Staatskanzlei and Munich War Memorial
The tomb of the Unknown Soldier then and today. Originally erected in front of the former Army Museum (now the Bavarian State Chancellery) in the Hofgarten in 1924
to commemorate the 2 million dead of the Great War, the 'Dead Soldier'
sculpted by Bleekers now dedicated to the dead of both world wars. It was also used as a backdrop for nationalist and militaristic propaganda during the Nazi era. Annual remembrance days for war heroes were organised here by both the Wehrmacht and the Nazi party from 1934 onwards. This war memorial modelled on a megalithic tomb was already one of the most visited war memorials in Germany even during the Weimar Republic. Its centrepiece is a crypt in which Bernhard Bleeker’s idealised figure of the “dead soldier” is laid out, representing the 13,000 Munich soldiers who fell in the First World War and whose names were once engraved on the walls of a further walkway that circumscribed the memorial. Damaged during the Second World War, the war memorial was restored on the orders of the American military government, albeit without the names of the 13,000 dead. In the 1950s an inscription was added commemorating the fallen soldiers and civilian victims of the years 1939 to 1945. This dedication reflects the desire of the population to continue commemorating the war dead even after 1945, although its portrayal of both the city and its population exclusively as victims represents a very one-dimensional view. To this day military ceremonies in honour of the dead are still held regularly at the war memorial.
Directly in front is the Memorial for the Resistance
Leo Kronbrust’s memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1996 by the Bavarian Minister president Dr. Edmund Stoiber. It is engraved on one side with a line of block letters reading "Zum erinnern zum gedenken" ("To Recall and to Commemorate") under which is a reproduction of a handwritten letter by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin von Witzleben who was arrested the day after the attempted July plot.
During his trial he was forced to appear in court without his belt and false teeth. On August 8, 1944 he was executed by being hanged by piano wire from a meat hook.
ϟϟ-Deutschland-Kaserne
During the November 1918 Revolution, and two photographs from memorial ceremonies in December 1924 and November 1931.
From
1905-1945, this housed the Bavarian Army Museum, founded by Ludwig II.
Destroyed during the war with only the dome remaining, it has since
been rather impressively reconstructed and is now used by the Bavarian
government. In front of the building, beneath a Travertine slab, is a crypt commemorating the unknown soldier.
Directly in front is the Memorial for the Resistance
(We will not pass judgement on the various possible forms of government as only one will be raised clear and unambiguously: every person has a right to a useful and just state that guarantees the freedom of the individual and to he general welfare. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the arbitrary will of criminal regimes of violence. These are the foundations of the new Europe.)Wir wollen hier nicht urteilen über die verschiedenen möglichen Staatsformen, nur eines will eindeutig und klar herausgehoben werden: jeder Mensch hat einen Anspruch auf einen brauchbaren und gerechten Staat, der die Freiheit des Einzelnen als auch das Wohl der Gesamtheit sichert.Freiheit der Rede, Freiheit des Bekenntnisses, Schutz des einzelnen Bürgers vor der Willkür verbrecherischer Gewaltstaaten.Das sind die Grundlagen des neuen Europa.
During his trial he was forced to appear in court without his belt and false teeth. On August 8, 1944 he was executed by being hanged by piano wire from a meat hook.
ϟϟ-Deutschland-Kaserne
These barracks were primarily used by the ϟϟ-Standarte 1 Deutschland until the end of World War II. They had taken part in the annexation of Austria and later the occupation of the Sudetenland before contributing to the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939. It was ordered by Hitler that it should be expanded to a division but the war interrupted this plan. It took part in the invasion of Poland attached to Panzer-Division Kempf and following that campaign it was used to form ϟϟ-Division Verfügungstruppe (later renamed Das Reich). After the war the UNESCO used the buildings to accommodate dispersed persons.
Funk-Kaserne
Dating from 1936, now used by the police.
Just outside the reichsadler remains, shorn of its swastika (although traces are left).
Reichszeugmeisterei (RZM)
The Reich General Ordnance Depot (Reichszeugmeisterei) "was one of the largest concrete skeleton constructions erected during the Nazi period" (Kopleck, 73) which housed party vehicles. Today can be seen the traces of the reichsadler above the entrance and, along the sides, surviving reliefs depicting German enterprise.
