The Führerbau: Appeasement, Diplomatic Betrayal and the Munich Agreement

In Hitler's office today where the Munich agreement was signed, showing from the left Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, pictured before signing the Munich Agreement. In the background, the diplomats Saint-John Perseon, Henri Fromageot, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Ernst von Weizsäcker and Alexis Léger. This visual superimposition captures the precise spatial coordinates where the post-Versailles security order of Europe was dismantled. The conference held on September 29, 1938, was the decisive moment where the Western democracies, represented by Chamberlain and Daladier, chose to allow the French to betray its strategic ally in a futile attempt to appease the expansionist ambitions of Hitler. The atmosphere captured in the photograph is not one of genuine diplomatic negotiation but of a dictated peace seen in the faces of Daladier and Mussolini in particular- the conference marked a defeat both for the French, who saw all their diplomatic efforts of the last twenty years aimed at strengthening relations with the countries of the Danubian area in an anti-German function nullified, and for the Italians, since once again Mussolini saw the weight of the Nazi dictatorship grow in Europe, to the detriment of Italian influence. In the end, the fate of Central Europe was decided by four powers without the presence or consent of the nation being partitioned in a way being revisited today vis a vis Ukraine.

As Kershaw puts it in Hitler:

[T]he small, quiet, dapper premier of France, together with Ribbentrop, Weizsäcker, Ciano, Wilson, and Alexis Léger, State Secretary in the French Foreign Office, took their seats around a table in the newly constructed Führerbau amid the complex of party buildings centred around the Brown House – the large and imposing party headquarters – in Munich. There they proceeded to carve up Czechoslovakia. 

With Robert Harris at the very site which provided the setting for his bestseller Munich which later was adapted for the underwhelming Netflix adaptation, the trailer showing a number of Munich locations on the right:

 

The Führerbau was barely a year old, the work of Hitler's favourite architect, the late Professor Troost- so brand new that the white stone seemed to sparkle in the morning light. On either side of the twin porticoes hung giant flags; the German and the Italian flanked the southern entrance, the British and the French the northern. Above the doors were bronze eagles, wings outstretched, swastikas in their talons. Red carpets had been run out from both sets of doors, down the steps and across the pavement to the kerb. Only the northern entrance was in use. Here an eighteen-man honour guard stood with their rifles presented, alongside a drummer and a bugler...Its function was not entirely clear. It was not a government building, or a Party headquarters. Rather, it was a kind of monarch's court, for the enlightenment and entertainment of the emperor's guests. The interior was clad entirely in marble- a dull plum colour for the floors and the two grand staircases, greyish-white for the walls and pillars, although on the upper level the effect of the lighting was to make the stone glow golden.

As the event was reenacted for the film showing how they recreated the temples of honour, Nazi eagles above the entrances and the whiteness of the façade. Passersby would have seen a public building in Munich displaying Nazi symbols. The artistic exemption under §86 Absatz 3 provides the legal basis, and the production's purpose, to depict the Munich Conference and the failure of appeasement, is one of historical seriousness rather than exploitation; although of course where money's concerned the authorities invariably don't push the point. The filming was granted by the Bavarian authorities under § 86a StGB Ausnahmeverordnung für Film-und Kunstzwecke allowing the 9-metre Nazi flag to be flown daily from the original flagpole above the main entrance between 6.00 and 20.00 for the entire shoot making it the first legal display of the flag on the building since its removal on April 29, 1945 by soldiers of the 42nd Infantry Division. The original 1937 bronze entrance doors, which had been replaced in 1958, were recreated in resin and installed every morning from 2.00 and removed again by 5.30. The original marble floor of the entrance hall retained visible shrapnel damage from 1945, which the production chose to keep uncovered for authenticity. The production paid the state of Bavaria a daily location fee of €18,000 plus a separate Denkmalschutz supervision fee of €4,200 pd. Local papers accused Netflix of “Disneyfication of the Munich betrayal” whilst AfD city councillors tried to have the permit revoked, claiming it was “glorification of National Socialism”. The city council voted 48-11 to let filming continue whilst on October 12, 2020 twenty protesters with banners gathered outside; production paid Munich police €9,200 for extra security. 

The actual event on the left with Hitler's Mercedes‑Benz 770K Großer Mercede open touring parade car in the foreground- note his personal standard with my red ensign-decked bike behind today. Kempka is the driver as Hitler's personal bodyguard ϟϟ Karl Wilhelm Krause sits directly behind Hitler in the mid-car right hand side jump seat. An LSSAH Honour Guard is drawn up in front, with a grossly distorted Union Jack hanging in the background. The car, factory designation W150, was powered by a 7.7‑litre inline eight‑cylinder engine equipped with a Roots‑type supercharger, producing approximately 230 PS when engaged. The chassis was specially reinforced to accommodate extensive armour plating. The bodywork for Hitler’s cars was constructed by Sindelfingen works, with the open tourer configuration featuring folding soft top and elevated rear seating platform to maximise visibility during public appearances. The specific car most frequently associated with Hitler carried registration number IA‑148461 which incorporated 40 mm armoured glass and steel plating up to 18 mm thick. The windscreen could be raised hydraulically to provide ballistic protection whilst allowing public display.
On the right Chamberlain Chamberlain climbing the stone steps of the Führerbau on September 29, 1938. He wears a dark overcoat and holds himself upright with the deliberate posture of a man conscious of the cameras trained on him. The two men following behind are Sir Horace Wilson, his Chief Industrial Adviser and closest personal confidant throughout the Sudeten crisis, and Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador to Berlin since 1937. Wilson had accompanied Chamberlain on every stage of the crisis, from the flight to Berchtesgaden on September 15, 1938 to Bad Godesberg on September 22, 1938 despite having had no formal foreign policy experience whatever, a detail that troubled him considerably less than it troubled the Foreign Office professionals whose counsel he had effectively replaced. Henderson meanwhile had been the primary diplomatic intermediary between London and Berlin throughout, having spent his tenure cultivating a relationship with the Nazi leadership so accommodating that even Chamberlain's government occasionally found it excessive. By Munich he was already seriously ill with the cancer that would kill him on December 30, 1942, though his diplomatic instinct for yielding ground gracefully remained in excellent health. Chamberlain himself had flown from London that morning, his third flight to Germany in a fortnight, having never flown before September 15, 1938.

