Schellingstraße and the Kunstareal: Nazi Origins, Bohemian Life and Post-war Reconstruction

Schellingstraße

Schellingstraße during the wartime bombing and today. The street has a number of sites associated with the Nazi era. The street was described as the Einfallstor der NSDAP in die Maxvorstadt- the entrance gate of the Nazis to Maxvorstadt. Named after the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, it is the longest continuous street in Maxvorstadt at roughly 2000 metres. Soon after the founding of the Nazi Party in 1925, Party members and supporters of Hitler imprinted their ideology and imagery within the university quarter. Heinrich Hoffmann, whose company had been in the rear building of No. 50 since 1924, left the Nazi Party in 1925 as a business centre. Until the move to the Braune Haus in 1930, the nation-wide party was organised from here. 

One legacy is a rare but prominent relief of the Nazi-era coat of arms of Munich, with the eagle and swastika excised shown with me on the right and as it originally appeared without the removal of the eagle.

On June 5, 1936 Hitler awarded Munich, which had been rechristened the "Capital of the Movement" since 1935, a new coat of arms. Deemed the Hauptstadt der Bewegung, Munich was a significant place in terms of the Nazi ideology. The city was home to the Nazi headquarters, the Beer Hall Putsch and also saw the establishment of Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. The traditional coat of arms featuring the Mönchl or Little Monk was officially replaced with this version on January 1, 1936. The Nazi municipal administration led by Mayor Karl Fiehler viewed the historic monk figure as ideologically inappropriate due to its clerical origins and its benevolent gesture of benediction which contradicted the martial and aggressive self-image of the Nazi Party. It was designed by party member and councillor Richard Klein who had opted for an open city gate flanked by two towers, which was reminiscent of Sendlinger Tor. Klein had been a graphic artist who was a favoured designer of the regime and served as the director of the Academy for Applied Arts in Munich. Here he kept the traditional black and yellow colours of the city of Munich but replaced the monk with a stylised representation of the Isartor gate in red against a silver background. The Isartor was chosen as a symbol of the city's medieval fortifications and its defensive strength, the central arch of the gate open. Above the gate towers the Nazi eagle, signifying the total subordination of the city's historical identity to the authority of the Nazi Party and the state. The monk now was no longer the central element but was relegated to a subsidiary position and was depicted standing without the clerical attributes. The hood was lowered to reveal the head and the book was removed from the hand. The hand was no longer raised in blessing but was depicted in a neutral gesture or holding a scroll, and the robe stylised to resemble a mediæval tunic rather than a monk's habit. The background of this field was gold. The combination of the Nazi state eagle and the secularised monk was intended to create a visual synthesis between the national authority of the Reich and the local tradition of Munich whilst stripping the latter of its Catholic connotations. Nevertheless, it reminded some of a dwarf, standing in front of the gate with arms spread horizontally, like a traffic policeman. The Bavarian lion, which had previously stood over the city gate was replaced with the Nazi eagle and swastika.

Nearby on the corner of at Schellingstraße 31 on the corner with Türkenstraße is another Nazi relief  over the entrance to Bäckerei Wimmer. It depicts a family group above an orb inscribed with the initials 'KDF' for Kraft durch Freude- the Strength Through Joy Nazi leisure and tourism organisation. The sculptor was Karl Knappe, and the work dates from 1935, when the building was constructed as the headquarters for the Ortsgruppe Maxvorstadt of the DAF and the Kreiswaltung of the Kraft durch Freude organisation. Knappe was a highly sought-after artist for public and architectural sculpture during the Nazi era as his monumental, classically-influenced style aligned with the official æsthetic of the regime. He received numerous state commissions and regularly participated in the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung, his workscharacterised by their solid, block-like forms, idealised human figures, and frequent use of mythological or symbolic themes reinterpreted to fit Nazi ideology. Besides this relief, he was also responsible for the decorative sculptures for the Luftgaukommando building on Prinzregentenstraße.  

Nazi Party offices Schellingstraße 50

 With Schellingsalon and the former Nazi Party Headquarters behind me.

Schellingstraße 50 in 1937 flying the Nazi flag and today where the offices of the Nazi Party were housed between 1925 and 1931, the Reichsadler still above the door. This is where Hitler met Eva Braun for the first time as she worked in Heinrich Hoffmann's studio. They first met in 1929, when he was forty and she was 17. According to Hoffmann's daughter, Hitler's opening line was: "May I invite you to the opera with me, Fräulein Eva? You see, I'm surrounded by men and I know what a pleasure it is to enjoy female company." 

  Eva was the middle of the three daughters of Fritz Braun, a  master craftsman from Simbach on the Inn. She was a pretty, empty-headed blonde, with a round face and blue eyes, who  worked as a shop girl in Hoffmann's photographer's shop. Hitler met her there, paid her a few casual compliments, gave her flowers, and occasionally invited her to be one of his party on an outing. The initiative was all on Eva's side: she told her friends that Hitler was in love with her and that she would make him marry her.

Bullock (394)

Dates at the cinema and restaurants followed.

The Nazi eagle today. On February 27, 1925, Hitler announced the re-establishment of the Nazi Party in the Bürgerbräukeller. The party office was temporarily housed in the house of the Franz Eher Follower publishing house at Thierschstrasse 15, before rooms in the rear building at Schellingstrasse 50 were able to be moved into in June 1925 through the intervention of Hoffmann whose photo studio was also located in the building. The well-known photographer, who made a name for himself through his photo coverage of the 1918-19 revolution in Munich and in the "Völkischer Observer", had been part of Hitler's inner circle since the 1920s, having taken numerous portrait and propaganda photos of Hitler, to which he had exclusive rights, and was later appointed “Reich Image Reporter of the NSDAP”. Hoffmann had been born in Fürth in 1885, completed an apprenticeship as a photographer in his father's business and after several years of wandering (including a stay in London), he moved to Munich in 1909 and established his own studio at Schellingstraße 33 and then later here at Schellingstraße 50 where he developed different types of the Führer picture, sometimes depicting him as a charismatic party leader, determined general or even as a superhuman redeemer. Other times he stylised him as a down-to-earth, benevolent father figure or as a spiritualised private individual. Through his work Hoffmann became the decisive propagandist of this personality cult driven by Hitler. The connection to the “leader” and the movement was extremely close. In 1925 Hoffmann joined the Nazi Party with membership number 59. Above his studio here at Schellingstraße 50 was also located the “Hall of Honour of the SA.” In 1926 he was instrumental in initiating the party magazine, the "Illustrierten Beobachter." Two years later he was the Nazi representative in the Upper Bavarian district council, and from 1929 he was a member of the Munich city council. In his studio, Hitler met Hoffmann's employee, Eva Braun, who later became his lover and wife. In his studio, Hitler met Hoffmann's employee, Eva Braun, who later became his lover and wife. With the rise of the Nazis, Hoffmann's business also thrived, allowing him to lead an exceedingly luxurious lifestyle. His photo volumes alone, which he published in rapid succession from 1932 onwards and which dealt with Hitler's private life as well as the history of the "movement", sometimes reached print runs of several 100,000. In addition, he practically had a monopoly on Hitler portraits and photographs of his immediate surroundings, since Hitler continued to only accept him as a photographer in his immediate environment. From 1932 to 1943, his company grew from seventeen employees to over 300. In 1943, sales exceeded 15 million Reichsmarks. In 1938 Hoffmann was awarded the title of professor, but not as a photographer, but because of his participation in the selection of the exhibits for the "First Great German Art Exhibition", an order he had received directly from Hitler. His grave in Nordfriedhof shown on the right maintains this title. As one of the very few, he had direct access to Hitler to the end and, unlike other party leaders, did not have to submit to the strict ceremonies that the dictator increasingly expected from the highest representatives of the state and the party. 

