More Nazi-era sites around Munich (5)

Staatskanzlei and Munich War Memorial

The Bavarian State Chancellery serves as the personal offices of the chancellery staff. It serves to coordinate the activities of the state ministries and prepares the resolutions of the state government.was created in 1933. During the Weimar Republic, the Prime Minister was also the Bavarian Foreign Minister. The Foreign Ministry, which had hardly any powers of its own, effectively represented the authority of the Prime Minister. It was only after the Nazis had taken power in Bavaria in March 1933 that the Foreign Ministry was abolished and replaced by the State Chancellery. During the Nazi era the State Chancellery was of little importance because, on the one hand, Germany had become a unified state in which the states were only Reich provinces and, on the other hand, they were associated with the Gau leadership of Munich-Upper Bavaria and the authority of the Reich governor Franz von Epp (the so-called Reichsstatthalterei). After the war, Anton Pfeiffer took over the management of the Bavarian State Chancellery, first as State Councillor.

Photos taken by the men of the American 14th Armoured Division here on the steps of the building upon their entry into Munich and below from the side.  The partial encirclement of Munich by the 45th Division moving in from the north, the 42nd Division from the north­ west, and the 3rd Division along the Isar River from the south was almost complete by April 29, although it wasn't until the next day that the city was wholly clear. Just before noon the next day forward troops of the 3rd and 42nd Divisions poured into the centre without meeting any resistance but instead encountering small groups of cheering civilians waving both white and Bavarian flags.  This wasn't the case for the 45th Division which faced a far less friendly reception from resistance mostly from ϟϟ battalions entrenched in prepared defensive positions centred around their college and barracks in the northern outskirts of the city as outlined below. As for the building itself, after their destruction in the war the two side wings were demolished, and the central building was a ruin for decades. The central dome of the former Bavarian Army Museum, which had been built in 1905 at the site of the Hofgartenkaserne barracks and was demolished during the war when the two side wings were torn off, left the central building a ruin for decades. By 1982, however, the 52 metre high dome with its copper coverage was restored by the team of architects J. Diethard Siegert and Reto Gansser, but not after considerable controversy due to the modernity of the project since it was located very close to the Residenz and would impact the visual integrity of the Hofgarten. There were also demonstrations to protect the remains of the arcades of the perimeter galleries on the north side that remained standing. Art historian Gunter Schweikhart said in May 1987 that an exact reconstruction of the original building should be given "in terms of its historical and architectural importance as an especially valuable monument." Nevertheless, the Bavarian state office for monuments and their preservation defended the project which was finally completed in 1993. The sides are supposed to appear like stairs that seem to rise to the sky, covered by two completely glazed façades, creating a contrast with the ruin that remained standing. The arcades of the north side were respected, but given a more modern form using a metal structure and glass cover. The final area of the building was 8,800 m2 and the access plaza was dedicated to all those killed in the war.

 

The remnants of some renaissance arcades of the Hofgarten in the north were integrated to the building. The two new wings are covered in full length with glazed stairs in the style of Jacob's Ladders, giving the impression of ship stairs. At the request of then-Prime Minister Max Streibl an intimate space with wood panelling and furnishings, ("Zirbelstube") was inserted after the reception room of the Prime Minister, who caused a stir because of the high costs involved. The building comprises about 8,800 m². To the east of the building the Köglmühlbach stream flows past above ground. In front of the west side of the courtyard is the war memorial and the equestrian statue for Duke Otto I Wittelsbach.

From 1905-1945, this housed the Bavarian Army Museum, founded by Ludwig II. Destroyed during the war with only the dome remaining, it has since been rather impressively reconstructed and is now used by the Bavarian government. In front of the building, beneath a Travertine slab, is a crypt commemorating the unknown soldier. The mausoleum, adorned with the names of the dead and the dedication “To Our Fallen” on one side of the chamber and the assurance “They Will Rise Again” on the other, leads down to a sunken crypt-like space enclosing the full-size sculpture of a soldier in battle-dress laid out upon the altar of the fatherland.  

All the names have become a sign for men of one fate, as it were traces of the mythos of the fallen. . . . The view upon all the names of one mission [Berufenheit] of itself awakens in us the need for a figure in which the fate of the many, who have become one, is allegorically [gleichnishaft] embodied. We are prepared to descend into the crypt located below the altar-tomb-block. In it is the sought-for image of the one who represents all: a young warrior in his repose of death...

 [T]he way in which the Munich memorial addresses [anspricht] the individual is fundamentally different from the effect that the individualistic figurative memorial [of the nineteenth century] exerts on the individual. For one comes to the single figure after having crossed the chamber of the community, whose walls hold the columns of names of the sacrifices [Opfer] and the supporters of a new national community [Volksgemeinschaft]. And the individual, whose image the crypt harbours, is indeed not an individual, but rather a symbol of all who fell . . . that is why we feel the symbol always as a person . . . in the ordinary sense proper to the concept. Persona comes from personare and that means “to sound through.” The whole sounds through the one, through whom he existed and for whose sake he fell: his nation [Volk].

 Hubert Schrade, Das deutsche Nationaldenkmal

David Lloyd George visiting the tomb in September 1936 before meeting Hitler at Berchtesgaden. Although wartime Prime Minister and shaper of the Treaty of Versailles, Lloyd George had been consistently pro-German after 1923, in part due to his growing conviction that Germany had been treated unfairly at Versailles. He supported German demands for territorial concessions and recognition of its Great Power status, paying much less attention to the security concerns of France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium. In a speech in 1933, he warned that if Hitler were overthrown, communism would take over Germany. In August 1934, he insisted Germany could not wage war and assured European nations that there would be no risk of war during the next ten years. After his meeting with Hitler, the latter said he was pleased to have met "the man who won the war"; Lloyd George was moved, and called Hitler "the greatest living German".  Lloyd George also visited Germany's public works programmes and was impressed. On his return to Britain, he wrote an article for the Daily Express praising Hitler, stating that "[t]he Germans have definitely made up their minds never to quarrel with us again."  He declared Hitler "the George Washington of Germany"; that he was rearming Germany for defence and not for offensive war; that a war between Germany and the Soviet Union would not happen for at least ten years; and that Hitler admired the British and wanted their friendship but that there was no British leadership to exploit this. However, by 1937, Lloyd George's distaste for Neville Chamberlain led him to disavow Chamberlain's appeasement policies.

GIF: The tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the war and today. Originally erected in front of the former Army Museum (now the Bavarian State Chancellery) in the Hofgarten in 1924 to commemorate the two million dead of the Great War, the 'Dead Soldier' sculpted by Bleeker now dedicated to the dead of both world wars. It was also used as a backdrop for nationalist and militaristic propaganda during the Nazi era. Annual remembrance days for war heroes were organised here by both the Wehrmacht and the Nazi party from 1934 onwards. This war memorial modelled on a megalithic tomb was already one of the most visited war memorials in Germany even during the Weimar Republic. Its centrepiece is a crypt in which Bernhard Bleeker’s idealised figure of the “dead soldier” is laid out, representing the 13,000 Munich soldiers who fell in the Great War and whose names were once engraved on the walls of a further walkway that circumscribed the memorial. Damaged during the war, the war memorial was restored on the orders of the American military government, albeit without the names of the 13,000 dead. In the 1950s an inscription was added commemorating the fallen soldiers and civilian victims of the years 1939 to 1945. This dedication reflects the desire of the population to continue commemorating the war dead even after 1945, although its portrayal of both the city and its population exclusively as victims represents a very one-dimensional view. To this day military ceremonies in honour of the dead are still held regularly at the war memorial. Directly in front is the Memorial for the Resistance

Leo Kornbrust’s memorial was unveiled on July 24, 1996 by the Bavarian Minister president Dr. Edmund Stoiber. It is engraved on one side with a line of block letters reading "Zum erinnern zum gedenken" ("To Recall and to Commemorate") under which is a reproduction of a handwritten letter by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin von Witzleben who was arrested the day after the attempted July plot. 