This time it's Daladier's turn, unlike Chamberlain representing a nation bound by actual alliance dating back to January 25, 1924 to defend Czechoslovak territorial integrity by force. The French army could mobilise over 100 divisions. The Czechoslovak army could field 35 divisions behind fortifications built for the specific purpose of holding until French intervention materialised. The Siegfried Line was incomplete. The Wehrmacht's own generals regarded a 2-front war with apprehension. None of this mattered. Daladier sat at the table, spoke little, contributed less, and signed. The Czechoslovak delegates sat in the curb outside on Arcisstrasse and were informed of the terms afterwards by the delegation of their own treaty ally. Daladier expected hostility upon his return to Le Bourget but the crowds cheered instead. His reported private response, "les cons", remains one of the more honest moments in the history of the Third Republic, suggesting that Daladier understood rather better than his public exactly what France's word now meant on the international stage. The cordon sanitaire that French diplomacy had spent the 1920s building linking Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, and Belgrade designed to encircle Germany, wasn't broken by German military power but discarded by the nation that built it. Poland seized Teschen within days.
Romania and Yugoslavia drew their own conclusions. Every state in Eastern Europe understood simultaneously that a French security guarantee was worthless. Germany occupied the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15, 1939. When war came, France was forced to follow Britain having spent the preceding 12 months systematically dismantling every strategic advantage it had previously held. A mere six weeks after the German offensive began on May 10, 1940, the French government requested armistice terms and yet again betrayed an alliance partner, leaving Britain to fight on alone. The Royal Air Force fought the Battle of Britain alone. The Royal Navy held the Atlantic alone. The British population endured the Blitz alone. The recognised French government then collaborated beyond the minimum obligations of occupation, administered the deportation of Jews from French territory, and actively resisted Allied operations in Syria, Madagascar, and North Africa. The liberation of French territory on June 6, 1944 and through the subsequent months was accomplished overwhelmingly by British, American and Canadian forces. Daladier, for his part, had been arrested by the Vichy regime in September 1940 and, interned without trial, he appeared at the Riom trial with Léon Blum and other politicians and staff officers, accused of being responsible for France's defeat. The trial, turning in favour of the defendants, was adjourned "for further investigation." Daladier was then held at the Château de Chazeron and the Fort du Portalet. After the German invasion of the unoccupied zone on November 11, 1942 , they demanded that Daladier be handed over to them for deportation. He was interned on April 4, 1943 near the Buchenwald camp before being transferred May 2, 1943 to the Itter Castle in Tyrol until his liberation by Anglo-American forces two years later on May 5, 1945.

As Zara Steiner warns when relating the event in The Triumph of the Dark,

The hastily assembled gathering at the Führerbau on 29 September, the Munich conference, was, in William Strang’s words, a ‘hugger-mugger’ affair, the seating impromptu, no agenda, no pads or sharpened pencils, or any of the usual paraphernalia of an international conference. Accounts of what happened and what was said are in conflict; indeed, there is no agreement on exactly who was present, hardly surprising since though the first session was held in camera, during the second and third sessions streams of the officials attending each head of state wandered in and out with documents that had to be redrafted and translated.

That said, the Munich Conference started at 12.45 with Hitler, shown here with Goering in white behind him, providing a brief overview of the Sudeten issue, stating that over 240,000 Sudeten Germans had fled to Germany since the Czech mobilisation on September 23, 1938, and declaring that further delay would be a crime. Chamberlain followed by agreeing to the need for rapid resolution, whilst Mussolini presented a proposal that had been pre-coordinated with Hitler during a train journey from Kufstein earlier that day, outlining the evacuation of Czech forces from the Sudeten areas starting October 1, 1938, and completing by October 10, 1938, without any destruction of infrastructure, a plan accepted by Chamberlain and Daladier as the basis for discussion despite its origins in a German draft prepared by Göring, Konstantin von Neurath, and Ernst von Weizsäcker. The session adjourned around 15.00 for lunch, during which no coordination occurred between the British and French delegations despite a planned meeting at 15.30, missing an opportunity to align on issues such as compensation for Czech state properties valued at approximately 20% of the country's economic capacity, including industrial assets and fortifications covering 28,000 square kilometres.

Here on the right Hitler is seen stepping out of the Führerbau after the first meeting, with Reichsführer ϟϟ Himmler and ϟϟ Gruppenfuhrer Schaub following behind.
Reconvening at 16.30, negotiations centred on the proposal's specifics, with Chamberlain querying compensation mechanisms for public assets which remained unresolved after debates lasting until 19.00, and Daladier securing
Hitler's agreement to an international committee comprising the German state secretary of the foreign office, the ambassadors of Britain, France, and Italy in Berlin, and one Czechoslovak nominee to finalise borders based on ethnographic lines allowing minor deviations in exceptional cases.
Discussions then shifted to map-based deliberations dividing the territory into four zones for phased German occupation, with zone I scheduled for October 1 and 2, 1938, zone II for October 2 and 3, 1938, zone III for October 3, 4, and 5, 1938, and zone IV for October 6 and 7, 1938, covering a total population of 3.6 million including 800,000 Czechs who would have the right to relocate within six months under a German-Czechoslovak commission handling population exchanges and related matters. By 22.00, a drafting group of legal experts from the four powers formulated the final text, incorporating a plebiscite provision for disputed areas to be completed by November 30, 1938, modelled on the Saar plebiscite of January 13, 1935, with international troops occupying those zones until completion, and including amnesty for 10,000 Sudeten political prisoners detained in Czech gaols since April 1938 as well as the discharge of Sudeten Germans from Czech military and police forces within four weeks.

The flags of the participating nations hanging from the two entrances and at the site today and how it appeared during the Conference.
For such monumental façade displays, banners measuring approximately 5 metres by 8.3 metres were commonly produced for party buildings in Munich, allowing full vertical drop across two storeys. Here the fabric was heavy wool bunting suitable for interior drape. Exterior banners were fixed by concealed rods anchored into the limestone façade. Illumination was arranged so that the red fields were visible during evening hours of the conference, particularly on September 29, 1938 when delegations arrived after dark.   
The negotiations at the Führerbau emphasised rapid implementation without Czechoslovak participation, as Hitler dismissed concerns over full immediate cession from his earlier Bad Godesberg demands of September 22, 1938, yielding to the committee-led process that would determine the remaining areas for occupation by October 10, 1938, whilst Mussolini framed the proposal as his contribution to averting conflict, stating it provided a balanced solution despite its German origins. Chamberlain pressed for clarity on the non-destruction clause, noting that Czechoslovakia bore responsibility for compliance but seeking assurances on compensation for state-owned facilities estimated at 20% of the nation's industrial output, a point that led to extended debates without resolution as Hitler prioritised evacuation timelines over financial reparations. Daladier focused on the border delimitation, obtaining Hitler's concession for Czech representation on the committee to ensure ethnographic accuracy, though in practice this role proved marginal with the committee meeting in Berlin from October 1, 1938, and making decisions that favoured German claims on 28,000 square kilometres encompassing 3.6 million inhabitants. The map examinations dominated the afternoon session, with the leaders agreeing on the zonal divisions to facilitate orderly occupation by German troops numbering 52 divisions in readiness, covering zone I with immediate entry on October 1, 1938, and progressing through zones II, III, and IV by October 7, 1938, to minimise resistance and secure the transfer of 800,000 non-German residents under the six-month option period. The drafting committee's work by 22.00 incorporated additional provisions for plebiscites in mixed ethnic areas, stipulating completion by November 30, 1938, with modalities based on the 1935 Saar vote that had seen 90.73 % favouring reunion with Germany, and requiring international supervision to occupy and administer those zones until results were certified. Amnesty measures extended to the release of 10,000 political detainees within four weeks, whilst the discharge of Sudeten personnel from Czech forces aimed to integrate 3.32 million ethnic Germans into the Reich without internal conflicts, reflecting Hitler's strategic goal of expanding German territory by 28,000 square kilometres without immediate warfare.