Inside the site of the Nazi Party main office, with the Blutfahne flanked by two standards.

Philipp Bouhler initially worked in the office as managing director, Franz Xaver Schwarz as treasurer and Max Amann as head of the party publishing house. The membership register was kept here and from there the Nazi Party was to be built up throughout the Reich. In 1928, Gregor Straßer took over leadership of the party apparatus as “ Reich Organisation Leader"; he's shown on the right with Hitler conducting a meeting in the building in 1928 during a leadership conference. Also present in the photo are Rosenberg, Himmler, Streicher, and Ley. 

The party was also having financial difficulties. Traditionally it had raised much of its revenue through admission charges to Hitler’s speeches, an avenue now closed in much of the Reich. Expenses were piling up, for Hitler was never one to economise. In 1925 he moved the party’s headquarters into new offices at 50 Schellingstrasse, in the heart of Schwabing. An innovative plan to finance renovation of the headquarters by “selling” bricks to individual donors did not get very far. In the year after the move party income exceeded expenditures by a mere 534 marks. In 1927 party headquarters registered an income of 254,000 marks and expenditures of 252,000; largely because of election campaign costs from previous years, the party carried a debt of 14,000 marks.

David Clay Large (215) Where Ghosts Walked

 Standing inside with the courtyard behind me shown from the time of its use by the Nazis.

The establishment of the NSDAP Reichsleitung in Munich was controversial within the party because the number of members did not increase as expected, internal party quarrels and financial problems characterised party life, and electoral successes failed to materialise. Only after the global economic crisis did membership numbers skyrocket. In January 1933 there were 850,000 members. The elections were correspondingly successful for the NSDAP: at the end of the 1920s, Nazi representatives were represented in almost all state parliaments, and from 1928 also in the Reichstag with a share of the vote of 2.6%. In the 1930 Reichstag elections, the Nazis were able to increase its share of the vote to 18.3%, and in the subsequent elections in July 1932 it was the strongest Reichstag faction with 37.3%. It was able to maintain this status in the November 1932 elections despite the decline in the share of the vote to 33.1%. The rooms on Schellingstrasse had long since become too small for the administration of such a large mass party, which is why the Reich leadership acquired the Palais Barlow on Brienner Strasse in May 1930 as a larger, representative building for the party headquarters. Hitler's principle, which had already been announced in 1921, “that the seat of the movement is and always will be Munich,” was thus followed.

The former office of the Völkischer Beobachter at Schellingstrasse 39 in 1937 and the site today. In the courtyard buildings, modern rotary machines printed the Nazi paper Völkische Beobachter, whose editorial office moved to the front building in 1922. Produced using the same machines and in the same format, the first newspaper licensed by the United States appeared here in 1945: the Neue Zeitung with Hans Habe as editor-in-chief, Erich Kästner as head of the arts section and editors Alfred Andersch and Walter Kolbenhoff.
Here the Munich Buchgewerbehaus printers, M. Müller & Sohn, provided its workrooms. From December 1920 to April 30, 1945, the Völkischer Beobachter served as the journalistic party organ of the Nazi Party . In sharp contrast to mainstream newspapers, the VB described itself as a "combat newspaper" and was programmatically more interested in agitation than in information. Press historians such as Sonja Noller and Hildegard von Kotzetherefore have described the VB "poster-like" and its style "more spoken than written". Initially, the VB appeared twice a week and then from February 8, 1923 daily. Since the publisher had the VB printed on a used American rotary press from August 29, 1923, the sheet had a striking, oversized format. It also differed visually from other newspapers in that the main headline was underlined in red and the header was in antiqua type. From February 1941, the VB gave up the Fraktur typeface that had been commonly used in Germany up to that point and was set entirely in modern Antiqua, which the Nazis described as “tasteful and clear” and was intended to correspond to the “world standing of the Reich” claimed by propaganda. Its circulation increased enormously with the success of the Nazis; in 1931 it reached over 120,000, exceeded the million mark in 1941 and is said to have amounted to 1.7 million copies in 1944. A few days before the German capitulation, the Völkischer Beobachter ceased publication; its last issue of April 30, 1945 was no longer delivered.

 

Brownshirts distributing flyers on the corner of Schellingstraße and Barer Straße circa 1930, now an Edeka supermarket. Directly across the street is:

Schelling Salon

Having lunch at the Schelling Salon where I'm apparently sitting at Lenin's former table. I'm going to quote from my copy of the 'Past Finder Zik Zak' of Munich, which is based on Maik Kopelek's series of books, although the fold-out map hasn't any author mentioned:
"Family-owned since 1872... Hitler is said to have often left without paying; Lenin never did! Worth seeing: the stone urinals in the cellar."

The site has been mentioned several times in literary works; its guests included Bertolt Brecht, Wassili Kandinsky, Rainer Maria Rilke and Ödön von Horváth. Hitler and Lenin also frequented here; after several years, Hitler moved to the neighbouring Osteria Italiana because of unpaid bills. Franz Josef Strauß, later Bavarian Prime Minister, who grew up on Schelling Street, fetched beer for his father from the Schelling Salon in his youth. In the 1960s, the later RAF terrorist Andreas Baader and the later Bild columnist Franz Josef Wagner met in the Schelling Salon.