Nazi uniforms and regalia were designed, manufactured, controlled and sold by the Reichszeugmeisterei (RZM—central ordnance office of the NSDAP). The Reichs- zeugmeisterei, literally the National Material Control Office, can be thought of as a government procurement office. The Reichszeugmeisterei was established at almost the moment that Hitler took over the government of Germany. By July 1934, the RZM was in place with a director, staff and offices in Munich at Tegernseer Landstrasse 210. Officially, it had the solitary purpose of selecting suppliers and sellers of certain NSDAP uniform-related products. It had exclusive legal authority to design and control quality and costs of uniforms, badges, medals and other regalia. Since its mission was on behalf of the Nazi Party (the RZM was a branch of the Treasury Department) its jurisdiction included material for use by both the Gliederungen der NSDAP (Nazi party organizations) and Angeschlossende Verbände (associated units). Secondarily, the RZM was charged with making sure that the production of all that they ordered was carried out in “Aryan” manufacturing plants, with materials of German origin whenever possible. Producers authorized by the RZM were not allowed to employ “non–Aryan” workers, and had to give preference to Nazi Party members when promoting workers and dealers. Each firm authorized to produce or sell RZM material was issued an RZM registration number and it was required that the number appear on all finished products they made or sold. The RGBI I- 1269 law promulgated on 20 December 1934 punished by imprisonment or forced labour the illegal manufacture, wearing of Nazi uniforms and bearing of regalia. The official RZM shops for retailing Nazi Party badges and equipment were shown by a white metal sign with the inevitable swastika/eagle emblem and the words, “Zum Verkauf parteiamtlicher Gegenstände zugelassen NSDAP Reichszeugmeisterei” (sale of official party items authorised by the National Quartermaster Department of the German National-Socialist Workers’ Party). The RGBI I-844 law from 26 June 1935 punished by imprisonment any person who insulted, despised, or mocked Nazi regalia, uniforms and flags.
Nazi uniforms and regalia were designed, manufactured, controlled and sold by the Reichszeugmeisterei (RZM—central ordnance office of the NSDAP). The Reichs- zeugmeisterei, literally the National Material Control Office, can be thought of as a government procurement office. The Reichszeugmeisterei was established at almost the moment that Hitler took over the government of Germany. By July 1934, the RZM was in place with a director, staff and offices in Munich at Tegernseer Landstrasse 210. Officially, it had the solitary purpose of selecting suppliers and sellers of certain NSDAP uniform-related products. It had exclusive legal authority to design and control quality and costs of uniforms, badges, medals and other regalia. Since its mission was on behalf of the Nazi Party (the RZM was a branch of the Treasury Department) its jurisdiction included material for use by both the Gliederungen der NSDAP (Nazi party organizations) and Angeschlossende Verbände (associated units). Secondarily, the RZM was charged with making sure that the production of all that they ordered was carried out in “Aryan” manufacturing plants, with materials of German origin whenever possible. Producers authorized by the RZM were not allowed to employ “non–Aryan” workers, and had to give preference to Nazi Party members when promoting workers and dealers. Each firm authorized to produce or sell RZM material was issued an RZM registration number and it was required that the number appear on all finished products they made or sold. The RGBI I- 1269 law promulgated on 20 December 1934 punished by imprisonment or forced labour the illegal manufacture, wearing of Nazi uniforms and bearing of regalia. The official RZM shops for retailing Nazi Party badges and equipment were shown by a white metal sign with the inevitable swastika/eagle emblem and the words, “Zum Verkauf parteiamtlicher Gegenstände zugelassen NSDAP Reichszeugmeisterei” (sale of official party items authorised by the National Quartermaster Department of the German National-Socialist Workers’ Party). The RGBI I-844 law from 26 June 1935 punished by imprisonment any person who insulted, despised, or mocked Nazi regalia, uniforms and flags.
Nazi Housing Development
According to Geoff Walden of Third Reich in Ruins, this first building at Kurfürstenplatz "was likely part of a Third Reich neighbourhood housing development (Siedlung) built in 1938. The Siedlung included a savings bank and a police office, and this building may have been one of those." friend_of_Obersalzberg, who contributed the photo on the left, confirms that it was built in 1938 by architect Hans Atzenbeck.