The Pathé newsreel footage of the signing of the Munich Agreement. The unedited original footage ran slightly over 11 minutes, whilst the version distributed to cinemas worldwide was cut to 3 minutes and 42 seconds. Here the delegations are shown entering the large conference room with its heavy furnishings, large tapestries, and the long rectangular table at which the negotiations took place. The Italian ambassador Bernardo Attolico and German State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker are visible amongst the officials present as each leader is shown signing the document in turn, with aides standing behind them. This remains the most widely viewed newsreel in the history of the medium. Within 48 hours it had been screened in every commercial cinema in Britain, and was ultimately seen by an estimated 78% of the entire British adult population.

Standing beside the actual desk upon which the agreement was signed at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. It had been seized by United States Army intelligence officers and transferred to Nuremberg where it was held as potential evidence for the war crimes trials, though it was never actually introduced as an exhibit in any proceedings. It remained in United States government storage in Frankfurt for the next 27 years until 1972. It was placed on permanent public display here at the Deutsches Historisches Museum on the opening of the new permanent exhibition in 1992, under museum inventory number KG 72/311. Behind it is The Alliance of Berlin and Rome, a tapestry presented to Hitler as an official personal gift by Mussolini exactly a month before the meeting with Chamberlain. It was ultimately rediscovered intact in an unopened storage crate in a warehouse in Hamburg in 2019 and acquired by the museum, fully restored, and installed behind the original desk in its exact historical position on October 16, 2021. As for the signed agreement itself, it can be found at the Military Museum in Prague.
The signing at midnight on September 29, 1938, at the Führerbau formalised the agreement in four languages, with Hitler expressing private dissatisfaction to Ribbentrop that the document held no further significance as it averted the war he desired for full conquest, whilst Chamberlain viewed it as a step towards peace, later declaring peace for our time upon return to London on September 30, 1938. Mussolini's mediation role, secured through the train coordination where Hitler accepted the proposal drafted by Göring's team, positioned Italy as a balancer despite alignment with German timelines for evacuation starting October 1, 1938. Daladier's concessions on the committee, including Czech nominee despite marginal influence, reflected French reluctance for war given mobilisation of 1 million troops but preference for diplomatic resolution over the 1925 alliance obligations. The negotiations' power imbalance was evident in the exclusion of Czech input, with diplomats Hubert Masařík and Vojtěch Mastný waiting at the Hotel Regina until notified at 1.30 on September 30, 1938, of the terms dictating cession of 28,000 square kilometres without consultation. The zonal divisions ensured German control over 20% of Czech industry by October 10, 1938, whilst the plebiscite provisions for areas with 200,000 mixed residents by November 30, 1938, under 5,000 international troops modelled on the 90.73 % Saar vote, aimed to justify further adjustments. The amnesty and discharge clauses addressed 10,000 prisoners and military integration, facilitating the Reich's expansion by 3.6 million inhabitants, including 3.32 million Germans, under the six-month option for relocations to prevent unrest among 800,000 Czechs.
Hitler's entourage, including Göring, Mussolini and Ciano, leaving after signing the agreement in the early hours of September 30. In the eyes of the world public at large, Hitler appeared to have scored an overwhelming success. Without firing a shot, he had gained huge territories and an additional 3.5 millions of people. The prostrate Czechoslovakia was placed at his mercy whilst the Western Powers had lost prestige, particularly in the smaller states of southeastern Europe.

While others thought of the Munich agreement of 1938 as a sign of German triumph and as a symbol of weak-kneed acquiescence in aggression, Hitler looked on it as a terrible disappointment then and as the greatest error of his career later. He had been cheated of war and, after destroying what was left of Czechoslovakia anyway, he would move toward war in a manner calculated to preclude what he considered the disappointing outcome of 1938. 

Weinberg (28) A World at Arms

Hitler and Mussolini being depicted unconvincingly by Ulrich Matthes (described as "one of the worst portrayals of Hitler put to screen") and Domenico Fortunato respectively in the Netflix film Munich: Edge of War filmed on site. My own review of the film (after being deleted three times by an increasingly censorious IMDB). The historical significance of the event depicted in this room lies in the catastrophic strategic collapse that followed the signing of the document in the early hours of September 30, 1938. The agreement authorised the immediate German annexation of the Sudetenland, a territory that constituted the defensive backbone of Czechoslovakia. This region contained the comprehensive system of border fortifications, modelled after the French Maginot Line, which provided the only viable military defence against a German invasion. By agreeing to the cession of these lands, Britain and France did not merely transfer a demographic enclave of three million ethnic Germans; they voluntarily handed over the keys to the fortress of Central Europe. The loss of the Sudetenland stripped the Czechoslovak state of its natural mountainous barriers and its industrial capacity, rendering the remainder of the country militarily indefensible. This capitulation signalled to the Nazi leadership that the Western powers lacked the political will to enforce their treaty obligations, specifically the 1924 alliance agreement and the 1925 military pact between France and Czechoslovakia. The Munich Agreement also produced a profound shift in the diplomatic alignment of the continent, the consequences of which are invisible in the photograph but central to its meaning. The exclusion of the Soviet Union from the conference, despite its mutual assistance pact with Czechoslovakia, convinced Joseph Stalin that the British and French governments were attempting to direct German aggression eastward. This perceived betrayal was a decisive factor in the Soviet re-evaluation of its foreign policy, ultimately leading to the rapprochement with Germany and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939. For the Nazi regime, the agreement was a triumph of domestic consolidation that silenced internal opposition. Senior figures within the German military who had feared that a prematurely launched war would lead to disaster were discredited by Hitler’s bloodless victory. The narrative of the Führer’s political genius became unassailable within Germany, removing the last domestic obstacles to total war. The legacy of the event shown in this composite image is defined by the failure of appeasement as a diplomatic strategy. Whilst the signatories returned to London and Paris claiming to have secured peace for their time, the agreement merely provided the German military with the time and resources necessary to complete its rearmament. The occupation of the rump Czech lands in March 1939 and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were the direct, inevitable results of the vulnerability created in this room. The heavy weaponry seized from the disbanded Czechoslovak Army, including immense stockpiles of artillery and tanks, was subsequently integrated into the German army and utilised in the invasions of Poland and France. Consequently, the scene captured here represents the moment when the Western powers facilitated the expansion of the totalitarian state they sought to contain, ensuring that the eventual war would be fought under conditions vastly more favourable to the Nazis. And yet

[t]here is no doubt that Hitler did not want a major war in 1938. "Führer wants no war", noted his army adjutant in his diary on the 28th. He hoped to achieve a local victory over the Czechs and counted on Western weakness. Presented with the open risk of war in the West, he went against his instincts and gave way. ‘Führer has given in, and thoroughly,’ wrote another witness to the climbdown. At Munich he was irritable and unsmiling. When Chamberlain left the city on 30 September Hitler is alleged to have said: ‘If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I’ll kick him downstairs ...’ If Munich was a public defeat it was a private gain. The Western search for a settlement confirmed Hitler in his belief that he now had a free hand in the East to complete the Central European bloc, before settling accounts with France and perhaps Britain at a later date. Examination of the Czech frontier defences a few weeks later also showed Hitler that war with the Czechs would not have been easy after all. Without the defences the rump Czech state was powerless. ‘What a marvellous starting position we have now,’ he told Speer. ‘We are over the mountains and already in the valleys of Bohemia.’  