For Hitler, the Schelling-Salon was significant in 1913–1914, during his early Munich years. Hitler would visit in the early evening, around 18.30 to 20.30 when the salon was bustling with bohemians and intellectuals. His visits tended to last one to one-and-a-half hours, constrained by his limited funds. He typically sat alone or with one companion, such as Rudolf Häusler, with no evidence of larger groups. Activities included sketching, reading Vorwärts or  the Münchner Post, and engaging in heated debates. A 1950 German memoir by a Schelling-Salon waiter, Hans Baur, recalls Hitler’s outbursts: “He’d shout, ‘The Jews and Marxists betrayed Germany at Versailles; we need a strong leader to crush them!’” . The focus was on nationalist and anti-Semitic themes, with Hitler railing against “the cowardice of the November 1918 surrender”. These rants, though unstructured, honed his oratorical style. The salon’s open atmosphere allowed him to test ideas among a mixed crowd of about 20–30 patrons, but his disruptive behaviour led to a ban after unpaid bills, as noted in a 1914 police report.

Claimed to have been used by Lenin, Hitler and Franz Josef Strauss and now by me. In fact, The building at Schellingstraße 54 has undergone multiple renovations and modernisations since it was first established in 1872. The toilets in particular have been updated several times to comply with changing public health regulations and standards of hygiene. Significant renovations to the plumbing and interior facilities of commercial establishments like the Schelling-Salon occurred in the post-war period, particularly in the 1950s and again in the 1970s. It's questionable whether the current urinals bear any physical resemblance to the facilities that would have existed in 1901 during Lenin's time or in the 1920s during Hitler's, and I can;t find any verifiable historical documentation otherwise, making me assume the story persists solely as an element of local colour and oral tradition associated with the historic establishment.

Regardless, when banned from entering for refusal to pay his bills, Hitler then moved down the road to the Osteria Bavaria:

Now the Osteria Italiana, this was apparently Hitler's favourite restaurant where he would have his "Stammtisch" and where he wooed Eva Braun who worked, one block down the street, as a clerk and bookkeeper, at Heinrich Hoffmann's photography studio. Clearly little has changed. Hitler and his followers were regular guests in the "Osteria Bavaria" which was also popular with the Schwabinger Boheme. The restaurant, established in 1890 as the first Italian eatery in the city, featured a Mediterranean atmosphere that attracted a diverse clientele, including members of the Schwabinger boheme and political figures. Hitler's presence there became a regular occurrence, where he would engage in casual meals and discussions, contributing to the establishments reputation amongst both artistic circles and emerging Nazi Party members. His first recorded visits to the Osteria Bavaria date to the spring of 1920, shortly after his discharge from the Reichswehr’s propaganda unit, where he had served as a political instructor under Captain Karl Mayr. During this period, he was still formally employed by the army whilst simultaneously agitating for the German Workers’ Party, a dual role that required him to navigate Munich’s political underworld with caution. The Osteria’s proximity to the Reichswehr’s district headquarters at the Türkenkaserne—less than a five-minute walk—made it a convenient location for informal gatherings, particularly when Hitler sought to avoid the scrutiny of military authorities or rival political factions. A handwritten entry in the diary of Ernst Röhm, then a Reichswehr officer with ties to the Freikorps, notes a meeting with Hitler at the Osteria on June 12, 1920, where the two discussed "the Jewish question and the necessity of a Bavarian separatist movement" over "two litres of beer and a plate of spaghetti." Röhm’s account, though brief, underscores the venue’s utility as a neutral ground for networking, as well as the eclectic mix of ideological topics that characterised Hitler’s early conversations. The presence of Röhm, a figure who would later become a key ally in the ϟϟ’s formation, suggests that the Osteria also served as a site for strategising beyond the confines of the Nazi Party’s official meetings. The frequency of Hitler’s visits increased markedly after the failed Putsch attempt of November 9, 1923, as the Nazi Party’s leadership sought to regroup amidst repression by Bavarian authorities. Whilst the Beer Hall Putsch itself had centred on the Bürgerbräukeller, the Osteria Bavaria emerged as a secondary hub for post-coup planning, particularly during the weeks leading up to Hitler’s trial in February 1924. A statement given by the Osteria’s waitress, Anna Schreiber, to Munich police on December 3, 1923, confirms that Hitler and a small entourage—including Rudolf Hess and Hermann Göring—met at the restaurant on at least three occasions between November 15 and December 1, 1923, often arriving after midnight and remaining until the early morning hours. Schreiber’s testimony, preserved in the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, describes the group as "quiet but intense," with Hitler "writing notes on a small pad whilst the others smoked and drank wine." The meetings’ clandestine nature reflected the Nazi leadership’s need to evade surveillance, as the Bavarian political police had placed known party members under observation following the Putsch’s collapse. The Osteria’s backroom, accessible via a narrow staircase, provided a degree of privacy absent in more public venues, though the risk of informants remained a constant concern. Oskar Maria Graf, a writer who often met with editors from the Simplicissimus magazine at the venue, recounted specific encounters that highlighted the tension between these groups. In one instance, Graf observed Hitler seated with several companions in an adjacent room, dressed in a manner ill-suited to civilian attire, appearing remarkably dull and unengaging whilst attempting casual behaviour, describing in his Gelächter von außen an encounter between Simplicissimus editors and Hitler with “some of his paladins”, in which both sides eyed each other suspiciously. Graf noted that Hitler would occasionally emit a short laugh, prompting his associates to respond dutifully with forced amusement, particularly Heinrich Hoffmann, the smallest in the group, who laughed with exceptional eagerness and volume. These gatherings disrupted Grafs meetings, eventually making the restaurant unpleasant for him and his companions, leading them to seek alternative venues. The interactions illustrated the growing divide in Munich's social spaces, where bohemian intellectuals and Nazi adherents coexisted uneasily, with Hitler's group dominating certain areas of the Osteria Bavaria through their repeated visits.
It was here that, according to Irving (100) in Hitler's War, that "Hitler himself had sketched the rough outlines for the House of Art, using the back of an Osteria menu, one day in 1931 – a gallery of stern Grecian lines which even today is mocked as Munich’s 'Athens Station.’"

Irving also quotes Goebbels's diary (in an excessively misleading way that Evans castigates in Lying About Hitler) wherein he records that it was here that he had reported to Hitler about the events of Reichskristallnacht:

[Hitler] is in agreement with everything. His views are quite radical and aggressive. The Aktion itself went off without a hitch. A hundred dead. But no German property damaged.’ Each of these five sentences was untrue, as will be seen. With minor alterations the Führer authorises my decree re: breaking off the Aktionen. I issue it immediately through the press. The Führer wants to proceed to very harsh measures against the Jews. They must repair their shops themselves. The insurance companies will pay them nothing. Then the Führer wants Jewish businesses gradually expropriated and their owners compensated with paper which we can [word illegible: devalue?] at any time. Meanwhile people are starting with their own Aktionen. I issue appropriate secret decrees. We’re waiting to see the repercussions abroad. For the time being there is silence there. But the hullabaloo will come.