We will not pass judgement on the various possible forms of government as only one will be raised clear and unambiguously: every person has a right to a useful and just state that guarantees the freedom of the individual and to he general welfare. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the arbitrary will of criminal regimes of violence. These are the foundations of the new Europe.

During his trial he was forced to appear in court without his belt and false teeth. On August 8, 1944 he was executed by being hanged by piano wire from a meat hook. 

In the centre of the Hofgarten is its pavilion, the Diana temple- or Hofgartenbavaria- designed by Heinrich Schön the Elder in 1615 shown after the war and today. Its roof is adorned with a copy of the Tellus Bavaria bronze statue by Hubert Gerhard from 1623; the original is now set up as part of the bronze collection in the Vierschäftesaal of the Munich Residenz. The goddess Bavaria is used an allegory with the five attributes that symbolise the wealth of the state- a salt cellar for the important international trade, a deerskin for the hunts with their abundance of meat, the trap for the abundance of fish in the waters, the sheaf of grain for the well-behaved the peasants who paid the tithe and the Kurapfel for political power in the circle of princes. The copy was made in 1594 by Hans Krumpper. From July to November 1937, the "Degenerate Art" propaganda exhibition organised by the Nazis took place in the northern Hofgartenarkaden shown just behind. After the war when the Hofgarten was destroyed, a compromise was found between the stylistic elements of an English landscape garden and the original design of the 17th century.

Another Munich temple, the Monopteros in the English Garden, where the infamous Unity Mitford shot herself the day England declared war on Germany; a few yards away is the Chinesischer Turm, the original structure having burned down when a phosphorus bomb was dropped on July 13, 1944 and reconstructed in 1952 by the architect Franz Zell.

 Hitler had gifted Mitford a box at the Olympic Games and had her chauffeured to the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. When he announced the annexation of his homeland to the German Reich, she was allowed to stand next to him leading her to write home to her sister that “I think I am the happiest girl in the world.” As her father David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, second Baron Redesdale complained, "I'm normal, my wife is normal - but one of my daughters is crazier than the other." One married a duke, two became writers, Diana left an heir to the Guinness brewery to live with Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the fascist British Union, Jessica married a red nephew of Churchill and fought with the communists in the Spanish Civil War and Unity- born in Swastika, Ontario!- became a Hitler groupie. 

In 1933 Unity, accompanied by her older sister Diana, came to Germany for the first time to attend the Nazi party rally in Nuremberg. Unity soon settled in Munich and began to learn German. In February 1935 she met Hitler for the first time in his regular pub, the “Osteria Bavaria” on Schellingstrasse. Hitler was enthusiastic about the 20-year-old, six foot, elegant blonde beauty, as she fully corresponded to his Aryan ideal of beauty. According to Michaela Karl, Hitler and Mitford met more than 140 times between 1935 and 1939 - every ten days on average which continues to give rise to speculation. Winifred Wagner admitted her jealousy when she described Mitford as having “looked like a baby, so innocent. But somehow it was terribly annoying." Nazi foreign press chief Ernst“ Putzi ”Hanfstaengl was even more biting, damning her as a "beautiful, blond cow with a measure of malice." Leni Riefenstahl, who is also said to have close ties to the dictator, is said to have even spoken to him about the rumours only to be told that whilst she was beautiful, his feelings were such that he could only marry a German girl. No doubt Hitler saw in her a strategic signal to hoped-for ally England, whilst being well aware of the fact that his effect on female followers mainly depended on the fact that he was a bachelor. Mitford's enthusiasm for Hitler and Nazism did not arise simply from naive enthusiasm but would see her describing herself as a “Jew hater” in a letter to the editor of the Nazi propaganda paper “Der Stürmer”. She justified Hitler's war plans by the racial theory that Poles and Czechs were "not a superior race, and therefore they unfortunately have to be ruled by other nations". But on September 3, 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany, she put a photo of herself, a letter to Hitler and the party badge he had given her in an envelope and shot herself in the head. She survived, was relocated to Switzerland and even overcame her partial paralysis before she died in Scotland in 1948 from the effects of meningitis. Michaela Karl claims it was not a suicide, but murder. Unity Mitford had little reason to kill itself, whilst their opponents had every reason to get rid of "the English whisperer". Such enemies included Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop who blamed Unity Mitford for the failure of German-English relations, which the former ambassador to the Court of St. James regarded as his own domain. And in Joseph Goebbels's diary also gives cause for thought: “The Führer very much regrets the fate of Lady Mitford, who is paralysed on one side as a result of her suicide attempt. But nevertheless the Führer must of course protect himself against any possibility of espionage. And that's what he did in this case." In fact, it's been established that Unity Mitford was being monitored. Although the files of the Munich Gestapo were lost, a resident registration card dated September 2, 1939 reads "currently in custody at Gestapo, Brienner Str. 50." An act of desperation by Mitford to forestall permanent internment would also be conceivable. But there's also a lack of solid evidence for this theory according to Karl who points out that a theatrical suicide attempt would have suited the British woman's exalted character. After the war, Unity Mitford's sisters tried to forget about their affair with Hitler's ideology with Unity was reduced to the role of the apolitical enthusiast.  There are in fact rumours that she was taken to a private maternity hospital in Oxford where, in absolute secrecy, she gave birth to Hitler’s love child. 

Formerly the ϟϟ-Deutschland-Kaserne the monumental main building of today's Ernst-von-Bergmann barracks at Neuherbergstraße 11 was built for the ϟϟ-Standarte 1 Deutschland between 1934 and 1938, according to plans by Oswald Bieber. This was an armed union of the so-called "ϟϟ-Einsatzgruppe", which later appeared in the "Waffen-ϟϟ" which served primarily as a representative and guardian of the regime before the war. The ϟϟ-Standarte 1 Deutschland was permanently outside the barracks as a result of the Sudeten crisis from October 1938 onwards, and from the beginning of the war was involved several times in war crimes. The "ϟϟ Barracks Freimann" served as an accommodation and training place for the ϟϟ during the war; ϟϟ-Flak units were also stationed here. Whilst the ϟϟ men were housed in the barracks, ϟϟ leaders and sub-leaders lived with their families in a settlement built south of the barracks which can still be seen in the residential buildings on today's Kleinschmidtstraße. During the war, an external camp of the Dachau concentration camp, whose relatives had to work for  ϟϟ administration, was placed within the barracks. Other concentration camp prisoners were housed in a concentration camp outside the barracks and had to carry out labour for the Dyckerhoff & Widmann construction company.

