The Munich Thread

[Annelie]

No I don't have any specific buildings in mind but it gives me cause to wonder when I am looking at
something in Germany now whether its original or not?

This is our excellent tour guide and the building in the forground now selling mattresses, that he pointed out that it had some particuliar significance, I believe he said that Hitler spoke there or had offices early on? I was so overwhelmed taking photos I wish now that I had taken notes at the same time.

[Keir]

That building is the Sterneckerbrau where Hitler first came across the German Workers' Party on September 12, 1919. (When he signed the Party membership form he wrote "Hittler" with two ts). This is also significant as being the site where the Nazi Party was originally organised on 24 February 1920.

He wrote of his first visit there in Chapter IX: The 'German Workers' Party' of Mein Kampf:

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 organizations nearly always stifle automatically in their absurd philistinism.

The photo I took is from 2007. I noticed yesterday that's it's now an Apple shop...
There's a good 'then and now' of the building at Geoff Walden's site: http://www.thirdreichruins.com/munich.htm

[Annelie]

Thankyou.

Yes, its the same building. Glad to know or should I say remember what I was looking at.
Its pretty much the same from its early days which is nice to see.

[Keir]

Deutsches Museum Kongresssaal, completed in 1936 and featuring eagles on all four corners. Walden has the only period photo I've managed to come across (http://www.thirdreichruins.com/munich5.htm#dtmuseum).

[Geoff Walden]

To this end, he said that the Königsplatz would be “de-Nazified,” the Temples of Honour torn down. The bodies of Nazi “martyrs” would have to be removed as discreetly as possible....
An interesting article about their destruction: http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_d ... cordID=359

Keir,

Great article, thanks! It is often said (erroneously) that the sarcophagi were melted down and recast as church bells, but this is the first I ever read of their actual fate.

Some of the putschists' graves are still marked in various Munich cemeteries ...

BTW, do they still give a guided tour of the Fuehrerbau, where they take you down into the Luftschutzkeller and the tunnels, and into the historically significant rooms upstairs?

Geoff

[Geoff Walden]

When I went on tour in Munich it was conducted by a Londoner. He and the Scotsman who guided the Berlin tour were exceptional, especially the latter whose information I readily used in my classes. So far it seems like the guides have been taken over by Americans on bicycles whose frame of reference, when I overheard one yesterday at the Hofbrauhaus, was Knight Rider and other US TV shows of the 1980s...

So true, unfortunately. If you get a GOOD tour guide on those popular Munich and Berlin Third Reich tours, you're lucky. I've never actually taken one myself (didn't need a guide ), but I have overheard the guides at several locations in Berlin and Munich (and at the Kehlsteinhaus as well, FTM). Couldn't help listening in ... was really shocked at some whacko things that the tour guides told their groups.

Geoff

[Keir]

Geoff- My tour back in 2007 ended at the Fuehrerbau but never stopped at the Luftschutzkeller or the tunnels. Just as well as it was a foot tour and was raining at the time... By Luftschutzkeller, are you referring to the residence at Prinzregentenstr.?
BTW, I don't know where you're located now, but please let me know if there are any sites or items around Munich/Bavaria you'd like photographed or investigated for your site as it'd be an honour to contribute in any way! Give me some time to get settled though, as I have to spend the next few days following the wife around as she furnishes our new flat; after seven years she's frankly fed up with visiting sites related to totalitarianism whether Hitlerist, fascist, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, KMTor whatever. Then there's the small matter of starting work...

There is a fantastic site I just found- the NS-Dokumentationszentrum for Munich. It has everything- just check out the interactive city map (Topographie des Nationalsozialismus in München 1918 bis 1945) athttp://www.ns-dokumentationszentrum-mue ... tive-karte
It's like Google maps with all the sites already highlighted and with descriptions.
Alternately you can download a pdf of its printed map in English at http://www.ns-dokumentationszentrum-mue ... s_engl.pdf
I'll let you all discover the site for yourselves!

[ghostsoldier]

Excellent resource site, Keir!
Thanks for posting!
Rob

[Keir]

Cheers, Rob
A couple of photos I took near the place I've been temporarily been staying in within Munich. In 1910 this, at Hermann-Schmid-Str. 5-7, was the site of a Jewish open hospital with attached sister home. After the Pogromnach of November 9, 1938 the SS took direct control, dismissed non-Jewish coworkers and reduced the medical and material supply drastically. In June 2-3 1942 all personnel and patients were transported to the collection centre down the street and deported to Theresienstadt. The following month saw the SS establish its 'Lebensborm' programme here. On the side of the building a memorial was erected, one photo of which I could take before the camera battery died.

When I visited the site at the bottom of the road at 125 Lindwurmstr to look for mattresses, I didn't know I was entering the only remaining Jewish community centre since November 1938. Formerly a cigarette factory where a synagogue and office space were furnished, this saw in November 1941 the first Munich Jews to be deported to Theresienstadt. By March 1, 1943 the last remaining 483 Jews held here were gone, leaving in 1944 only 84 left in Munich.

[Keir]

Luftgaukommando, Prinzregentenstraße (VII Regional HQ of the Luftwaffe)
Built between 1935-1936, one can still walk past this building and see eagles, stahl helmets and even swastikas openly displayed.

[Keir]

Inside a Nazi eagle still greets visitors, albeit sans swastika.

[Geoff Walden]

Geoff- My tour back in 2007 ended at the Fuehrerbau but never stopped at the Luftschutzkeller or the tunnels. Just as well as it was a foot tour and was raining at the time... By Luftschutzkeller, are you referring to the residence at Prinzregentenstr.?
BTW, I don't know where you're located now, but please let me know if there are any sites or items around Munich/Bavaria you'd like photographed or investigated for your site as it'd be an honour to contribute in any way!

Hi Keir,

Thanks! I'll send you a short list (not a whole lot ).

The Luftschutzkeller is the air raid shelter in the basement of the Fuehrerbau (or maybe it was a level below the basement - I don't recall for certain now). The tunnel to the Ehrentempel and the Verwaltungsbau was down there as well.

Geoff

[ghostsoldier]

The tunnel to the Ehrentempel and the Verwaltungsbau was down there as well.

Any photos of that, by any chance, Geoff?
Rob

[Geoff Walden]

Hi Rob,

There are some photos of the air raid shelter rooms and the tunnels, here - http://thirdreichruins.com/munich3.htm -- about half-way down the page.

Geoff

[ghostsoldier]

Excellent! Thanks, Geoff... ...so, the tunnels actually provided no access to the Ehrentempel?
Rob