At that time it was necessary to build new healthy and cheap apartments in Munich. It has 5 entrances and so 5 living units. In the first floor (Erdgeschoß) were stores. In the courtyard was a fountain with a sculpture of a drumming Hitlerjunge. The swastikas and the fountain were removed after war.
Google Street view actually blocks the image of the entire building! Google isn't known for respecting privacy, so could this have been pushed by the authorities given the remaining Nazi-era reliefs?
February 26, 1938
The coat of arms of Munich on the building with its form under the Nazis and today.
Better photos of the building can be found on the the Munich thread at Axis History.
These siedlung on Klugstrasse all have bizarre Third Reich, astrological, masonic, and other obscure symbols over every door frame leading inside. To me, it's incredible that they continue to survive and form the entrances to people's homes:
The swastika is still faintly visible...
...whilst this one, dated 1933, is obscured by the shaking hands
Here the hakenkreuz has been erased, but the Nazi salutes allowed to remain!
Another excised swastika that completed the DAF symbol
And yet a couple have had their bizarre symbols completely removed.
The left image shows swords and a steel helmet whilst the one on the right reminds me of the lesson from the Disney wartime cartoon Education for Death...
Siedlung on Erich Kastner str.
This example of a siedlung consists of an huge building and on all four corners there are Third Reich reliefs.
The swastikas have been wiped out from the bottom of each relief
93 Winzererstr.
Another surviving building from the Nazi era with its iconography intact (with the colour still maintained) complete with reichsadler dating from 1936 found by odeon at Axis History Forum.
Bergverlag Rudolf Rother
The metal grills at the office at Landshuter Allee 49 in Munich retain the swastikas:
Hitlerjugend-Heim at Mariahilfplatz 4
The site in 1934 and today where it now serves as an hotel
Site of the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB)
One of the responsibilities of the National Socialist Association of German Lecturers, founded in 1935 and located at what is today Max-Joseph-Straße 4, was to push for the dismissal of politically undesirable university lecturers, to run the universities according to dictatorial principles and to make the curriculum conform with Nazi ideology. The conditions for bringing the universities into line were favourable in Munich, for even before 1933 the National Socialist German Students’ Association at the Technical University had held almost half the seats on the Students’ Committee.
GärtnerPlatztheater
It had been after watching the Zigeunerbaron here in 1926 that Hitler went to the Café Viktoria to eat, renamed Café Roma until its closure in 2008:
Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl
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
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 S.A. 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?"Café Neumayr
Heiden (294)
Gasthaus Deutsche Eiche
Ironically, the Gasthaus Deutsche Eiche is now "one of the Munich gay scene's most popular meeting places" with its bathhouse that takes over four floors and almost 4,600 square feet complete with a Finnish sauna, a salt sauna, a whirlpool, a large steambath, shower area, massage rooms, a solarium, a rooftop garden, a Bistro & Bar, TV rooms, relaxation rooms, individual and exclusive booths etc... which explains the gay flags that flank the international ones in the centre. But in 1926 Hitler gave six speeches here, and another in 1929.
Two unidentified adlers stumbled upon in Munich:
Nazi mementos I found being sold in the front window of a Munich antique shop. It's but one of many I found which surprised me given the country's supposed strict laws concerning the open display of such items (unless used publicly by the Government itself). All swastikas were covered with a round sticker which seems as useful as censoring swear words on television.
Hackerbrücke after the war and today
The Staatsbibliothek on Ludwigstraße then and now.
Can't find any information on this in terms of its date; found accidentally on Liebigstr. whilst walking along the river to Prinzregentenstr.
Another found at the other end of town on Orleanstr. showing a distinctive eagle of indeterminate origin.
Nazi mementos I found being sold in the front window of a Munich antique shop. It's but one of many I found which surprised me given the country's supposed strict laws concerning the open display of such items (unless used publicly by the Government itself). All swastikas were covered with a round sticker which seems as useful as censoring swear words on television.
Rosenstrasse
Rosenstraße in the city centre with flags for the Reichstag elections at the end of March 1936 and today.
Nymphenburg Palace (Schloss Nymphenburg)
Within walking distance of Heydrich's house is this, the biggest Baroque palace in Germany, and site of the 1938 Nazi production of "De Nacht van de Amazonen". The photo on the left shows the site during the so-called Day of German Art Festival during the weekend of July 14-16, 1939 in Munich.