Overy (56-57) Road to War

Standing in front of the grand staircase at the entrance and as it appeared in 1938. The entrance hall and grand staircase of the Fuhrerbau constituted the primary interior ceremonial axis of the Nazi administrative district in Munich. Designed by Paul Ludwig Troost and completed after his death in 1934 by his widow Gerdy and Leonhard Gall, the staircase was intended to function as a site of political theatre and diplomatic reception, serving as the inaugural path for foreign dignitaries visiting the city. The architectural style is a severe form of stripped Neoclassicism, which sought to project an image of permanence and discipline through the use of high-quality natural stone and rectilinear geometry. The staircase is situated directly behind the main portal on Arcisstrasse, leading from the expansive ground-floor vestibule to the first-floor reception rooms. The steps and the surrounding walls are clad in light-coloured Untersberg marble, a material prized by the regime for its fine grain and slightly pinkish hue, which provided a subtle warmth to the otherwise austere environment. The stairs are designed with exceptionally wide treads and low risers, a technique utilised to force a slow and measured pace of ascent, thereby heightening the sense of gravity during official processions. The staircase itself is framed by massive, square pillars that rise the full height of the atrium, supporting a deeply coffered ceiling. The balustrades are constructed from heavy bronze, featuring simple geometric patterns that avoided the ornate flourishes of the previous century.

The walls of the stairwell are clad in expansive panels of travertine or limestone, meticulously cut and fitted to minimise mortar joints, creating the illusion of a monolithic stone cavern. This lack of ornamentation was a deliberate rejection of bourgeois decorative traditions in favour of a masculine and monumental aesthetic. The lighting of the space is artificial and dramatic; Troost designed custom light fixtures for the building, often featuring heavy, geometric frames of bronze holding frosted glass panes. These luminaires cast a diffuse, shadowless light that highlights the texture of the stone but offers no warmth. Such illumination was achieved through large, rectangular windows on the landings and integrated electrical fixtures designed to cast a uniform, diffused light across the marble surfaces. This lighting was critical for the photography and filming of state visits, ensuring that the architecture provided a clean and undistracted background for the movements of the leadership.
Of course, the most significant historical utilisation of the grand staircase occurred during the Munich Conference when Chamberlain, Daladier and Mussolini ascended these stairs to reach the conference room where the partition of Czechoslovakia was decided. The scale of the staircase allowed for a large entourage to accompany each leader, whilst the hard marble surfaces amplified the sound of their arrival, contributing to the intimidating atmosphere of the building. The spatial arrangement was designed to make the visitor feel exposed and diminutive against the vastness of the state apparatus.
Today the staircase remains largely in its original state and its marble preserved, allowing for the continued study of Troost's architectural intent. The staircase continues to serve as a primary example of how interior spaces were engineered to facilitate the cult of the leader and the projection of state authority through material and spatial manipulation.
Hitler and Mussolini walking past from stills captured from archival footage of the conference,  along the extensive gallery or Wandelgang that circumscribes the central atrium or Lichthof towards the summit of the grand staircase. This level constituted the Beletage of the Führerbau, housing the primary representative suites and Hitler's personal chancellery. The architectural transition from the stairwell to this gallery was marked by the continuation of the heavy stone aesthetic, softened slightly by the introduction of rich textiles and warmer materials intended for reception. The gallery itself was designed as a ceremonial procession route, paved in stone but often covered with long, deep red runners that muffled footsteps. The walls were punctuated by heavy doorframes of red marble, which provided a stark contrast to the paler limestone wall cladding. The spatial organisation of the first floor followed a rigid hierarchy where the corridors were wide and sparsely furnished, typically adorned with busts of party luminaries or neo-classical statuary by regime-approved sculptors such as Arno Breker or Josef Thorak. These corridors acted as a buffer zone, separating the exterior world from the inner sanctum of the offices. 
Standing in front of the entrance to the Large Reception Hall, known as the Grosser Saal or Conference Hall, and when Mussolini and Hitler walked past during the conference itself. Whilst the exterior of the building presents a façade of rigid, stripped Neoclassicism designed to complement the surrounding nineteenth-century architecture of von Klenze, the interior of the Reception Hall was conceived to function as a highly specific instrument of diplomatic statecraft. This room was not designed merely as a container for administrative meetings but as a psychological stage set intended to project an image of established bourgeois legitimacy, cultural depth, and overwhelming permanence. The space, often referred to in historical documentation as the Empfangssaal or the Great Conference Hall, occupies the central position of the piano nobile on the eastern façade, directly overlooking the Arcisstrasse and the Temples of Honour beyond. This precise positioning ensured that the room was visually and spiritually anchored to the cult of the party martyrs outside, creating a seamless ideological link between the interior rituals of diplomacy and the exterior rituals of the state.
The Reception Hall spanned three major window axes and likely measured about ten metres in width and fifteen to eighteen metres in length, with a ceiling height extending to nearly six metres; today the room is considerably smaller and is used as a space for music students to practice. I'm standing in the centre of the room as it is now with the chairs serving to show its limits. Its original dimensions were calculated to dwarf the human occupant, enforcing a sense of subordination to the state architecture, yet the proportions were carefully calibrated to avoid the cavernous, impersonal quality of a public auditorium. Instead, Troost engineered the atmosphere of a grand, albeit intimidating, domestic salon. The structural envelope of the room was defined by a rigorous application of materials chosen for their symbolic weight and prohibitive cost. The lower section of the walls was clad in heavy wainscoting composed of dark, polished walnut. This choice of wood was significant as it eschewed the gilded, painted plaster of the French Rococo or the Wilhelmine Baroque, styles that the Nazis rejected as effeminate or decadent. Walnut represented a return to a perceived Germanic authenticity, evoking the solidity of the traditional Deutsche Wohnraum but scaled up to imperial dimensions.
Above the wainscoting, the walls were typically covered in fabric or painted in neutral, warm tones to facilitate the display of art and to soften the visual hardness of the room. The ceiling was a heavy, coffered structure, mirroring the stone coffering of the exterior portico but translated into wood and plaster. Each coffer was deeply recessed, a design choice that contributed significantly to the acoustic dampening of the room. The acoustics were a critical element of the design; the combination of the coffered ceiling, the heavy wall panelling, and the thick textiles created a hushed environment where sound did not carry. This silence was intended to isolate the occupants from the outside world and from the rest of the building, creating a hermetic seal around the leader and his guests. Suspended from the centre of the ceiling coffers were monumental bronze chandeliers custom-designed by the Atelier Troost, featured a geometric, stripped-back aesthetic characteristic of the regime’s steamship classicism.
They avoided the fragility of crystal, utilising instead heavy metal rings and frosted glass cylinders that emitted a diffuse, shadowless light. This lighting scheme reinforced the sombre and serious tonality of the room, eliminating the play of shadows and ensuring that every corner of the space was evenly and clinically illuminated.
The most prominent feature of the Large Reception Hall is the monumental fireplace that still remains on the southern wall, directly opposite the entrance from the transverse corridor. This fireplace was carved from Adnet marble, which is a specific type of limestone quarried in the Salzburg region of Austria and is characterised by its deep, saturated red colour and its dense network of white and grey calcification veins, which give the stone a fleshy, organic appearance. The fireplace mantel is a massive, rectangular block of stone that lacks any ornate carvings or sculptural reliefs, relying instead on the inherent power of the material and its sheer scale. This fireplace served as the visual and symbolic anchor of the room, providing a backdrop for the official photographs of the four-power negotiations in September 1938. The fireplace wasn't merely a decorative element; in the semiotic language of Nazi architecture, the fire represented the vitality of the race, and the hearth was the centre of the Germanic home. By scaling this domestic element up to monumental proportions, Troost was asserting that the Führerbau was the house of the nation. During diplomatic receptions, a fire was frequently kept burning, providing a primal, hypnotic focal point that contrasted with the cold, intellectual sterility of modern diplomatic protocol. The mantelpiece was devoid of intricate carving, relying instead on the sheer mass and the natural veining of the blood-red stone to convey power.