View of the parade ground with the eight-storey tower next to the former main guard at Ingolstädter Strasse in 1939. The externally plain and spacious barracks construction, also known as the ϟϟ Barracks Freimann, was erected in reinforced concrete. The functional architecture of the ϟϟ barracks differed in terms of the costly materials used, the elaborate construction techniques and the renouncement of any façade ornamentation, which were mostly constructed as brick buildings and had decorative elements. The ϟϟ-Standarte 1 Deutschland had taken part in the annexation of Austria and later the occupation of the Sudetenland before contributing to the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939. It was ordered by Hitler that it should be expanded to a division but the war interrupted this plan. It took part in the invasion of Poland attached to Panzer-Division Kempf and following that campaign it was used to form ϟϟ-Division Verfügungstruppe, later renamed Das Reich. It was as this division which is notorious for having descended on the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France on June 10, 1944 in reprisal for partisan attacks. After assembling the villagers, the troops separated the men from the women and children, then shot the men as their families looked on. After this, the troops herded the women and children into a local church, locked the doors, and set the structure ablaze with hand grenades. A total of 642 died.

Rather ironically these barracks served for three months during this time from April 1944 as the home of the the FLAK Company of the French ϟϟ-Sturmbrigade consisting of one officer, 36 NCOs, and 111 men. Once formed, the FLAK Company began its training here but its personnel, as a direct consequence of the defeat of 1940’, didn't want to serve under former French Army officers and so

 [o]n 1st April 1944, the 3rd Company left Sennheim to join the ϟϟ-Sturmbrigade. After journeying for three days, it arrived at Neweklau. The 3rd Company came with the tag of 'a sort of disciplinary unit'. This was not unfounded. In its ranks were a number of ‘hotheads’ whose exploits while on leave in France that Christmas and New Year had not gone unpunished. Nevertheless, this company, for all its ills, was well trained. It became the 6th Company of the Sturmbrigade.'’ After some permutations, the 6th Company was designated the FLAK Company of the French ϟϟ-Sturmbrigade. German instructor ϟϟ-Ustuf. Jauss then asked Ostuf. Maud’huit to take command of this unit, and to organise its recruitment and training. In a matter of days, he set up the FLAK Company. And although some volunteers left to join the companies formed before their arrival, others did their utmost to fill the posts made vacant. 

Robert Forbes (56) For Europe: The French Volunteers of the Waffen-ϟϟ

 The GIFs shown here are from photos taken of the building in the late afternoon of April 30, 1945 by First Lieutenant Clifford E. Conner, 3rd Platoon Commander, D CO., 20th Tank Battalion. The photo on the right shows battle damage and a knocked-out German .88-mm gun which had, for a time, protected the building's perimeter wall. An armoured division of the American Army, which entered the country on April 30, 1945, took the barracks after fierce fighting in the Lohhof Panzerwiese area. From 1948 the barracks "Warner Kaserne", used by the Americans until 1968, was named after Henry F. Warner, who had fallen in the Ardennes on December 21, 1944, to which the Congress of the United States posthumously awarded the Medal of Honour, the highest American award for bravery. In addition to military use, UNESCO used the buildings to accommodate dispersed persons and the headquarters of the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) on the site until 1951. The international refugee organisation supported the approximately 3,800 DPs of different nationalities living here as of October 1950 during the intended departure.

 

Standing in front of the Funk-Kaserne, dating from 1936, now used by the Bundespolizeiinspektion für Kriminalitätsbekämpfung München who have the chutzpah to use Nazi premises which openly displays a Nazi symbol on property open to the public yet will demand that tax-paying citizens are forbidden from taking photographs of it. The funkkaserne was erected as a Luftwaffe news barracks in the course of the armament of the Wehrmacht from 1936 to 1938. The buildings survived the war largely without damage.  In the post-war years until May 1955, the American army and the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) operated the largest southern German Resettlement Centre for Displaced Persons, a transitional accommodation for predominantly Eastern European forced labourers, who were sent to Germany during the  war. Pioneer barracks of the Bundeswehr  From 1956 to 1992 the area was a barracks of the army of the Bundeswehr. Despite the sole use as a pioneer barracks, the name Funkkaserne was retained. Lastly, it was the pioneer battalion 210, the pioneer battalion 220 - a training unit a few kilometres away in the Prinz Eugene barracks, and the Panzerpionierkompanie 560. The pioneer battalion 210 (heavy pioneer battalion of the 2nd corps) was intended to make blasting shafts with  drill vehicles in the event of a war. According to rumours, it was planted for the use of Atom mines stored at the US 10th Special Forces Group in the Flint Barracks in Bad Toelz. The military use of the barracks ended with a final meeting in March 1992 in the presence of the then Secretary of State and later Bavarian Minister-President Günther Beckstein, the first major Munich Bundeswehr property to be abandoned in the course of the reduction of troops. After a canal and an old canal restoration and a dismantling of the rail connection from military times to the railway line from Freimann to Schwabing, the demolition work for the former barracks building began at the end of 2010 and a new construction is planned for the year 2016. An area of 8.72 hectares in the north-east corner of the former barracks area was excluded from the urban transformation and remained the property of the federal government. It is still used by the Federal Police for accommodation and services buildings and is to be compacted in favour of additional residential buildings.

Just outside the reichsadler remains, shorn of its swastika (although traces are left). Even though it is allowed to openly appear outside the walls of the former base, I was told not to take photos of it (which of course I ignored).

Formerly the Karl-Liebknecht-Kaserne before being renamed the Adolf-Hitler-Kaserne, this is where Hitler stayed after returning to Munich after the Great War during his affiliation to the infantry in the Lothstraße 29 and stayed there officially until May 1, 1920. By that time from the summer of 1919, in addition to the 2nd Infantry Regiment, there were also a number of companies from the Bavarian Army which were being liquidated. Eventually however the engineer battalion and the first battalion of the 19th Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr were housed in the Oberwiesenfeld barracks. 

As a result on the occasion of Hitler's birthday in 1934 the Reichswehr sent birthday greetings in which Blomberg wrote that the barracks of the First Battalion of Infantry Regiment 19 (Munich), one of the traditional troops of the famous List Infantry Regiment in which Hitler had fought as a volunteer, was to be given the name “Adolf-Hitler-Kaserne.” Until denazification in 1945, the barracks in Lothstraße therefore held the name Adolf-Hitler-Kaserne.

 In the foreground is the war memorial erected in 1923 by Hermann Broxner, dedicated to those of the Königlich Bayrisches Infanterieregiment Nr.2 Kronprinz who fell 1682-1918 on the corner of Winzererstrasse, Lothstrasse and Georgenstrasse at what had formerly been Vimyplatz. Today a block of flats, the buildings behind had served as the Adolf Hitler Kaserne. The barracks themselves date from the typhoid epidemic of 1893 when the Hofgarten and Seidenhaus barracks subsequently closed, making it necessary to move the infantry body regiment stationed there to the Türkenkaserne barracks. Battalions of the 1st "König" Infantry Regiment and the 2nd "Kronprinz" Infantry Regiment were housed in the Turkish barracks as well as on the Marzplatz. During the Nazi era in connection with the marshalling yard planned further to the northwest, there were unrealised plans to build a new freight yard with a wholesale market hall, slaughterhouse and cattle yard and a thermal power plant here.

      

 The barracks as seen at the end of the war in photographs taken by the 14th Armoured Division.