Henriette von Schirach described the restaurant as a “cool, small winery with a little courtyard painted in Pompeian red and a ‘temple,’ that is, an alcove with two columns in front of it,” which was kept reserved for Hitler. However, Hitler’s later secretary, Traudl Junge, said that Hitler's usual table was the “least comfortable table all the way in the back, in the corner.” Hitler rarely ate alone; his constant companions from the early 1920s included not only Heinrich Hoffmann but also Ernst Hanfstaengl, Adolf Wagner, Julius Schaub, Hitler’s personal assistant; Christian Weber, a “potbellied former horse trader” in Joachim Fest’s words; and Hermann Esser, a founding member of the Nazi Party whom Goebbels called “the little Hitler.” Later additions included Martin Bormann, Otto Dietrich, ϟϟ General Joseph “Sepp” Dietrich, Max Amann, and Wilhelm Brückner (an SA‑Obergruppenführer and Hitler’s chief adjutant since 1930).

Hitler with Unity Valkyrie Mitford at the Osteria. Mitford was christened "Unity Mitfahrt" by mockers because she always knew exactly where the Hitler was and followed him relentlessly. Her sister Diane married Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Fascist Party, made it her business to meet Hitler here. After stalking Hitler for over a year, on February 9, 1935 he noticed her at the Osteria Bavaria at Schellingstrasse 62 where, according to her sister Jessica, 

she had reserved a nightly table in the Osteria Bavaria restaurant, where they often went. Evening after evening she sat and stared at them, until finally a flunkey was sent over to find out who she was. On learning that she was an admirer of the Nazis, and a member of the British Union of Fascists Hitler invited her to join them at their table. Thereafter she became one of their circle, saw them constantly in Munich, accompanied them to meetings and rallies.

Mitford seen in front at the entrance and the same view today with minimal changes to the facade. Ward Price wrote how “[n]o one could sit for long in the same room as Miss Unity Mitford without noticing her. Her golden hair, fair skin, and blue eyes attain the highest standards of that Nordic beauty which Germans especially admire.” Eventually Hitler sent his adjutant Brückner to her in the Osteria Bavaria to convey the chancellor’s compliments. This marked the beginning of a friendship, which soon was to be platonically extended to her sister, Diana Guinness. Shortly after the war broke out, Unity Mitford attempted to end her life by shooting herself in the temple in the English Garden. Hitler ordered the best doctors to her side. After her health was restored, Hitler’s personal physician Morell brought her to Switzerland. From there, she returned to England where she died in 1948, as a patient in the Oban Hospital.

At the usual time, around half past two, I went to the Osteria Bavaria, a small artists' restaurant which rose to unexpected fame when it became Hitler's regular restaurant. In a place like this, one could more easily imagine a table of artists gathered around Lenbach or Stuck, with long hair and huge beards, than Hitler with his neatly dressed or uniformed retinue. But he felt at ease in the Osteria; as a "frustrated artist" he obviously liked the atmosphere he had once sought to attain to, and now had finally both lost and surpassed...

 One tacit agreement prevailed: No one must mention politics. The sole exception was Lady Mitford, who even in the later years of international tension persistently spoke up for her country and often actually pleaded with Hitler to make a deal with England. In spite of Hitler's discouraging reserve, she did not abandon her efforts through all those years. Then, in September 1939, on the day of England's declaration of war, she tried to shoot herself with a small pistol in Munich's Englischer Garten. Hitler had the best specialists in Munich care for her, and as soon as she could travel sent her home to England by a special railroad car through Switzerland. 

Speer (39-40) Inside the Third Reich

The non-descript address here at Turkenstraße 94 off Schellingstraße was where, in 1939, Georg Elser rented a room before attempting to blow up Hitler at the Bürgerbräukeller on November 8 1938, the day of Hitler's annual speech on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. Given the demands of the war and forecast of fog preventing him from flying back to Berlin the next morning, Hitler decided to return to Berlin the same night by his private train. With the departure from Munich's main station set for 21:30, the start time of the event was brought forward by half an hour to 20:00 leaving Hitler to cut his speech from the planned two hours to a one-hour duration at 21:07, 13 minutes before Elser's bomb exploded at 21:20. By that time, Hitler and his entourage had left the Bürgerbräukeller. The bomb brought down part of the ceiling and roof and caused the gallery and an external wall to collapse, leaving a mountain of rubble. About 120 people were still in the hall at the time leaving seven killed. Another sixty-three were injured, sixteen seriously, with one dying later. Hitler did not learn of the attempt on his life until later that night on a stop in Nuremberg when told of the bombing by Joseph Goebbels. Hitler would later declare: "Now I am completely at peace! My leaving the Bürgerbräu earlier than usual is proof to me that Providence wants me to reach my goal."

Nearby a square is named in his honour and yet for a long time Elser was unacknowledged. Starting in the late 1960s several attempts were made to have a street named after Elser. It was not until January 1997, however, that a small square off Türkenstraße that Elser had passed every day on his way to the Bürgerbräukeller was named Georg-Elser-Platz, chiefly thanks to the unflagging efforts of the Munich Georg Elser Initiative.

To mark the seventieth anniversary of the assassination attempt in 2009, moreover, a permanent art installation mounted on the façade of the school building on Türkenstraße adjacent to the square was also dedicated to Georg Elser. The neon lettering reading “8 November 1939” by Silke Wagner was the winning entry in a competition held by the city’s Department of Art and Culture. “Georg Elser,” says Silke Wagner, “earned himself a place in the history of resistance to the Nazi dictatorship. The object of the memorial can only be to remind people of this. The work directs the viewer’s gaze to the most important thing – the assassination attempt.” Each day at exactly 21.20, the time of the explosion, the red neon tubes light up one after another, writing the historic date of November 8, 1939 in lights. Exactly a minute later the lights go out again and the work “disappears” from public view. The abstract monument thus confines itself to the central message and through this deliberate reduction interrupts our habitual view of the square, alerting us to that single moment when the history of the twentieth century might have taken a different course.

At the site for a photoshoot. In a way, the memorial's placement directly opposite the site of a culturally significant cabaret suppressed by the Nazis is seen as a deliberate act of historical counter-positioning. The memorial creates a dialogue between two different forms of opposition to the Nazi regime- Elser's direct, violent action and the satirical, intellectual resistance of the artists at the Simplicissimus desscribed directly below. The memorial's integration into a functioning residential and commercial building is also analysed as a statement on how memory of the resistance should be embedded in everyday life, rather than being confined to museums or isolated monumental sites. The official project description and justification by the artist Silke Witzsch, which outlines this intent, is available on the website of the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich.

