observer, setting up future recruitment.In fact Hitler didn't slink away unnoticed; after his outburst, Drexler approached him directly, handed him a pamphlet titled "My Political Awakening," and remarked, "My God, what a gob! We could use him." A week later, Hitler received a postcard inviting him to a committee meeting, leading to his joining as member No. 55 (later falsified as 555 to inflate numbers). The film's anonymous exit and inquiry create suspense but erase the immediate positive interaction, making Drexler seem more passive and Hitler more enigmatic.
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In the old Sterneckerbräu im Tal, there was a small room with arched roof, which in earlier times was used as a sort of festive tavern where the Bavarian Counsellors of the Holy Roman Empire foregathered. It was dark and dismal and accordingly well suited to its ancient uses, though less suited to the new purpose it was now destined to serve. The little street on which its one window looked out was so narrow that even on the brightest summer day the room remained dim and sombre. Here we took up our first fixed abode. The rent came to fifty marks per month, which was then an enormous sum for us. But our exigencies had to be very modest. We dared not complain even when they removed the wooden wainscoting a few days after we had taken possession. This panelling had been specially put up for the Imperial Counsellors. The place began to look more like a grotto than an office.
Standing at the entrance on the side street off Tal which Hitler entered when first encountering the DAP.
The story is well-known; it has been told a thousand times. On 12 September 1919, on an assignment from the Reichswehr's Intelligence Section, Hitler attended a meeting of the German Workers' Party in the Sterneckerbräu, a pub near the Isartor, where slightly more than forty people had assembled to listen to speeches by Gottfried Feder and a Professor Baumann. During the subsequent discussion Hitler drew attention to himself with a forceful contribution and was then invited by the chairman of the local branch, Anton Drexler, to become a member. After careful consideration Hitler agreed to do so and, thanks to his rhetorical gift, soon became the party's main attraction. Under his dominant influence it rapidly expanded, consolidating its organisation, until he formally took over the party leadership. The story represents the core of the party legend, invented by Hitler, outlined at length in Mein Kampf, referred to again and again in hundreds of his speeches, and continually repeated after 1945. The legend can, however, be disproved with relative ease. For a start, during the 1930s, Drexler, the chairman in 1919, understandably objected to Hitler's claim that he joined the party as member No. 7. The only thing that is certain is that Hitler was one of the first 200 or so members who had joined the party by the end of 1919. But much more important is the fact that the success of the DAP, later NSDAP, in Munich was not, as Hitler later maintained, the result of his decision to join it.
From
1933 the Sternecker housed a Nazi museum, opened November 8 that year by Hitler himself. Mentioned in Nazi-ersa Baesecker guides, for
twenty pfennigs one could visit the room of the first office that was
supposedly preserved and furnished as it was originally. The first
inventory and office furniture, as well as the members' rooms, could still
be viewed there. Every year on November 8 the solemn
procession dedicated to the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch passed the Sterneckerbräu at which point marchers stopped
for one minute. The building survived the war. In 1957 the restaurant was closed and the first floor was converted into a store whilst currently preserved rooms are now used as office space for an Apple shop which
may be appropriate, given that in Latin the words for 'apple' ("mālum")
and for 'evil' ("malum") are nearly identical. One particularly incisive piece from the New York Times revealed the way the company exploits its own foreign workforce in Chinese concentration camps. In January 2025, a Bavarian restaurant was reopened on the property, but under the innocuous name "Haxnbauer" which describes itself as a "Muenchener Original" offering "[r]obust German classics like pork knuckle & sausages, plus beer, in a historic setting. " Apparently the new operators have emphasised that they are aware of the historical significance of the place but right-wing groups are not welcome.
Hermann Otto Hoyer's 1937 representation of Hitler's political beginnings set in the Leiber Room of the Sterneckerbräu, Am Anfang war das Wort (In the Beginning Was the Word) for the Great German Art Exhibition at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst. Note how Hitler’s arms are bent in the form of the swastika, matching that on the flag which hanging directly behind him. The lighting over Hitler seems to fall directly onto the audience, having him represent the bringer of light and further hint at the audience's 'enlightenment,' evoking the Pentecost.
In the summer of 1920 alone Hitler had given the following speeches
here: 'Nationalism' (June 9), "About the Political Situation" (June 16),
"Spa and Moscow" (July 28) and "Financial Questions" (August 6).
Its small group of faithful followers— workmen, craftsmen, members of the lower-middle-class—assembled each week in the Leiber Room of the Sternecker-Bräu ‘for the discussion and study of political matters’. The trauma of the lost war, anti-Semitic feelings, and complaints about the snapping of all the ‘bonds of order, law and morality’ set the tone of its meetings. It stood for the widespread idea of a national socialism ‘led only by German leaders’ and aiming at the ‘ennoblement of the German worker’; instead of socialisation it called for profit-sharing, demanded the formation of an association for national unity, and proclaimed that its ‘duty and task’ was ‘to educate its members in an ideal sense and raise them up to a higher conception of the world’. It was not so much a party in the usual sense, as a mixture of secret society and drinking club typical of the Munich of those years; it did not address itself to the public. Obscure visionaries would hold forth to the thirty or forty who had gathered together, discuss Germany’s disgrace and rebirth, or write postcards to like-minded societies in North Germany.
Fest The Face of the Third Reich
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Hitler's
painting of Tal Road looking towards Marienplatz with
Heilig-Geist-Kirche on the left and the alte rathaus straight ahead.
As he had done in Vienna, he developed a routine where he could complete a picture every two or three days, usually copied from postcards of well-known tourist scenes in Munich – including the Theatinerkirche, the Asamkirche, the Hofbräuhaus, the Alter Hof, the Münzhof, the Altes Rathaus, the Sendlinger Tor, the Residenz, the Propyläen – then set out to find customers in bars, cafés, and beerhalls. His accurate but uninspired, rather soulless watercolours were, as Hitler himself later admitted when he was German Chancellor and they were selling for massively inflated prices, of very ordinary quality. But they were certainly no worse than similar products touted about the beerhalls, often the work of genuine art students seeking to pay their way. Once he had found his feet, Hitler had no difficulty finding buyers. He was able to make a modest living from his painting and exist about as comfortably as he had done in his last years in Vienna. When the Linz authorities caught up with him in 1914, he acknowledged that his income – though irregular and fluctuating – could be put at around 1,200 Marks a year, and told his court photographer Heinrich Hoffmann at a much later date that he could get by on around 80 Marks a month for living costs at that time.
Other Munich Pages
Odeonsplatz
Odeonsplatz
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