 The barracks buildings at Oberwiesenfeld were largely spared by the wartime bombs, although many were later demolished. In addition to barracks, there were numerous other military facilities here, such as the former clothing office of the 1st Army Corps with the associated living quarters and the military housing complex along Barbarastraße, the St. Barbara Garrison Church and the municipal Wehramt (today the Munich City Archive) at Winzererstraße 68. The eastern part of the barracks in this area which includes ​​Infanteriestrasse, Barbarastrasse, Elisabethstrasse, Winzererstrasse, and Lothstrasse received residential and commercial development in the 1950s and 1960s and the area today is used by the Munich Federal Police Directorate. From this section of the former barracks, listed buildings still exist on the corner of Elisabethstrasse/Theo-Prosel-Weg and on the corner of Lothstrasse/Winzererstrasse.Some remaining sites include two buildings in the north-west of the former barracks currently are used by various Munich companies. The former officers' riding arena is now the venue. The former administration building at Lothstraße 29 at the corner of Winzererstraße serves as the headquarters of a publishing house. In addition, there administration building with the officers' mess at Elisabethstraße 79 on the corner of Theo-Prosel-Weg is a listed building. Apartments that used to belong to the pioneer department were rented to Munich families until the beginning of 2010. The demolition of the three-story row of houses near the former casino began in April 2010.

Currently serving as the Bundesfinanzhof, the highest tax court, from 1933 the judgements here provided the legal justification for the expropriation of political opponents and Jews, the latter through the "Reichsfluchtsteuer". As the Reichsfinanzhof, under the Nazis it was the supreme court in tax matters. In final appeal proceedings it hands down decisions in cases especially referred to it by law. The Senate of the Reich Finance Court, composed of five members, including the chairman, decided in legal complaint cases. At the final vote the case was decided by the votes of at least three members, including the chairman. The Reich Finance Court was the supreme authority in respect to real property taxes, in so far as the taxes are administered by state offices and Oberfinanzpräsidenten. In addition, upon application of a state government, the Reich Finance Minister could designate the Reich Finance Court as the supreme court for the taxes of the states, communes, communal associations and religious societies.

On the right: Looking towards the site from Herkomerplatz located in Bogenhausen where Scheinerstraße, Ismaninger Straße, Montgelasstraße, Oberföhringer Straße , Bülowstraße and Denninger Straße meet. It was named after the painter and sculptor Sir Hubert Ritter von Herkomer in 1927; it had previously been called Gebeleplatz. After the war one of Munich's first supermarkets, called "Supermarkt", was built on the corner building on Ismaninger Strasse.The building shown here caught my eye as I cycled past given the eagle that adorns the entrance.

The former site of the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB). One of the responsibilities of the National Socialist Association of German Lecturers, founded in 1935 as a professional association of university lecturers designed to keep them in line with Nazi ideology and located at what is today Max-Joseph-Straße 4. It was to push for the dismissal of politically undesirable university lecturers, to run the universities according to dictatorial principles and to make the curriculum conform with Nazi ideology. The conditions for bringing the universities into line were favourable in Munich, for even before 1933 the National Socialist German Students’ Association at the Technical University had held almost half the seats on the Students’ Committee. Students eventually had to be members of the Nationalsozialistischen deutschen Studentenbund. The NSDStB, headed from 1928 to 1933 by Baldur von Schirach, served to promote the Nazi way of life through indoctrination with Nazi philosophy, and included physical training and military drills. Universities were purged of Jewish, liberal, and social-democrat personnel who were harassed, dismissed, forced into exile and retirement, and even imprisoned and replaced by inexperienced and unqualified but reliable Nazi professors. This was a terrible loss for Germany which had held a position of world leadership in science but gave Britain and America many scientists, such as Albert Einstein, who were forced into exile. 

University teachers were controlled by the NSDDB. The new curriculum emphasised the basic elements of Nazi ideology- racism, nationalism, Germanic culture, duty, loyalty to the Führer, soldierly spirit, obedience and discipline. Students were often required to put aside their books and spend months in military training and labour camps. With continual rounds of marches, rallies and other party activities, the desperate professors had to ease their requirements drastically in order to graduate sufficient numbers.

The educational reforms instituted by the Nazi regime had catastrophic results. The traditional German humanism was replaced with politico-racial institutions dedicated to militarism, racial hatred and aggressive expansionism. Many young people began to question the value of obtaining the once-prestigious Abitur—the graduation certificate needed to enter a university. By the late 1930s, many students were dropping out of school to work as craft apprentices or industrial trainees. Education—from elementary schools to the universities—became merely an appendage of the Propaganda Ministry, intellectual standards declined precipitously and a whole generation was the victim of odious indoctrination. 

LePage  (93)  Hitler Youth

The main building of the Reichszeugmeisterei, built by Paul Hofer and Karl Johann Fischer, in Tegernseer Landstraße 210 with Nazi flags and a Reichsadler over the entrance portal. The Nazi leadership demonstrated power and rule with the monumental building in the "rot Giesing". In 1934, the Nazis bought the site between Tegernseer Landstrasse, Peter-Auzinger- and Soyerhofstrasse, which had once belonged to the car body builder Beißbarth. Two years later, the party bought the Warthof, which had been used as an evangelical orphanage since 1911. The buildings of the Reichszeugmeisterei, the Reichsautozugs Deutschland and the Bavarian auxiliary railway were built on the huge, traffic-heavy situated area from 1935 onwards. In addition to service buildings and housing blocks for the accommodation of the employees, a remote heating installation with a widely visible roof was also installed. The Reich General Ordnance Depot "was one of the largest concrete skeleton constructions erected during the Nazi period" (Kopleck, 73) which housed party vehicles. Today can be seen the traces of the reichsadler above the entrance and, along the sides, surviving reliefs depicting German enterprise. The Reichszeugmeisterei was the Nazis' central procurement office and developed into its largest service centre, inspecting the production and distribution of all official equipment and uniforms, such as the brown shirt, Nazi flag and party badge. After the war, the Americans Army confiscated the largely indestructible buildings as a barracks, and in 1948 it was named after corporal Francis X. McGraw, who had fallen in the Rhineland in 1944. The McGraw barracks were the seat of the military government for Bavaria.

Nazi uniforms and regalia were designed, manufactured, controlled and sold by the Reichszeugmeisterei, literally the National Material Control Office, which can be thought of as a government procurement office. The Reichszeugmeisterei was established at almost the moment that Hitler took over the government of Germany. By July 1934, the RZM was in place with a director, staff and offices in Munich at Tegernseer Landstrasse 210. Officially, it had the solitary purpose of selecting suppliers and sellers of certain NSDAP uniform-related products. It had exclusive legal authority to design and control quality and costs of uniforms, badges, medals and other regalia. Since its mission was on behalf of the Nazi Party as a branch of the Treasury Department, its jurisdiction included material for use by both the Gliederungen der NSDAP and Angeschlossende Verbände. Secondarily, the RZM was charged with making sure that the production of all that they ordered was carried out in “Aryan” manufacturing plants, with materials of German origin whenever possible. Producers authorised by the RZM were not allowed to employ “non–Aryan” workers, and had to give preference to Nazi Party members when promoting workers and dealers. Each firm authorised to produce or sell RZM material was issued an RZM registration number and it was required that the number appear on all finished products they made or sold.

Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage, Hitler Youth, 1922-1945, pp50-51

In 1895 Josef Schülein established the Unionsbrauerei in Haidling which quickly developed into one of the largest breweries of Munich. Because Schülein was a Jew, its beer was often defamed as “Jew beer” and he himself was forced to sacrifice his position on the Supervisory Board of Löwenbräu in 1933 and retired to his Kaltenberg estate, where he died on September 9, 1938. He was buried at the New Israelite Cemetery in the north of Munich.  Five of his children had already emigrated with their families in 1938, including his son Hermann, who had become manager in the Liebmann Breweries in New York. The youngest son Fritz was arrested on the evening of Kristallnacht in Kaltenberg and was able to flee to the United States after undergoing "protective custody" in the Dachau concentration camp; the Kaltenberg Castle family estate was "aryanised" and only returned in 1949. In Berg am Laim, a district in Munich, a small street and a square (where the Schülein fountain, donated in 1928, stands) were named after Schülein. Schüleinstraße and Schüleinplatz were renamed into Halserspitzstraße and Halserspitzplatz by the Nazis. On August 7, 1945 the name after Schülein was given again.

 

 Ehemaliger Flughafen Oberwiesenfeld

 The airport administration buildings with a Junkers D 1758 in 1931. As early as the late 19th century, the military field at Oberwiesenfeld was identified as a suitable location for the emerging air traffic. In 1890 the "Luftschiffer-Lehrabteilung" of the Bavarian army was founded. On the drill field, hot air balloons and zeppelins took off and landed as did, from 1909, simple aircraft. After the First World War its use was limited to civil aviation. The equipment of the airfield was very modest, as there were missing buildings for the repair of the airplanes and for waiting passages. In 1927, the city council of Munich issued a planning contract, which envisaged the expansion of Oberwiesenfeld as an "airport of the first order". After completion of the hangar and the modern administration building, the aeroport was opened on May 3, 1931 by Lord Mayor Karl Scharnagl. Due to the rapidly increasing number of passengers, it was already clear shortly after the opening that the airport on the Oberwiesenfeld would soon be too small. Due to the adjacent development, the airport could not be extended. After the completion of the new Munich-Riem traffic lane in 1939, the Luftwaffe used the Oberwiesenfeld airport. After the war it was confiscated by the American armed forces and then used by private pilots until the airport buildings were demolished in 1968 in the course of the design of the Olympics park for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Standing outside Reinhard Heydrich's former home at Zuccalistraße 4 near Nymphenburg castle. In September 1932 the Security forces had its seat at this small villa as well. Of this house his wife Lina wrote "[w]hen unexpected visitors arrive, the architecture of the house makes it possible for us to make everything disappear in time. Our dog gives us plenty of warning."
At the end of the war, Heydrich's widow returned to the island of Fehmarn with her surviving children. She owned and ran a hotel and restaurant. The Finnish theatre director and poet Mauno Manninen was a frequent guest at the hotel. He took pity on the difficulties she experienced as a result of her infamous name and offered to marry her to enable her to change it. They married in 1965 but did not live together. She died on August 14, 1985.
See the special Prague section on Operation Anthropoid

Schloss Nymphenburg

Huge Nazi flags in front and the wife at the site today. Within walking distance of Heydrich's house is this, the biggest Baroque palace in Germany, and site of the 1938 Nazi production of "De Nacht van de Amazonen"seen during the 1930s and today. The opulent façade and intricate interiors of Schloss Nymphenburg, a Baroque palace in Munich, Germany, belie its complex historical significance, particularly during the Nazi era. Far from being a mere architectural marvel, the palace served as a potent symbol and a functional space for the Nazis. Hobsbawm argues that symbols and architecture often serve as "invented traditions," created or repurposed to establish a sense of continuity with a selectively interpreted past. In the case of Schloss Nymphenburg, the Nazis sought to connect their ideology with the grandeur and authority symbolised by the palace, thereby legitimising their regime. The palace, originally built as a summer residence for the rulers of Bavaria, was transformed into a space that hosted important Nazi meetings and events. The appropriation of such a historically significant site allowed the Nazis to project an image of power and historical continuity, aligning themselves with the perceived greatness of the German past. Indeed, the palace wasn't merely a backdrop but an active participant in the shaping of Nazi ideology; its halls and rooms were the settings for discussions, decisions, and proclamations that would have far-reaching consequences. Evans notes that the palace served practical purposes, including hosting foreign dignitaries and serving as a locale for party functions. The grandeur of the palace was exploited to impress and intimidate, a tactic that was part of the larger Nazi strategy of using spectacle as a means of control. The Nazis were keenly aware of the power of aesthetics and used Schloss Nymphenburg as a stage on which to perform their political theatre. The palace was more than a symbol; it was a tool, repurposed to fit the needs of a regime keen on using every available resource to propagate its ideology.

This transformation of Schloss Nymphenburg into a Nazi stronghold also had implications for the German populace and the international community. On the right the site is shown during the so-called Day of German Art Festival during the weekend of July 14-16, 1939. The appropriation of a cultural landmark for political purposes served as a powerful propaganda tool. By associating themselves with the palace, the Nazis were not just claiming a physical space but were also staking a claim to German history and culture. This association wasn't lost on Germans, for whom Schloss Nymphenburg was a symbol of national heritage. The palace's new role as a Nazi edifice made it complicit in the regime's actions, turning it from a neutral architectural marvel into a politically charged site. Mazower contends that the Nazis were masters of manipulating public opinion through carefully orchestrated displays of power and authority. Schloss Nymphenburg, with its historical significance and architectural grandeur, provided the perfect setting for such displays. The palace became a stage where the Nazi vision for Germany was articulated and performed, a vision that was disseminated through propaganda to reach even those who had never set foot in the palace. The use of such a culturally significant site for political purposes had a profound impact on how the Nazi regime was perceived, both domestically and internationally.

Whilst the symbolic and utilitarian roles of Schloss Nymphenburg have been well-documented, the palace's influence on Nazi ideology and policy-making is an area that merits further exploration. The palace was not merely a venue for official functions and propaganda; it was also a space where key decisions were made and ideological tenets were formulated. Arendt posits that totalitarian regimes often use grand settings to create an aura that enhances the gravity of their ideological pronouncements. In the case of Schloss Nymphenburg, the palace's historical weight and architectural splendor provided an ideal setting for the formulation and dissemination of Nazi policies. The palace's grand halls and opulent rooms were more than mere venues; they were spaces that lent an air of authority and legitimacy to the Nazi regime's ideological constructs.

The palace also served as a meeting place for high-ranking Nazi officials, including Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels. On the left is shown Rudolf Heß at the site and today with Drake Winston. These meetings were not mere social gatherings but were instrumental in shaping the policies and strategies of the Nazi regime. The choice of Schloss Nymphenburg as a meeting place was not arbitrary; it was a calculated move designed to lend an air of historical gravitas to the regime's decisions. Moreover, the palace was a space where international diplomacy was conducted. Shirer notes that Schloss Nymphenburg was often used to host foreign dignitaries and diplomats, serving as a stage where the Nazi regime could present itself as a legitimate and authoritative government. The palace's grandeur was not just for domestic consumption but was also intended to impress and intimidate the international community. The choice of such a historically significant venue for diplomatic activities was a clear signal of the regime's aspirations for international recognition and respect.

Furthermore, the palace was not just a passive setting but was actively used to propagate Nazi ideology. Artworks and historical artefacts within the palace were carefully curated to reflect the regime's worldview. This was part of a broader strategy to rewrite history and redefine German culture in terms that were consistent with Nazi ideology. The palace, with its rich history and cultural significance, was an ideal venue for this revisionist exercise.