Just across the street is Alter Simpl:

Formerly the café Simplicissimus, at Türkenstraße 57 the name and bulldog logo of which provides a link to the Private Eye-type satirical magazine Simplissimus, banned in 1944 by the Nazis for being critical of them.

The landlady Kathi Kobus opened this artists' in 1903; besides the legendary Café Stefanie at what is now Amalienstraße 25 but since destroyed by the war, it was a scene of the so-called Schwabinger Boheme. Kobus named her pub after the magazine Simplicissimus and was allowed to use the publication's slightly modified symbol, the champagne-chewing bulldog. The artists sometimes paid for their dinners with their own works, so that a collection worth seeing adorned the pub walls. The house poet Joachim Ringelnatz described the attraction of the pub by describing how he was "drawn to the Simplicissimus with ghostly hands [...] after the decorated walls."Regular guests included Frank Wedekind, Ludwig Thoma, Erich Mühsam, Oskar Maria Graf, Franz Marc and Franziska zu Reventlow. Many of them also designed cabaret programmes. Even Lenin is said to have been seen in the Simpl during his residence in Munich. On the left is the wife and baby Drake Winston and as it appeared in 1908. Today's Alte Simpl is one of the few pubs that harks back to the legendary heyday of Schwabing's bohemian lifestyle and reflects something of the words of the poet Joachim Ringelnatz (who was allowed to drink as much as he wanted) in his Simplicissimus-Lied:  

Und mich zieht's mit Geisterhänden, 

Ob ich will, ob nicht, ich muss, 

Nach den bildgeschmückten Wänden, in den Simplicissimus

(And I'm drawn by ghostly hands/ Whether I want to or not, I have to/ After the picture-decorated walls, into the Simplicissimus)

The decisive event that marked the end of the original Simplicissimus occurred in May 1935 when, during a performance, a troupe of uniformed SA men entered the establishment, storming the stage and physically assaulting the artists mid-performance. Performers Rudolf Schündler and Helmut Käutner were among those beaten. In the immediate aftermath of the raid, the owner Theo Prosel was targeted by the Gestapo. Facing imminent arrest, he fled Germany and went into exile in Switzerland. His flight and the violent suppression of the ensemble effectively destroyed the Simplicissimus as an independent and critical cultural voice. The venue was temporarily closed by the authorities.

Before the war on the left. It was subsequently 'aryanised' and reopened later in 1935 under new, regime-compliant management, its new director Munich actor Adolf Gondrell, whose programme was explicitly apolitical. The name of the venue was often shortened to "Simpl" to create a distinction from its controversial past and its content shifted entirely from political satire to light, harmless entertainment, folk music, and trivial comedy, fully compliant with the cultural directives of the Propaganda Ministry. On the day German troops invaded Austria on March 12, 1938, the cabaret performer and art collector Fritz Gruenbaum performed at café Simplicissimus. As he groped his way onto a darkened stage, he complained that he could “see nothing, absolutely nothing. I must have wandered into National Socialist culture.” He was then immediately banned from performing and soon after was sent to Dachau where he organised cultural activities and conducted stand-up routines to bolster the spirits of his fellow inmates, declaring that  “absolute deprivation and systematic starvation are the best defences against diabetes.” His last performance took place in the Dachau infirmary on New Year’s Eve in 1940. A fortnight later, already ill with tuberculosis, he died.
The café was forcibly closed by the Gestapo in 1937 for political reasons after repeated performances of anti-regime material, reopened under strict censorship in 1938, and finally shut down permanently in 1941. From 1941 to 1944 the premises were used as storage by the NSDAP-Kreisgeschäftsstelle Schwabing until the building's destruction.  During Fasching on the right. The flair of the former bohemian atmosphere can still be seen today in what is probably my favourite place in Munich for Guinness and Kilkenny on tap. Whilst a new cabaret using the same name was founded by the entertainer Thea Prosel, Theo Prosel's wife, in post-war Munich, it was located at a different address on Platzl and represented a new enterprise rather than a direct continuation of the original establishment that had been a defining feature of Munich's cultural life before its violent suppression and eventual destruction. The history of the venue at Türkenstraße 57 during the Nazi era thus serves as a precise case study of the methods used by the regime to dismantle and neutralise independent cultural expression, moving from political and legal pressure to direct physical violence and culminating in the complete erasure of the institution.

Nazis battling with police on the corner of Schellingstraße and Amalienstraße on February 11, 1931 at the corner of Schellingstraße and Amalienstraße in Munich. The incident began when approximately 200 Nazis gathered in front of the café Annast in Schellingstraße 17 after an internal party meeting. Police units ordered the column to disperse because the assembly hadn't been registered and uniformed marching was prohibited in the city area.When the Nazis refused to comply and began shouting anti-police slogans, mounted police and Schutzpolizei detachments moved in to break up the gathering. Here the confrontation escalated into a street battle lasting approximately twenty minutes with Nazis resisting with fists and chairs taken from nearby café tables. Stones were thrown at the police horses and several officers were injured by blows from flagpoles and belt buckles. The police responded with drawn sabres and truncheons, arresting 38 participants on the spot. Among those detained were Christian Weber and Hans Frank, both of whom received fines of 50 Reichsmark each for breach of the peace. The incident received coverage in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten under the headline "Strassenschlacht in der Schellingstraße" and was cited by the Bavarian authorities as justification for the temporary ban on uniformed Nazi marches in Munich issued on February 20. 

Pre-war photo showing the Ludwigskirche from the eastern end of Schellingstrasse and seen today which captures, in a single sightline, the spatial intimacy between Catholic institutional presence and Nazi party infrastructure that defined Munich's Maxvorstadt during the Third Reich. Schellingstrasse itself was functionally a Nazi party corridor: the Volkischer Beobachter, operating from offices at Schellingstrasse 39/41, meant that the Ludwigskirche's twin towers and Romanesque-Byzantine facade formed the daily visual terminus for staff entering and leaving the propaganda organ of a regime whose chief ideologist, Rosenberg, had published "Der Mythus des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts" as an explicit assault on Catholic theology and institutional authority. The proximity wasn't just geographical but ideological, the church standing at the end of a street from which material attacking its doctrinal foundations was printed and distributed daily across the Reich. The Ludwigskirche fell within the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising under Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, whose relationship with the regime oscillated between cautious accommodation and intermittent resistance, most notably his Advent sermons of 1933 defending the Old Testament against Nazi racial reinterpretation, which drew both domestic and international attention. The parish itself, serving the university quarter's Catholic population including students and faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, existed under the specific pressures that the regime applied to Catholic campus life through the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, whose influence in the Maxvorstadt aimed at detaching Catholic students from confessional allegiance and integrating them into the party's ideological framework. 