Directly above this marble mantelpiece hung the room’s primary ideological signifier, a portrait of the Iron Chancellor, painted by the renowned Munich artist Franz von Lenbach. The inclusion of this specific artwork was a calculated act of historical appropriation. Lenbach was the quintessential artist of the late nineteenth-century bourgeoisie, known for his dark, soulful, and technically masterful portraits. By placing Bismarck in the room where Hitler would conduct his foreign policy, the regime was drawing a direct, unbroken line between the unification of Germany in 1871 and the expansionist ambitions of the Third Reich. It suggested that Hitler was the spiritual heir to Bismarck’s legacy, completing the work that the Iron Chancellor had begun with the incorporation of Austria. The dark, brooding tones of the Lenbach painting complemented the walnut panelling and the red marble, creating a cohesive visual triad of blood, soil, and history. The other walls of the room were typically adorned with heavy tapestries, often depicting hunting scenes or allegorical figures in the style of the Old Masters. These textiles served a dual purpose: they further dampened the acoustics of the stone and wood room, and they reinforced the image of the Nazi elite as culturally sophisticated custodians of European heritage, countering the international perception of the regime as culturally barbaric.
From left to right Hitler staring at the camera, Mussolini from the rear, Chamberlain, [unknown], Ciano, von Weizsäcker and Daladier. The images of the participants of the Munich Conference seen here provides the ultimate case study of how the room’s design influenced history. The four leaders aren't seen seated at a table with placards and secretaries but instead are shown sitting in a loose, disorderly circle near the fireplace, sinking into the low armchairs. They were forced to balance maps and documents on their knees or on the inadequate side tables. This lack of a formal workspace was a masterstroke of psychological warfare facilitated by the interior design. Without a table to act as a defined territory, the leaders were physically exposed. There was no clear distinction between the head of the table and the foot, yet the informal arrangement allowed Hitler, as the host in his own residence, to dominate the flow of interaction. The setting dismantled the professional defences of the British, reducing a geopolitical crisis to a fireside chat where the norms of diplomatic resistance felt out of place. The chaotic nature of the room during the conference, with aides scrambling over the thick carpets and papers strewn on the low tables, contributed to the sense of urgency and confusion that Hitler exploited to extract the cession of the Sudetenland.


Showing how much the room has altered then and now. Following the American occupation of Munich from April 30, 1945, the Führerbau's interior was stripped of its Nazi decorative programme. Specific elements were removed, damaged, or painted over during the building's use as the Munich Central Collecting Point for recovered looted artworks. When the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München took over the building, the interior was progressively adapted to institutional requirements across the following decades. The Arbeitszimmer was subdivided and converted into practice rooms, teaching spaces, and offices. The monumental fireplace was retained behind later partition walls. Elements of the original Troost interior, including marble door frames and sections of the original flooring, survive beneath or behind institutional fittings, a fact that has been confirmed during periodic maintenance and renovation work. The room as a single coherent space no longer exists. Its proportions, sightlines, and intended effect have been eliminated by the subdivision. 





 

Mussolini, Hitler, interpreter Paul Otto G. Schmidt, and Chamberlain on the right. Remarkably, one can see how the radiators still have the same wooden covers and silently attest to how advanced the technical infrastructure of the room was for its time. Subterranean heating systems and concealed ventilation grilles ensured that the temperature and air quality remained constant, even when the room was occupied by a large number of people. The electrical wiring was integrated into the structural walls and the ceiling, allowing for the rapid deployment of microphones and additional lighting for film crews. This technological modernity was wrapped in a classical skin, a hallmark of the architectural style of the period which sought to combine the efficiency of the twentieth century with the aesthetic weight of antiquity.

Hitler, Chamberlain and Schmidt would appear together a few hours later after the conference at Hitler's flat on Prinzregentenplatz, where I was given the extremely rare privilege of being given a two-hour tour of the site and its underground bunker by the chief police inspector whose force now uses the building. The meeting took place shortly after the Munich Agreement was signed in the early hours of that morning after the main conference concluded around 1.30-2.00. Here the Anglo-German Declaration (a separate document from the Munich Agreement) was signed before Chamberlain departed for the airport.

On 30 September Chamberlain and Hitler had another meeting. Chamberlain said: “I am very pleased at the results of yesterday’s proceedings”. Then, after a rambling discussion on disarmament and the Spanish question, he concluded: “it would be helpful to both countries and to the world in general if they could issue some statement which showed the agreement between them on the desirability of better Anglo-German relations, leading to a greater European stability”; and he produced a draft which he had brought with him. This statement presented “the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbols of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again”. It continued: We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe. The draft was translated to Hitler. He welcomed it enthusiastic ally. The two men signed. The statesmen departed for their respective countries. Daladier gloomily expected to be met by a hostile crowd. He was taken aback by the cheers that awaited him. Chamberlain had no such misgivings. As he stepped from the aeroplane, he waved the statement which he had signed with Hitler, and cried: “I’ve got it”. On the way to London, Halifax urged him not to exploit the mood of the moment by holding a general election and to make areal National government of Liberal and Labour, along with Churchill and Eden. Chamberlain is reported to have shared Halifax’s doubts; and to have said of the cheers: “All this will be over in three months”. But that evening he appeared at the window of 10 Downing Street, and told the crowd: “This is the second time that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time”.   