Kershaw observes that the Nazi regime was keen on cultivating a sense of national pride and unity, and historical sites like Schloss Nymphenburg were instrumental in this endeavour. The palace was not just preserved as a relic of the past but was actively incorporated into the Nazi narrative. Its history was rewritten to emphasise aspects that were in line with Nazi ideology, such as martial prowess and Aryan heritage, whilst downplaying or erasing elements that did not fit this narrative. This selective curation was not an isolated act but part of a larger strategy to reshape German identity in accordance with Nazi principles. The palace also served as a repository for artworks and cultural artifacts that were deemed to be of significant value to the German people. These items were not just preserved but were also displayed in a manner that reinforced the Nazi worldview. Burleigh notes that the regime was highly selective in its choice of artworks, favouring those that depicted themes of heroism, struggle, and racial purity. This curation was not a mere aesthetic choice but a calculated move to influence public perception and to instill a sense of national pride that was aligned with Nazi values. Moreover, the palace was used as a venue for cultural events that were designed to propagate Nazi ideology. These events were not mere entertainments but were imbued with political significance. They were carefully staged to convey specific messages and to elicit emotional responses that would reinforce the regime's ideological tenets. The choice of Schloss Nymphenburg as the venue for these events was deliberate, leveraging the palace's historical significance to lend an air of authenticity and gravitas to the proceedings.

Rarely seen amateur colour footage filmed in Friedberg and Munich in 1938 showing the night masquerade "De Nacht van de Amazonen." The mayor of Munich obtained from the local Gauleiter the permission for the girls on the chariots to parade with sexy costumes. It took place on July 27, 1936, July 31, 1937, July 30, 1938, and July 29, 1939. In the post-war years, it was concealed and forgotten, until in 1989 Herbert Rosendorfer's novel of the same title brought the event back into the public consciousness. 

New York correspondent Ernest R. Pope described the two and a half hours of scene after scene in the park behind the Nymphenburg Castle in 1936 consisting of over one hundred practically naked girls took part, 700 horses and 2,000 performers - including many ϟϟ guards, wearing costumes of the 17th century. The women, clad in the tightest pair of panties, held spears in their hands and sat dispassionately as Amazons on horses. Others, also in panties with butterfly wings on their arms, danced in the grass in the glare of searchlights set up by Wilhelm Hindelang. Under the motto "The festival stands and falls with the lighting" he worked out the lighting plans and provided lighting effects, in particular the coloured lighting of the water features and groups of trees by underwater floodlights and mercury vapour lamps. The installed power cables at Nymphenburger Park doubled to more than 7000 metres. In the western half of the stage, 38 towers measuring 40 x 40 cm and nine metres in height were built. In addition, four towers were built for large floodlights in the size of 1.90 x 2.50 metres and eighteen metres height and sixteen pieces about twenty metres high light power masts on the ground floor paths. Along the linden-lined high avenue on the central canal 103 further headlights were installed. Much of the lighting and the telephone system for the direction and lighting instructions were provided by the Wehrmacht. 

 Other women still wore nothing but silver paint on their bodies, posing on horse-drawn carriages as naked goddesses- Diana, the goddess of the hunt; the Amazon queen, wearing a large feathered helmet; Venus, the goddess of love, painted silvery in front of a shell; even a Chinese temple goddess. Christian Weber increasingly turned to his knowledge, which he had won in 1937 when visiting the Paris World's Fair that "the naked German girls look better than the French." For the Night of the Amazons he concluded that "all we have to do is take them off and put them in the spotlight." From 1938, the number increased only with skin-coloured briefs-dressed girls. For the first time, 150 bronzed male and female participants were deployed, who under significant health risks from top to bottom were painted with gold-coloured theatrical make-up. The police were at times unable to restrain the masses outside the area. Every year members of the Gestapo meticulously searched the spacious area of the Nymphenburg Palace. Finally, the presence of Hitler was hoped for although he preferred instead the Bayreuth Festival that took place at the same time. Prince Adalbert of Bavaria who lived with his family in Nymphenburg Palace, described the prevailing excitement. His family and he was forbidden to open window during this period or to receive visitors.

 

The palace was one of the location sites for Last Year at Marienbad (another covered here being Schließheim palace) including the iconic scene where the people cast long shadows but the trees don't because the shadows were painted and the scene shot on an overcast day.

Grünwalder Stadion 

Grünwalder Stadion einst und jetzt. It was built in 1911 and was the home ground for TSV 1860 München until 1995. In 1937, 1860 Munich had to sell the stadium to the city, which later bought it after it was destroyed during the war when, in the autumn of 1943, the stadium was heavily hit by two Royal Air Force bombs. During the first attack on September 7, an explosive bomb destroyed the western half of the seat base. Parts of the hall were destroyed by two more explosive bombs. The second attack on October 2 left behind seven large bombs on the field, the caster and the ramparts. The eastern part of the main tribune was now also destroyed. The wooden roof of the hall was completely burnt down, the western part of the grandstand was closed, the eastern part had survived the attacks with only slight damage. TSV 1860, FC Bayern and FC Wacker were moved to the Dantestadion after the first attack. When this was also hit by bombs, the clubs had to look for other places.  

Aerial photograph on the left showing the result of two air raids on July 19, 1944 leaving a crater circled in yellow and today. Whilst the air war was increasingly affecting the people of Munich and turning their hometown into a landscape of ruins, FC Bayern celebrated its only two Gauliga championships during the Nazi era. By now the league was reduced to southern and upper Bavaria. During construction work inside the stadium began the day after the last home game of the A-Jugend der Sechzger on May 20 2012, the discovery of a dud from the war, which lay under the penalty area in front of the east curve, caused a stir. The 225 kilogramme bomb was found only one metre under the turf of the penalty area last week. Police closed off the site and evacuated surrounding buildings before a team of experts got down to work defusing and removing the bomb. Thirty minutes later the scare was over. Until the opening of the Olympic Stadium in 1972 and the moving of FC Bayern to its new ground, the Grünwalder Stadion was home to both Munich clubs and served as venue for fourteen international games. For decades, stars like Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier or even Brazilian legend Pelé literally ran only a few inches above a fully functioning bomb.

TSV 1860 München giving the Hitler salute. Alongside Werder Bremen and VfB Stuttgart, 1860 Munich was one of the first major German football clubs to show a clear sympathy for the Nazis even before 1933. In the case of 1860, Nazi Party and SA members such as Fritz Ebenböck, Sebastian Gleixner and Emil Ketterer took over almost all important posts in the association. As early as September 1933, the club decided to adopt the so-called Führerprinzip at a general meeting of the gymnastics club and in March 1934 all departments joined the Nazi "Turn- und Sportverein München von 1860". Under the new head of the association, SA-Sturmbannfuhrer Fritz Ebenböck, a new uniform statute was also passed, which also included the "Aryan paragraph" which meant the end for the few remaining Jewish members of the club. In 1942, TSV won its first national title with the Tschammerpokal (forerunner of the DFB-Pokal), named after Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten who, from 1933, served as Reich sports leader and commissioner in the German Reich and as chairman of the "German Reich Association for Physical Exercise" (DRL) and the " National Socialist Reich Association for Physical Exercise." Whilst 1860 was initially able to prevent itself from being occupied by the Nazis, Nazi city council member Sebastian Gleixner, "one of the most ruthless ringleaders of the Nazi Party in Munich", took over as head of the football department as a high-ranking NS functionary. The club's relationship with the Nazi Party allowed it to save itself from bankruptcy in the 1930s. The last game of the war took place as late as April 23 1945, when FC Bayern Munich, ‘Gaumeister’ of 1945, beat their local rivals TSV 1860 Munich 3–2. Below, . 1860 has always had problems with neo-Nazis amongst their fan scene, gathering in Block 132 of Allianz Arena in the middle of the north curve where one can find stickers emblazoned with the slogan "National Socialists - Nationwide Action" or "Shit §86a" - a reference to the article banning unconstitutional symbols. Neo-Nazis groups such as the "Feldherren" or "Kraken" have also distributed leaflets promoting "Heroes' Memorial March"