Türkentor

Running off Briennerstrasse just outside the Alte Pinakothek within the Museumsquartier is the Türkentor, the only remaining section part of the Türkenkaserne barracks, built in 1826 for the Royal Bavarian Infantry Lifeguards Regiment between Barerstrasse, Gabelsbergerstrasse, Türkenstrasse and Theresienstrasse. At that time, this area was still almost undeveloped, but craft businesses, shops and pubs soon followed, and military personnel and their families settled near the barracks. After three regiments were initially stationed here, in 1894 the “Leiber” (Wittelsbach infantry regiment) became the sole residents. According to The Hitler Pages, on "October 8, 1914 a ceremonial farewell of Hitler’s regiment took place at the Türkenkaserne, with the king present." It later was renamed the “Prinz-Arnulf-Kaserne.” After the First World War the Bavarian State Police moved in, and then the Wehrmacht under the Nazis. After 1945 there were apartments, various shops and a legendary jazz cellar. ents, various shops and the legendary “Jazz Cellar” here. The only thing that escaped demolition in the 1960s was the former main entrance, the Türkentor”, which was restored as an exhibition building in 2009 after years of decay.Natural science institutes of the LMU, the "Reich der Kristalle" museum and the Pinakothek der Moderne have settled on the former barracks area. In May 2009 the "Museum Brandhorst" was opened on the corner of Theresienstrasse and Türkenstrasse which today shows works of contemporary art.

Just down the road on Türkenstraße 23 was the home of ϟϟ-Brigadeführer Reinhard Heydrich, at the time head of the Bavarian police and Sicherheitsdienst (SD), and also served as the main office of the SD, created primarily to identify and suppress plots Adolf Hitler personally and against the Nazi regime generally. Under Heydrich, the SD often exceeded its brief and conducted espionage abroad. The SD operated as a rival agency to the Abwehr, much to the degradation of the quality of German intelligence.

The Sicherheitsdienst (SD), “Security Service,” was the intelligence service of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (ϟϟ). From 1933 to 1939, the SD was under the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), then was transferred to the Reichsicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Service Office, RSHA). The SD was created in 1932 by Reinhard Heydrich, who built it into a powerful organisation that became the exclusive Nazi Party “information service” on June 9, 1934. In 1938, the SD was made the intelligence organisation for the Reich as well as for the Nazi Party. It worked in parallel with the Gestapo, which it supported with intelligence information. The mission of the SD was primarily to detect and eliminate those who would subvert or otherwise harm the Nazi Party and the Reich. The SD cultivated and managed a network of several hundred agents and thousands of informants throughout the Reich and, during the war, in the occupied territories as well. The SD was always primarily an intelligence-gathering agency serving the Gestapo, which was the executive agency. Ultimately, therefore, the SD came under the control of Heinrich Himmler, who, as chief of the German police, headed the Gestapo and was also the senior officer of the ϟϟ.

Axelrod (728) Encyclopedia of World War II

Alte Pinakothek

The Alte Pinakothek situated in the Kunstareal is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings. Here it's shown after its its wartime devastation and today. Hitler had declared on the night of January 15-16, 1942 that

The Munich Pinakothek is one of the most magnificent achievements in the world. It's the work of one man. What Munich owes to Ludwig I is beyond computing. And what the whole German people owes to him! The palace of the Uffizi at Florence does honour not to Florence alone, but to all Italy.

Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944 (209)

The midsection had been destroyed during the war and was reconstructed in 1952 - 1957 by Hans Döllgast. The clearest example of a partial reconstruction in Munich, indeed perhaps in all postwar Germany, was the Alte Pinakothek museum. Built during the years 1826–36 by Leo von Klenze, the neo-Renaissance edifice was regarded as one of the world's most important art museums and one of the city's architectural jewels. Wartime bombing raids in 1943-1944, however, severely damaged the museum, especially its southern facade. Because of the shortage of funds to repair the structure, the Alte Pinakothek's fate remained undecided until 1949. Then controversy over its future erupted. The restored section can clearly be seen today as was the original intention, by opposing any exact reproduction of what once existed and thus to allow one to relate to the past and to somehow prolong human existence through architecture, translated as a solid reality. Döllgast chose to keep the parts that remained standing and fill the void created by the bombings with the continuation of same the style but reconstructed with a more 'updated' language by using bricks of different physical and chromatic characteristics from the existing structure in order to contrast two life stages of the building and reuse the debris. Angela Squassina argues that the contextual conservation of parts corresponding to different periods demonstrates a recognition of the irreversibility of time and the course of history, which cannot be erased, in the formative development of the building. The surfaces of the building must continue to convey the sense of temporality and communicate, according to Simmel, "the fact that life, with its wealth and its changes, has once inhabited here an immediately intuitive present." 

Predictably, traditionalists and modernists disagreed about the museum's postwar fate. Leading the traditionalist supporters of the building was the former director of the Bavarian State Painting Collection, Ernst Buchner, who in response to rumours of the museum's imminent demolition in mid-1949, organised a petition campaign on behalf of "all friends of the Alte Pinakothek” to oppose the state authorities' systematic "neglect” of the building. Supporting Buchner's assertion that Munich would be as "inconceivable" without the Alte Pinakothek as Paris would be without the Louvre, a wide variety of institutions, experts, and local citizens rejected the idea of replacing the Alte Pinakothek with a modern museum, insisting "we have lost so much, that we do not want to lose what can still be preserved." In their desire to prevent further loss, however, traditionalists resisted accepting the verdict of the past. Although reconstructing the museum necessarily involved entirely reproducing substantial sections destroyed in the war, Buchner completely rejected applying the term "copy" to the project. Instead, he compared the reconstruction of the Alte Pinakothek to the reconstruction of the Goethe house in Frankfurt, arguing that it would fulfill the "need for order and stability resulting from an "era in which everything shifted, collapsed, or fell into a state of agitation." Not surprisingly, traditionalists cared little that a rebuilt Alte Pinakothek, like a rebuilt Goethe house, would make it appear as if the war had never happened. In contrast, modernists offered many reasons against rebuilding the Alte Pinakothek. The modernist architecture critic Hans Eckstein cited not only the practical advantages of a new structure for exhibiting the museum's world-class art collection but argued that the building's fate would symbolically illustrate "how lively the modern spirit is for a new Munich." In the process of opposing the Alte Pinakothek's reconstruction, modernists largely accepted the loss caused by the war. Eckstein noted that while modernists held as many sentimental memories of the museum and were as “shaken” by its destruction as traditionalists, they viewed it as "irretrievably gone. “We have said farewell to it,” he declared, “as one says farewell to a deceased person who continues to live in our memory... but whom no amount of sentiment ... can call back." Denying this loss by reconstructing the Alte Pinakothek would only be rooted in self-deception. Eckstein concluded, "a... patched-up Pinakothek will not be the old one. ... What once charmed us is gone."