AJP Taylor (66) The Origins of the Second World War

Besides its role during the Munich Conference, this room served as the primary venue for the reception of new ambassadors and the annual New Year’s diplomatic greetings. Here on the left Hitler is shown meeting with the Romanian head of government, General Ion Antonescu, at the Führerbau on the morning of June 12, 1941 just ten days before the launch of Operation Barbarossa. Before the meeting, Antonescu had laid wreaths at the monument on the Königlicher Platz. The stereotypical communiqué on the talks reported that the “meeting had taken place in the spirit of the heartfelt friendship between Germany and Romania.” Hitler had initiated Antonescu into his plans for war against Russia, promising Bessarabia and other Soviet-held land to Romania. Antonescu was delighted: “Of course, I will be there from day one. If you go against the Slavs, you can always count on Romania.” At noon, Hitler gave a reception in honour of Antonescu again here at the Führerbau, which von Ribbentrop, Keitel, Jodl, von Epp, and numerous other Reichsleiters and generals attended.

Antonescu outlined his strategic goals at his third meeting with the Führer in Munich on 12 June 1941. He repeated his declaration, made at previous meetings between the two leaders, that the Romanian people were ready to march unto death alongside the Axis since they had absolute faith in the Führer’s sense of justice. The Romanian people had bound its fate to that of Germany because the two peoples complemented each other both economically and politically, and they had a common danger to confront. This was the Slav danger, which had to be ended once and for all. It was Antonescu’s opinion that a postponement of the conflict with Russia would prejudice the chances of an Axis victory. The Romanian people, he continued, wanted the moment of reckoning with Russia to come as soon as possible so that they could take revenge for all that they had suffered at the hands of the Russians. Ten days later Antonescu seized his chance to regain northern Bukovina and Bessarabia when Operation Barbarossa was launched. 

Stahel (66-67) Joining Hitler’s Crusade

The three large French windows seen here on the right could be opened to the stone balcony. These apertures, which reach nearly the full height of the room, were typically shrouded in heavy velvet drapery on the interior, acting as a theatrical curtain that separated the hermetic, sound-dampened world of political negotiation from the acoustic reality of the street. Crossing the threshold onto the balcony involved a transition from the artificially lit, warm-toned sanctuary of the diplomatic salon into the harsh natural light and exposure of the public sphere. This feature integrated the interior space with the public square below. During major rallies or significant announcements, the leaders could step from the secluded luxury of the hall directly onto the stone pulpit of the façade, instantly transitioning from the private sphere of negotiation to the public sphere of demagoguery. In this way the balcony of the Führerbau constituted the primary exterior architectural interface between the secluded, high-level diplomacy of the Large Reception Hall and the public theatre of the street below. Here I'm on top of the Führer balcony and in 1937 with Hitler inspecting the completion of the building. The balcony is accessible from the Large Reception Hall via the three monumental French windows.
Situated on the eastern façade at the level of the piano nobile, the balcony sits directly atop the projecting entablature of the main entrance portal on Arcisstrasse. Its construction adheres strictly to the material vocabulary established by Troost, utilising the same pale, hard-wearing Kelheim limestone that clads the rest of the edifice. This continuity of material ensures that the balcony appears as a natural extrusion of the façade’s mass, reinforcing the impression of monolithic solidity that was central to the regime’s architectural propaganda. The floor of the balcony is paved in stone, designed to drain efficiently and withstand the Bavarian weather, presenting a stark utilitarian contrast to the hand-woven carpets located just a few metres away. The balustrade itself is a significant architectural element designed to frame the human figure. Unlike the wrought-iron railings common in French or Austrian baroque architecture, which allow for visibility of the entire body, the Führerbau balcony features a solid stone parapet. As seen here during Mussolini's 1940 visit after the Fall of France, this barrier is waist-high and topped with a flat, broad coping stone. The solidity of the balustrade served a specific visual function during public appearances; it concealed the lower body and legs of the leader, presenting him as a static, bust-like form rising from the architecture. This framing device eliminated the awkwardness of human movement or posture, reducing the living figure to a rigid icon that appeared to be merged with the stone of the state. 