Playing amateur team composed of members of ϟϟ

Amongst the hundred or so who make up these groups include well-known neo-Nazis such as convicted right-wing terrorist Martin Wiese who, in 2003, planned a bomb attack on the Jewish centre in Munich. They can be recognised wearing Thor Steinar or other Nazi cult brands, either bald or have their hair cropped short, and have been heard singing songs such as "Ajax is a Jewish club" or "Augsburger Zigeuner [gypsy]." To this day, TSV 1860's Nazi-related role during the Nazi era is still not mentioned on it's official website. However, the association now supports the fan group "Lion Fans Against the Right" in existence since 1995 , and also the time-sensitive book project "The Lions Under the Swastika".
TSV 1860 München had no problem cleansing itself from the Jews and non-Germans at the time they were asked to, which gives FC Bayern the claim to enjoy a clear advantage today, in the pride that they should have over the resistance to the movement but which they downplay apparently fearing financial blowback from Arab countries.

 

The stadium is immortal for serving as the site of The Philosophers' Football Match, a Monty Python sketch originally featured in the second Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus, one of two 45-minute Monty Python German television comedy specials produced by WDR for West German television. The two episodes were first broadcast in January and December 1972 and were shot entirely on film and mostly on location in Bavaria where the Pythons attended Oktoberfest and Olympiastadion in Munich, and also visited the nearby Dachau concentration camp.This sketch depicts a football match supposedly in the Olympiastadion at the 1972 Munich Olympics between philosophers representing Greece and Germany. With just over a minute of the match remaining Archimedes cries out "Eureka!", takes the first kick of the ball and rushes towards the German goal. After several passes through a perplexed German defence, Socrates scores the only goal of the match in a diving header off a cross from Archimedes. The Germans dispute the call, with the match commentator stating that "Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside." In fact, the replay shows that Socrates was indeed offside but, nevertheless, the Greeks win.

 

The Grünwald Sportschule still appears to have its Nazi-era statues at its entrance

With Drake Winston at Allianz Arena, home of the rival Munich team, Bayern München, whose history is quite different. In 1900, the “Männerturnverein München 1879” was turned into “Fußball-Club Bayern München e.V.”. The founders wanted to be pioneers, creating this team with the idea of making it a tolerant, liberal and cosmopolitan club. In order to name it in a way relating to the region the headquarters were going to be, the name “FC Bayern München” seemed suitable. The founders on the other hand, were not from Munich, instead originating from Baden, Sachsen, Berlin or Dortmund. They were a team made up of students, artists and/or merchants. Four of the members, Benno Elkan, Josef Pollack, Walter Bensemann and Gus Manning were of Jewish heritage. They were essential to the planning and execution of founding this soccer club.  

Drake on the right in front of the recreated boardroom with its trophy cabinet at the Bayern Munich museum, made to appear as if it continues to look out over the training facilities at Sabener Strasse. Bayern had been founded in the Bohemian quarter of Schwabing; of the club's founding charter from 1900, two out of seventeen signatories were Jewish- and were very much a Jewish club before the second world war, with a Jewish president, Kurt Landauer, and a Jewish manager. The club’s trainer, Richard Bombi, and the youth leader, Otto Beer, were also Jewish as were other coaches and football instructors Izidor Kürschner, Kalman Konrad and Leo Weisz. Landauer professionalised the club by investing in professional coaches, sports facilities and youth work, creating the basis for the German football championship in 1932. A player at the club at the time, Josef Mauder, was an artist who began creating mocking caricatures of the men who came to the club, asking for background checks of the members in order to rid the club of any non-Germans, or more importantly Jews. Landauer was powerless, as he was Jewish, so the players decided to take action. In his poems, he claims that ancient Greeks and Romans would have been ashamed of these men, and would have “spanked” them. Trainers from the United Kingdom and Jewish physical coaches from Austria-Hungary such as Richard "Little" Dombi, who went on to manage Barcelona and Feyenoord, helped Bayern Munich develop the Scottish flat and short pass as well as the technical refinements of the "Donaufußballs". In addition, Landauer, in conflict with the the German Football Association (DFB), drew up the introduction of professional football together with Walther Bensemann, the Jewish founder of the magazine "Der Kicker". Landauer had to resign, along with a number of other Jewish members and officials, when Hitler seized power a few months later and fled to Switzerland after 33 days in the Dachau concentration camp. 

The Nazis' expectations were later published in the book “Vereinsdietwart”, describing the guidelines that the club had to follow. Bayern were discredited as a Judenklub by the Nazis but resisted its coercion, even though it nazified its club logo seen left. In 1934, Bayern players were involved in a brawl with Nazi brownshirts. Two years later, the Bayern winger Willy Simetsreiter made a point of having his picture taken with Jesse Owens, who enraged Hitler by winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics. Willy Simetsreiter, left wing for Bayern at the time, met Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Simetsreiter saw Owens as a role model and icon at the time, taking a picture with him, which he decided should be his autograph card. The full-back Sigmund Haringer whilst walking home, encountered a group of young Nazis, who were on their way home from a “Schweigemarsch” (silent march). Haringer asked them whether all this “Kasperltheater” (puppet theatre). A woman walking by reported him, and he was arrested. He narrowly escaped gaol due to his reputation as an outstanding player for the German national team. Captain Conny Heidkamp managed to hide Bayern's trophies when other clubs heeded an appeal from Göring to donate metal for the war effort. 

Drake Winston in front of an exhibit at the Bayern Munich museum at Allianz Arena commemorating this action. In 1945 when the Second World War finally drew to a close, Conny Heidkamp ended his career as an FC Bayern player at the age of forty. In the words of the museum, 

The preceding decade had been a nightmarish era for the club, which would undoubtedly not have survived without the commitment of its long-serving captain and driving force. The Nazis regarded liberally-inclined Bayern with enmity and hostility, but Heidkamp preserved the club's soul and repeatedly defied the dictatorship. The captain of the 1932 championship-winning team ran enormous personal risks but did everything in his power to preserve the club's traditions and values and prevent the team breaking up in the war years. He rescued the club's trophies on two separate occasions. With war raging around him, Heidkamp reacted to the aerial bombardment of Munich and a call by the Nazis for metals to be donated to the war effort by hiding the trophies in a barn. Later, he buried the cups and medals in a forest, fearing the advancing American forces might take them as souvenirs. Heidkamp performed his most valuable service towards the end of the war, when call-ups to the front and saturation bombing made normal club activities all but impossible. Using great imagination and dogged persistence, the veteran captain managed to maintain match operations up until the Nazi capitulation. For example, he would cycle through the smouldering ruins after air raids and enquire of every individual player whether he would be fit to appear in the weekend match. And in the immediate post-war period, the time of the Kalorien- und Kartoffelspiele (calorie and potato matches), Heidkamp remained a leading and inspirational figure at FC Bayern as coach and chairman of the match organisation committee. 