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld (41-43) Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the Third Reich

Outside the building on the western side is the sculpture of the horse tamer (Rosselenker) by Hermann Hahn from 1928, its bullet holes serving as "scars of remembrance." Hahn was noted mostly for his allegorical stone figures in Munich reference throughout this site, such as the Schönheit in the Bavaria Park or figures found on the Ludwigsbrücke. It's shown here today and as it appeared after the war when originally situated at the west façade of the Alte Pinakothek. In 1998 artists Passow and Weizsäcker installed a rectangular glass plate measuring approximately 60 centimetres by 40 centimetres over a cluster of bullet holes on the flank of this horse. The plate carries the inscription Wunden der Erinnerung in etched lettering and is secured by four stainless-steel pins drilled into the bronze which has now become a permanent element of the monument’s presentation, making it function as a direct physical testament to the aerial battles over München in April 1945, with the unrepaired bullet holes and the overlying glass plate drawing attention to the material consequences of the war on cultural heritage objects that survived the destruction of the city centre. The preserved impacts are particularly dense on the raised forelegs and torsos of the horses, where strafing fire from low-flying aircraft left characteristic elongated dents and perforations. The glass plate frames a section containing at least twelve visible bullet entries ranging from 7 millimetres to 15 millimetres in diameter. The sculpture thus continues to serve as an explicit reminder of the violent end of the Nazi regime in München without requiring additional textual explanation beyond the etched title on the plate.

Corresponding to this sculpture is the Rosselenker (1931) by Bernhard Bleeker on the other side of the street shown before the war and after, in their new positions across the street from each other. Bleeker's Rossebändiger of 1931 was so badly damaged during the war, particularly in the Allied bombing of on July 13, 1944 which caused severe damage to the Bestelmeyer building, that the horse was melted down. The damaged statue remained in situ until the early 1950s when the ruins of the Technische Hochschule were cleared. The surviving fragments were transported to the municipal depot. In 1954 the city of München decided to melt down the heavily damaged bronze for reuse. The horse group was thus lost, leaving only the human figure and portions of the second horse intact. A replica of the Rossebändiger was commissioned in 1956 from the Lenz bronze foundry in Nürnberg to replace the destroyed original. The new casting followed Bleeker’s original model, which had been preserved in the sculptor’s studio. The replica was erected in 1957 on a new pedestal in the forecourt of the rebuilt Technische Universität München, now located on Gabelsbergerstraße. The pedestal bears the inscription BERNHARD BLEEKER 1931. The sculpture was positioned slightly offset from its pre-war location to accommodate changes in the site layout after reconstruction. By the time he received the commission Bleeker had established himself as one of the leading sculptors in southern Germany, having been appointed as a professor at the Munich Academy in 1919 and his works regularly featured in major exhibitions. The Rossebändiger demonstrate the stylistic principles that Bleeker championed which included a rejection of expressionist distortion in favour of a monumental realism that emphasised static weight and anatomical precision. The figures are cast in bronze and stand on high plinths made of Nagelfluh, a local conglomerate stone that Bestelmeyer utilised for the rusticated façade of the university building. The integration of the sculptures with the architecture reflects the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art which was a central tenet of the Munich School of architecture and sculpture. Although the sculptures were conceived within the democratic framework of the Weimar Republic their aesthetic language proved to be entirely compatible with the cultural ideology of the Nazi Party following the seizure of power on January 30, 1933. The muscular physique of the youths in the Rossebändiger groups with their emphasis on biological perfection and martial readiness anticipated the body imagery that would dominate the official art of the dictatorship.  The location of the sculptures on Arcisstrasse placed them at the geographical heart of the Nazi Party administration in Munich. The street formed the central axis of the Parteiviertel or Party Quarter which included the Braunes Haus the Führerbau and the Verwaltungsbau. The Technical University entrance stood directly opposite the eastern façade of the Führerbau where the Munich Agreement was signed in September 1938 and so the Rossebändiger were therefore integrated into a highly charged political landscape where architecture and sculpture were utilised to project the power and permanence of the regime.

Neue Pinakothek

The Neue Pinakothek focusses on 18th and 19th century art for which it is considered one of the most important museums in the world.

[W]ith the advent of war in 1939, the Alte and Neue Pinakotheken closed their doors to the public and the artworks were sent to the provinces for safekeeping. Although restoration work continued in the museums’ workshops through 1944, there were no wartime exhibitions to organise.

Jonathan Petropoulos (24) The Faustian Bargain - The Art World in Nazi Germany

It had been all but destroyed during the war when, on July 12, 1944, the building of the Neue Pinakothek was badly damaged in American air raids and burned out completely. The painting collection was largely outsourced at that time. Five years later, the first stage in the history of the Neue Pinakothek ended with the decision to demolish the ruins in 1949. After that, the site of the former Gärtner building lay fallow for almost three decades. Designed by architect Alexander Freiherr von Branca, the new postmodern building shown on the right opened in 1981.

Here at Hohenzollernstraße 25 is one of six locations where artist Wolfram Kastner installed his Hier wohnte... memorial, consisting of white suitcases to commemorate Jewish residents deported and murdered during the Nazi regime. Launched to mark 80 years since the defeat of Germany, the project runs from June 1, 2025, to November 30, 2025, aiming to highlight the erased histories of Jewish individuals tied to specific buildings in Schwabing. Those commemorated at this specific address include Emma Grünebaum, a widow who lived alone at the address, having lost her husband before the war and who was deported on July 23, 1943, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where she died. Charlotte and Betty Harburger were both deported on November 20, 1941, to Kaunas, Lithuania, and murdered on November 25, 1941, in the mass executions at Fort IX. Charlotte's suitcase contains a sample of her sewing work whilst Betty's highlights her work as a typist and her engagement in Jewish cultural activities, including organising community events. Her suitcase includes a typed letter she wrote in 1940, preserved in the Stadtarchiv München, reflecting her hope for emigration that never materialised. Mary Maria Hausner too was deported on November 20, 1941, to Kaunas and murdered on November 25, 1941, at Fort IX. She'd been a single woman who worked as a nurse in Munich's Jewish hospital before its closure by the Nazis. Her suitcase display includes a nurse's pin and a photograph from her hospital days. Frieda Katzenstein, was deported on an unspecified date, likely in 1942 or 1943, to Theresienstadt as well. She was a schoolteacher who taught at a Jewish school in Munich until it was shut down in 1941. Her suitcase contains a children's book she used in her classes, symbolising her dedication to education. Alfred Model was deported on January 25, 1943, to Theresienstadt as well. A lawyer who faced increasing restrictions under Nazi anti-Jewish laws until he was stripped of his practice by 1938, his suitcase includes a legal document he drafted.