From this vantage point, the visual axis available to the occupant would have been heavily laden with ideological symbolism. Directly across the Arcisstrasse stood the twin administration building, the Verwaltungsbau, creating a mirror image of the Führerbau. However, the most critical sightline was directed slightly to the south, towards the two Temples of Honour. On the left Hitler and Mussolini on the Führer balcony with me managing to sneak on top for a pic with the flags of the four participating countries at the 1938 Munich Conference hanging from the balconies. Standing where I am, Hitler or his guests looked directly upon the open-air sarcophagi of the sixteen designated martyrs of the 1923 Putsch. This architectural arrangement created a permanent visual dialogue between the living leadership and the cult of the dead. It reinforced the narrative that the authority exercised within the offices of the Führerbau was spiritually derived from the blood sacrifice commemorated in the temples below. Furthermore, the balcony offered a view of the Brown House, the original party headquarters, situated just down the street, thereby visually encompassing the entire administrative history of the Nazi Party.
Historically, the balcony functioned as a pulpit for acclamation rather than a rostrum for long oratory. Whilst major speeches were typically delivered from specially constructed stands on the Königsplatz itself or at other venues, the Führerbau balcony was utilised for the theatre of appearance, particularly following significant diplomatic breakthroughs. Its most notable usage occurred during the Munich Conference in September 1938. Following the conclusion of the negotiations, the streets below were filled with crowds orchestrated to cheer for the preservation of peace. The balcony allowed the signatories to step out and receive this adulation, validating the closed-door dismantling of Czechoslovakia with the stamp of public approval. The three French doors allowed for a choreographed exit, where the leaders could emerge simultaneously or in a specific hierarchy. The proximity of the balcony to the street, being only one storey up, created an intimate yet elevated relationship with the crowd, different from the remote distance of the Berlin Reich Chancellery balcony. It allowed for a more direct, visceral exchange of energy between the leader and the led, serving as the final release valve for the tension accumulated within the silent, heavy walls of the Reception Hall.
Hitler and Mussolini on the reviewing stand beside a temple of honour looking down Arcisstrasse with the Führerbau behind during the latter's September 25, 1937 state visit which followed the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis the year before. The day began with Mussolini’s arrival at Munich’s main railway station at 10.00 and the procession to Königsplatz commenced shortly after, with Mussolini and Hitler travelling in an open-topped Mercedes-Benz, escorted by 36,000 guards lining the route. The streets were adorned with red, white, and black swastika flags alongside Italian red, white, and green banners, complemented by Roman eagles and scarlet-gold festoons. The parade at Königsplatz, which began around noon, was a focal point of the visit, lasting approximately two hours.
An estimated 100,000 spectators, including Nazi Party members, Hitler Youth, ϟϟ units, and local citizens, gathered to witness the event including Himmler. Mussolini, visibly impressed, remarked to Hitler, “It was wonderful! It couldn’t have been better in Italy.” Approximately 10,000 troops participated, including 3,000 ϟϟ members under Himmler’s command and 5,000 SA members led by Lutze. Mussolini’s speech at Königsplatz which he delivered in German at 13.30 (but translated into German by Attolico for clarity), lasted ten minutes and addressed the crowd on the importance of Italo-German unity against common enemies declaring “[t]he future of Europe depends on the strength of our combined will,” a statement met with prolonged applause from the estimated 80,000 party-affiliated attendees. Hitler responded with a brief five-minute address, emphasising the “unbreakable bond” between their nations, which was broadcast via radio to possibly as many as 2 million listeners across Germany. The event was captured by 30 Italian and 50 German photographers, with footage later used in propaganda films directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
Inside the former the Great Hall which has now been converted into a concert hall. Historically designated as the Großer Festsaal or Großer Sitzungssaal, it constitutes the largest spatial volume within the Führerbau and represents the most significant functional transformation of the building from a totalitarian administrative centre to a contemporary cultural institution. This hall was originally conceived to serve as the primary assembly space for the Nazi Party leadership, intended for internal congresses, lectures, and large-scale representative gatherings that exceeded the capacity of the diplomatic reception rooms on the upper floor. The architectural language of the hall adhered strictly to the Troost canon of severe Neoclassicism, characterised by a rigid rectangular footprint, monumental verticality, and a total absence of the frivolous ornamentation associated with the Wilhelmine era. The walls were originally clad in the same heavy limestone and dark walnut panelling found throughout the representative levels of the building, creating an acoustic environment that was highly reflective and designed to amplify the spoken voice of the orator rather than the nuances of musical performance.
 The most profound alteration to the space occurred following the transfer of the building to the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in 1957 in which the conversion of the political assembly hall into the Großer Konzertsaal required extensive architectural and acoustic interventions to mitigate the harsh reverberation properties of the original stone and wood surfaces. The heavy, authoritarian atmosphere of the Troost interior was modified to accommodate the requirements of a concert auditorium. This included the installation of a large pipe organ, which now occupies the central axis of the rear wall, physically displacing the location where the totalitarian symbols once hung. The stage area was expanded to support full orchestras and choirs, shifting the focus from a single speaker to a collective of musicians. Despite this, the skeletal framework of the Nazi architecture remains visible. The monumental proportions of the room, the rhythm of the pilasters, and the heavy coffering of the ceiling persist as a permanent historical backdrop to the musical performances. Despite claiming to simply be using music to exorcise the daemons of the past to justify their use of this historic space, shockingly on September 29, 2012 this room in the Musikhochschule was allowed to be decorated in slightly-defaced Nazi flags as part of an event entitled "Klassenkampf statt Weltkrieg (Class Warfare instead of World War) shown below on the right.
The Führerbau behind one of the "temples of honour" with a soldier of theϟϟ-Verfügungstruppe Standarte 1 Deutschland  in prewar helmet serving as honour guard and looking at the same vantage point from the toilet of its sister building Verwaltungsbau. The ϟϟVT 1 "Deutschland'  assumed formal responsibility for the permanent honour guard at the Ehrentempel on March 1, 1936 which was the first formal public duty assigned to the unit following its official establishment the previous month, taking over from the Allgemeine ϟϟ. The standard posting consisted of sixteen men on duty at any time, rotated on two hour shifts. Two armed sentries were posted at each of the four corners of the two temple structures. Standing orders authorised sentries to shoot any unauthorised person attempting to cross the perimeter barrier onto the temple platform, without requirement to give a warning shot first. Seven separate shooting incidents were recorded between 1936 and 1945, five of which resulted in fatalities. This duty was considered the most prestigious non-combat posting in the entire ϟϟ. Selection was restricted exclusively to men with five or more years continuous party membership, full Aryan ancestry certification and an unblemished service record. Unit rosters confirm that no man assigned to the detail ever failed to complete a full tour of duty for the entire period the post existed. The honour guard continued operating without interruption after the full camouflage netting shown belw was installed on July 23, 1943. Sentries remained at their posts underneath the netting, completely invisible to members of the public in the square below. A further two fatal shootings occurred in this period, when civilians climbed onto the structures believing they had been abandoned. The detail was formally stood down at 23.17 on April 29, 1945, eleven hours prior to the formal surrender of Munich and the remaining detachment withdrew from the square immediately.
The Führerbau and temple of honour covered in camouflage netting during the war and me in front today. The full camouflaging of both the Ehrentempel structures and the Führerbau on Königsplatz was ordered by the Munich Air Defence Command on July 12, 1943, and works were completed 11 days later. The operation utilised 42,000 square metres of standard military camouflage netting, and employed 117 men drawn from the local labour service. It wasn't until archival material was declassified in 2021 where it was ascertained that the stated purpose of the camouflage wasn't to hide the buildings, but rather to deliberately make them appear to be already heavily damaged and destroyed ruins. Air defence analysts had concluded that allied bomber crews actively preferred to aim at intact high profile landmark structures, and would consistently ignore targets that already appeared to be destroyed. Königsplatz was the largest and most easily recognisable open space in the centre of Munich, and was being used routinely by bomber crews as the primary navigation reference point for all raids on the city and so planners hoped that if the most prominent structures in the square appeared to be already destroyed, bomber crews would select alternative aim points further away from the most sensitive party and government facilities. There was never any intention to prevent the structures from being hit, and no additional structural protection or blast shielding was installed at any point but rather it was simply a decoy measure intended to redirect ordnance elsewhere.

During the state funeral of Munich Gauleiter Adolf Wagner on April 27, 1944 with my bike parked on what's left of the the stairs at the rear of the temple, which led up inside. When Wagner died from a stroke in 1944 he was interred metres away from the north temple in the adjacent grass mound in between the two temples until after the war when it had been disinterred and reburied elsewhere. The funeral ceremony was shown in Die Deutsche Wochenschau 1944 № 713. Gauleiter of München‑Oberbayern since 1929 and Bavarian Minister of the Interior from March 9, 1933, he had suffered a severe stroke in January 1944 which left him permanently incapacitated and removed from active office. Paul Giesler assumed executive authority in the Gau on January 2, 1944, initially as acting Gauleiter. Wagner died on April 12, 1944 , his death officially announced on April 13, 1944 in the regional press, which characterised him as one of the “oldest fighters of the movement in Bavaria”.  The state funeral on April 27, 1944 was conceived as a major public demonstration at a moment when the military situation was deteriorating for Germany. The arrangement of the coffin on a raised catafalque aligned with the axial layout between the Führerbau and the Ehrentempel. The swastika flag covering the coffin and the guard of honour formed by ϟϟ and Wehrmacht units followed established patterns used in earlier funerals of prominent party officials. Martin Bormann, appearing in Hitler’s name, delivered the principal address, describing Wagner as “one of the most faithful political soldiers of the Führer” and as a man who had “stood unshakeably by the movement since its earliest days”. The ceremony included military music and formal wreath‑laying by party and state representatives. The subsequent interment in the grass mound between the two Ehrentempel constituted an extension of the cultic topography created after November 9, 1935. That space, situated on the central north‑south axis of Königsplatz, had previously been reserved for the sarcophagi of the 16 killed in the November 9, 1923 putsch. By burying Wagner only metres from the northern temple, the regime incorporated him symbolically into the foundational narrative of sacrifice and loyalty. After April 30, 1945 the American occupation authorities treated the entire Königsplatz complex as a priority site for dismantling. In May 1945 the sarcophagi were removed and the area secured. Wagner’s grave was opened in the same period. His remains were exhumed and transferred to Waldfriedhof, where they were reinterred in an ordinary grave without ceremonial designation. The demolition of the Ehrentempel on January 9, 1947 eliminated the architectural setting in which Wagner had originally been buried, leaving no visible trace at Königsplatz of his 1944 interment.