Rarely seen amateur colour footage filmed in Friedberg and Munchen in 1938 showing the night masquerade "De Nacht van de Amazonen." The "Burgmaister" of Munchen obtained from the local "Gaulaiter" (the city's Nazi Party chief) the permission for the girls on the chariots to parade with sexy costumes.
Former home of Reinhard Heydrich
This is a photo from my last visit of Reinhard Heydrich's home outside Munich at Zuccalistrasse 4 near Nymphenburg castle. Of this house his wife Lina wrote "When unexpected visitors arrive, the architecture of the house makes it possible for us to make everything disappear in time. Our dog gives us plenty of warning."
At the end of the war, Heydrich's widow returned to the island of Fehmarn with her surviving children. She owned and ran a hotel and restaurant. The Finnish theatre director and poet Mauno Manninen (1915-1969) was a frequent guest at the hotel. He took pity on the difficulties she experienced as a result of her infamous name and offered to marry her to enable her to change it. They married in 1965 but did not live together. She died on August 14, 1985.
See the special Prague section on Operation Anthropoid
Atelier Josef Thorak
Joseph Thorak was, alongside Arno Breker, the most important sculptor of the Third Reich.
Auferstanden aus Ruinen
Nymphenburg Palace (Schloss Nymphenburg)
Former home of Reinhard Heydrich
At the end of the war, Heydrich's widow returned to the island of Fehmarn with her surviving children. She owned and ran a hotel and restaurant. The Finnish theatre director and poet Mauno Manninen (1915-1969) was a frequent guest at the hotel. He took pity on the difficulties she experienced as a result of her infamous name and offered to marry her to enable her to change it. They married in 1965 but did not live together. She died on August 14, 1985.
See the special Prague section on Operation Anthropoid
Atelier Josef Thorak
Hitler visited Thorak’s Berlin studio in 1936 and the two men discussed “great projects.” In January 1937, Thorak wrote Adolf Wagner—a Gauleiter and the Bavarian minister of interior, education, and culture—and requested a new studio, reporting, of course, on his recent meeting with Hitler.This initiative paid off, and in October, Wagner accompanied the recently appointed professor at the Munich Academy to the lake region fifteen kilometres southeast of Munich to inspect potential sites. This led to the construction of (the first) studio at Baldham, which was paid for with state funds—a sum in excess of RM 215,000.298 The initial structure, however, was soon perceived as too small, and the following year, Hitler commissioned Albert Speer, a good friend of Thorak’s, to design another. The new atelier was so large—over four stories high—that it easily accommodated figures with heights in excess of fifty feet, as was the case for the Autobahn monument. The massive stone atelier, which postwar experts considered razing but deemed “virtually indestructible,” cost around RM 1,500,000.300 This structure reflected the usual grand patronage of the Nazi leaders, but also their typical means of proceeding: after the war, the man who owned the land used for the Thorak structures claimed that it was “earlier his family property which he had sold only under pressure.” Such considerations were of slight importance at the time, however, and amidst the construction of Speer’s building in February 1939, Thorak held a huge party (ein Richtfest) which attracted a throng of Nazi Germany’s political and cultural luminaries.
Petropoulos (265-266) The Faustian Bargain - The Art World in Nazi Germany
Auferstanden aus Ruinen
Hackerbrücke after the war and today
The Staatsbibliothek on Ludwigstraße then and now.
What had been an air protection shelter on Hotterstraße was converted in 1947 to an hotel in the town centre.
American troops on Dachauerstr. on April 30, 1945 and the site today.
Completed in 1932, the post office at Goetheplatz after the war and today.
The city brook that run down Baaderstraße and Ickstattstraße shown in 1946 has long dried up.
Sebastiansplatz in 1946 and today
American troops on Dachauerstr. on April 30, 1945 and the site today.
Sebastiansplatz in 1946 and today
The former site of the Palaeontological Museum at Neuhauser Straße 51 after being completely destroyed during the April 24th 1944 bombing; 80% of all its fossils were destroyed as well. After the war it was relocated here at Richard-Wagner-Straße 10.
The interior of the Paläontologische Museum in 1949, after the interior was severely damaged from an high-explosive bomb