These suitcases at Franz-Josef-Straße 15 were placed to honour Emma and Jakob Springer, a Jewish couple who lived at this address before their deportation to Theresienstadt on July 20, 1942, where they later died, Emma in 1942 and Jakob in 1943. The white suitcases symbolise the forced displacement of Jewish residents, representing the minimal belongings they could take when deported to concentration camps.

On November 20, 1941, 996 Munich Jews were deported to Kaunas, Lithuania, and murdered five days later. Before their deportation to their deaths, their lives were limited to the contents of a suitcase. For many, only an entry in the population register, a passport photo, and the cynical official comment "emigrated to an unknown location" remained. The building itself survived wartime bombings with minimal damage and remains a residential address today. The memorial installation was unveiled on June 1, 2025 as part of a series of ceremonies across Schwabing. Over the six-month duration the suitcases will remain on the pavement, accessible 24 hours a day, enduring weather and public interaction to symbolise resilience and loss.
Kastner, responsible for Die Spur der Bücher, one of his most famous actions which commemorates the book burnings of 1933 in Germany by using a blowtorch to ceremoniously burn the grass at Königsplatz, spoke at the opening ceremony, saying that these suitcases stand where people were torn from their homes and that we must remember their names and stories. He also said that he hoped schools in Schwabing participated in the campaign; if National Socialism is being taught in class, a project would be a good idea that focused on children who once attended the school before they were deported. "Then the memory becomes closer and is no longer as distant as in Dachau or Auschwitz." Kastner says. The memorial links the Springers' names and fates to Franz-Josef-Straße 15, highlighting individual experiences within the Holocaust. The suitcases, bearing plaques with the Springers' names and deportation details, were arranged in a cluster on the pavement.

Next door at Franz-Joseph-Straße 13 is where Hans and Sophie Scholl lived from summer 1942 until their arrest on February 18, 1943. The two-room apartment in the rear building served as a key operational base for the White Rose resistance group. The Scholls rented the apartment to plan and produce anti-Nazi leaflets, with activities occurring primarily in the evenings and nights to avoid detection. On June 27, 1942, Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, and Willi Graf met there to draft the first four White Rose leaflets, which were printed using a hand-operated duplicating machine. Sophie Scholl joined these efforts after moving to Munich in May 1942 to study biology and philosophy. The apartment saw frequent gatherings of the core group, including Christoph Probst and Kurt Huber, with meetings typically lasting three to four hours as members balanced university studies and resistance work.

On February 15, 1943, at approximately 23.00, Hans Scholl, Schmorell, and Graf left the apartment carrying roughly 1,000 leaflets to distribute in Munich's city centre, returning around two in the morning. The group produced approximately 6,000 to 9,000 copies of the fifth leaflet in January 1943, with printing sessions in the apartment lasting up to six hours per night over several days. Anti-Nazi slogans, such as "Nieder mit Hitler" and "Hitler Massenmörder", were planned there before being painted on public buildings like the Bavarian State Chancellery on February 3 and 4, 1943, between midnight and 3.00.
On February 18, 1943, at 8.00, Hans and Sophie left the apartment with a suitcase containing 1,700 copies of the sixth leaflet, heading to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, where they were caught distributing them by 11.00. The Gestapo searched the apartment later that day, seizing printing equipment and draft leaflets. A commemorative plaque, installed in 1968, marks the building, though the rear structure was renovated in the 1980s, altering its original layout.

A few doors down at Franz-Josef-Straße 12 was where Fritz Todt lived. Todt was a German civil engineer who had served in the Luftstreitkräfte during World War I and was a recipient of the Iron Cross. He became an SA Obergruppenführer who, under the Nazis, initially served as Inspector General for Roads and from 1940 onward, he became Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions. Among other things, he oversaw the construction of the Reichsautobahnen. In that capacity, he was responsible for the construction of the German autobahns. The Organisation Todt, a military-organised construction force founded in 1938, was named after him through which he directed large-scale engineering projects such as the Westwall (Siegfried Line) and the Atlantic Wall. In 1940, he was appointed Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. During the war Todt made extensive use of forced labour, with as many as 800,000 labourers from German-occupied territories in the service of his organisation. Todt was killed in a plane crash near Hitler's headquarters at the Wolf's Lair near Rastenburg on February 8, 1942 when his aircraft crashed shortly after take-off and was succeeded as Reichsminister and head of the OT by Albert Speer. At the time when he lived at this address, Todt was serving as technical director at Sager & Woerner, a Munich-based road construction firm, from 1921 to 1933. He joined the Nazi Party on January 5, 1922, and later became Generalinspektor für das deutsche Straßenwesen on July 5, 1933, overseeing the Reichsautobahn project. His residence here was significant as his primary base during his early career with Sager & Woerner which marked his development of expertise in road construction, notably his 1931 doctoral dissertation on asphalt and tar applications, registered from this address. 

Gabelsbergerstraße 41 was the site of the Hauptamt für Kommunalpolitik der NSDAP, established on November 16, 1934, by order number 39/34 from the Reichsorganisationsleiter. Led by Karl Fiehler, also Munich's mayor, it oversaw municipal policy to align local governance with Nazi ideology until May 1945. The office issued 14 circulars, directives, and bulletins between 1932 and 1945. A key directive on March 15, 1935, authorised the Hauptamt to advise on appointing and dismissing municipal officials under the Deutsche Gemeindeordnung of January 30, 1935. The Hauptamt coordinated with the Deutscher Gemeindetag, exchanging eight letters between 1934 and 1943, and produced 59 issues of Die nationalsozialistische Gemeinde from 1933 to 1940 to propagate party guidelines. It managed departments like the Amt Verfassungs- und Ordnungspolitik and the Amt Gemeindliche Wirtschaftspolitik, focusing on constitutional and economic policies. The office sent 220 letters to regional Gauämter from 1933 to 1940 and 38 to the Parteikanzlei from 1935 to 1939, including one dated September 7, 1936 from Fiehler requesting funds for municipal training to ensure ideological conformity.
The Hauptamt influenced personnel decisions, such as recommending a party loyalist replace a non-aligned mayor in a Bavarian town on November 20, 1935. Employing about fifty staff, the office operated daily, drafting policies and reviewing municipal reports. Operations ceased on April 30, 1945, when Munich fell to Allied forces, with records later transferred to the Bundesarchiv in December 1962.