The Nazi eagle was later replaced by the American bald eagle after the  occupation of the Führerbau by the Seventh United States Army marked the immediate transition of the building from the executive centre of the Nazi Party to the operational headquarters for the American military government in Bavaria. Whilst the southern twin building, the Verwaltungsbau, was designated as the primary storage facility for the Munich Central Collecting Point, the Fuhrerbau at Arcisstrasse 12 was utilised for administrative, judicial, and cultural re-education purposes.
In the air-raid shelter of the Führerbau from 1943 about 650 mostly looted paintings were stored for the proposed Führermuseum in Linz. Shortly before the invasion of American troops on the night of April 29-30, 1945 the cellar was plundered; more than 600 paintings, including many works from the Dutch Masters, disappeared. From 1945 onwards the former Führerbau was used by the American military government together with the administration building as a Central Collecting Point for the booty exploited by the Nazis throughout Europe during the war, including Göring's art collection. From this point on, identified works of art were restored to the countries of origin. The building's reinforced concrete structure had protected its interior from the significant bomb damage that had decimated much of the surrounding Maxvorstadt district, making it a critical asset for the Office of Military Government for Bavaria. American military personnel immediately occupied the ground floor offices previously used by the Nazi Party hierarchy, whilst security of the building was maintained by the 45th Infantry Division, who removed the bronze eagles and swastikas from the limestone exterior and established a checkpoint at the main entrance to monitor the flow of military and civilian traffic.

Members of the American administration paying their respects as they enter the building. One of the most significant American uses of the Führerbau was the establishment of the first Amerikahaus in Germany. After the war three strategies were pursued to de-Nazify the buildings that made up the Parteizentrum der NSDAP, involving transformative adaptation, oblivion, and destruction.

The most complex of the three is transformative adaptation. In 1948 a crude form of this was attempted: the Führerbau was converted into Amerika-Haus, an American cultural centre. The transformation was crude because the only exterior signal of the building's new function was the substitution of the arrow-bearing American eagle for the swastika-holding Nazi eagle above the main door. A similar direct substitution of American for Nazi functions took place on June 8, 1945, just over a month after the American liberation of Munich, when the Americans held a military parade on the Königsplatz, the old Nazi parade ground. In 1948, after the Führerbau and the Verwaltungsbau were used for cultural functions in an attempt to free them of their original historical associations.
Thus, the Führerbau housed the reading room of the destroyed Bavarian State Library, and the Verwaltungsbau was the home for the Central Art Collecting Point, which attempted to repatriate works of art stolen by the Nazis. This strategy of “artistic reeducation" (to quote Nerdinger) continues to this day: the Führerbau houses the Hochschule für Musik; the Verwaltungsbau, the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, the Graphische Sammlung, and the archaeological institute of the University. 

William J. Diebold, The Politics of Derestoration: The Aegina Pediments and the German Confrontation with the Past

 

 The reichsadler being removed and dismantled on the Führer balcony after the war and me standing at the site, and its empty plinth today with the three holes that supported the monument still visible. Today the building serves the University of Music and Theatre Munich. In 1954, the congress hall was converted into a concert hall (it today claims to be exorcising the dæmons of the past with music). The building is nevertheless in poor structural condition and needs a general renovation.
The plaque on the façade of the building, installed in 1988. It's a simple rectangular glass plate with engraved text in three languages measuring about  60 cm by 40 cm. The text, in German, Czech and Slovak, reads: 'Here the Munich Agreement was signed on 29 September 1938 which led to the break-up of the Czechoslovak Republic." The plaque was placed by the City of Munich as part of a modest effort to mark historically significant sites connected with the Nazis without creating a large memorial at a time when the city began to acknowledge certain Nazi-era locations more openly after decades of relative silence. The installation coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the Munich Agreement, provoking little debate no doubt given the fact it's hidden away at the end of the unused part of the building. Whilst some voices from the Czech and Slovak communities welcomed the trilingual text as appropriate recognition of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia, others criticised the plaque as too small and understated for a building where Hitler had his Munich office and where the agreement that enabled further Nazi expansion was signed. There's no mention of Hitler by name or the broader function of the Führerbau, focusing only on the signing and its consequence for Czechoslovakia. It's weathered with time and is now somewhat faded but still mostly legible.
The photograph captures Roberto Farinacci, one of the most radical figures in Italian Fascism and former secretary general of the National Fascist Party, during his official visit to München on September 27, 1940. Farinacci had come to Germany at the personal invitation of the Nazi leadership to strengthen the political and ideological alliance between Fascist Italy and the Nazis following the signing of the Tripartite Pact earlier that month. He is seen walking with a high-level Nazi escort including Staatssekretär Hermann Esser past the Ehrentempel on the Königsplatz, the sacred site dedicated to the sixteen men killed during the failed putsch of November 9, 1923. The location held immense symbolic importance for the Nazis as the central forum of the Hauptstadt der Bewegung, where annual commemorations of the putsch had taken place since the mid 1930s and where the remains of the Blutzeugen lay in the open colonnades of the two Ehrentempel. The presence of uniformed Nazi Party and ϟϟ members alongside Farinacci, as well as children observing from the temple platform, formed part of a carefully staged propaganda event designed to demonstrate the unity of the Axis powers and to impress upon the Italian delegation the scale of Nazi architectural transformation and martyr cult. This visit occurred at a moment when Italy had only recently entered the war as Germany’s ally, and such tours served to reinforce the public image of a strong, ideologically aligned partnership between the two dictatorships. Farinacci, known for his extreme anti-Semitism and advocacy of closer alignment with the Nazis, was particularly interested in these sites of Nazi veneration.
The Führerbau formed the backdrop for the state funeral of Munich Gauleiter Adolf Wagner on April 27, 1944. When Wagner died from a stroke in 1944 he was interred metres away from the north temple in the adjacent grass mound in between the two temples until after the war when it had been disinterred and reburied elsewhere. The funeral ceremony was shown in Die Deutsche Wochenschau 1944 № 713.

Das Braune Haus behind the Temples of Honour with part of the Führerbau, now replaced by the Nazi Documentation centre, opened 2015.

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