The most symbolic act of defiance occurred in Zurich in 1943 when, after a friendly against the Swiss national team, the Bayern players lined up to wave at the exiled Landauer in the stands. Nevertheless, it also attracted people who were very much against the party as well. Quickly the club gained over a thousand new members. Not only that, but it also attracted sponsors, the majority of these being Jewish-owned stores, mainly in the Textile industry.  In 1936 FC Bayern was declared “Judenfrei” (free of Jews), but to the Nazi regime, this club always remained the “Judenklub” (club of Jews), because of the Jewish roots of the club, and history of its pride of including Jewish people in their club, rather than shutting them out. This always gave them disadvantages, especially because most of their pride lied with the youth teams, who were promoted to the first team. However, the kids of the time had to join the Hitler Youth, so they were unable to come to training. Their member numbers sank drastically, people’s ideology changing into supporting the regime and turned against the Club as they did not want to be associated with the “Judenklub”. Only in 1956 did the clubs' numbers return to what they were before the Nazi era. Landauer returned to Munich after the war and once again became Bayern president until 1951 whilst club publications simply mentioned that he had to leave Germany "on political-racial grounds" with the word 'Jew' assiduously avoided. Such reticence is suspected to stem from Bayern's current commercial interests in Asia leading the team to play down its Jewish heritage and admirable history. Indeed, Kurt Landauer was long forgotten at FC Bayern and it wasn't until the Ultras drew attention to their own club history with a choreography for Kurt Landauer's 125th birthday that he became recognised again. Before that, hardly anyone in the club knew the name of the president under whom FC Bayern celebrated its first championship. The Jewish team in Munich today, TSV Maccabi München, honours the club and a page on their website dedicated to them. However, Markwart Herzog argues that the self-image Bayern Munich has of its role in the Nazi era is, demonstrably, an historical myth. "In FC Bayern’s marketing, this myth aims to enhance its reputation in the national and international media and to claim moral superiority in competition with other football clubs."

Allianz itself claims to have recognised “its moral responsibility and stands up to its history" and has produced an overview of Allianz during the Nazi era in English.

Here in the Munich suburb of Trudering, on the corner of Karotschstraße and Emplstraße, is a small wooden memorial decorated by a stone trough filled with flowers.  It marks the site of the Munich air disaster of February 6, 1958 which saw British European Airways Flight 609 crash on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport. On board was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes", along with supporters and journalists. Twenty of the 44 on the aircraft died at the scene. The injured, some unconscious, were taken to the Rechts der Isar Hospital where three more died, resulting in 23 fatalities with 21 survivors. The team was returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, having eliminated Red Star Belgrade to advance to the semi-finals of the competition. The flight stopped to refuel in Munich because a non-stop flight from Belgrade to Manchester was beyond the "Elizabethan"-class Airspeed Ambassador's range. After refuelling, pilots James Thain and Kenneth Rayment twice abandoned take-off because of boost surging in the left engine. Fearing they would get too far behind schedule, Captain Thain rejected an overnight stay in Munich in favour of a third take-off attempt. By then, snow was falling, causing a layer of slush to form at the end of the runway.

 After the aircraft hit the slush, it ploughed through a fence beyond the end of the runway and the left wing was torn off after hitting a house. Fearing the aircraft might explode, Thain began evacuating passengers while Manchester United goalkeeper Harry Gregg helped pull survivors from the wreckage, including teammates Bobby Charlton and Dennis Viollet. Manchester United were trying to become the third club to win three successive English league titles; they were six points behind League leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers with 14 games to go. They also held the Charity Shield and had just advanced into their second successive European Cup semi-finals. The team had not been beaten for 11 matches. The crash not only derailed their title ambitions that year but also virtually destroyed the nucleus of what promised to be one of the greatest generations of players in English football history. It took a decade for the club to recover, with Busby rebuilding the team and winning the European Cup in 1968 with a new generation of "Babes". This more recent memorial was inaugurated on September 22, 2004. A dark blue granite plaque set in a sandstone border was unveiled in the vicinity of the old Munich Airport on the corner of Rappenweg and Emplstraße, it is just metres from the wooden memorial. With a design in the shape of a football pitch, it reads, in both English and German, "In memory of all those who lost their lives here in the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958". Underneath is a plaque expressing United's gratitude to the municipality of Munich and its people. The new memorial was funded by Manchester United themselves and the unveiling was attended by club officials, including chief executive David Gill, manager Alex Ferguson and director Bobby Charlton, a survivor of the disaster himself. On April 24, 2008, the Munich city council decided to name the site where the memorial stone is placed "Manchesterplatz. In addition, on the 57th anniversary of the crash, February 6, 2015, Sir Bobby Charlton and FC Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge opened a new museum exhibit commemorating the disaster at the German club's stadium, Allianz Arena, shown here with Drake Winston. “I’m very proud to be here today,” said Charlton as the permanent exhibit in the FC Bayern club museum will now ensure the memory lives on. “This is a good day,” said Dieter Reiter: “It’s important we maintain this memory and we shall continue to do so in the future. The memorial at the centre of the exhibition commemorates an important event in Munich’s contemporary and footballing history and also exemplifies the special relationship between FC Bayern and Manchester United: “It’s an important part of our lives,” Sir Bobby concluded.
Another dark milestone on Munich's 20th century: 31 Connollystraße- site of the Israeli Olympic team's apartments where, on September 5th, 1972, eight armed members of the Palestinian group Black September, breached the Olympic compound by scaling the surrounding six foot fence and entered. Israeli wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund saw armed masked men enter as he yelled at the others, throwing his weight against the door allowing two athletes to escape and another eight to hide. Weightlifter Joseph Romano and coach Moshe Weinberg were both shot and killed.  The Palestinian terrorists were  With their remaining nine hostages the terrorists demanded the release of 234 Palestinians gaoled in Israel and two in Germany. Both the Munich police chief and the head of the Egyptian Olympic team negotiated directly with the kidnappers, offering them unlimited amounts of money. The Tunisian and Libyan ambassadors to Germany also tried unsuccessfully to make progress through negotiations with the kidnappers. The terrorists demanded transportation

The memorial now placed at the site

to Cairo following more than twelve hours of unsuccessful negotiations. Authorities led the terrorists to believe they would comply while in truth they were planning to ambush them at the airport. Shortly after 22.00 two helicopters transported the terrorists and their hostages to nearby Fürstenfeldbruck airbase, where a Boeing 727 aircraft was waiting. What resulted was a fiasco as the German snipers chosen had no sharpshooting experience, could not communicate with each other, and believed there were only five terrorists. On top of that they police were not properly outfitted, lacking helmets, bulletproof vests, night-vision scopes or long-range sights on their rifles, and had not requested back-up in time. Lastly, the flight crew, made up of German police who had volunteered for the assignment to overpower the terrorists when they boarded the plane, abandoned their post as the helicopters arrived carrying the terrorists and their hostages. 

Jeremy Corbyn honouring the terrorists in 2014

Six of the Palestinian terrorists disembarked from the helicopters with the four pilots held at gunpoint. When two of the terrorists inspected the plane and found it empty, they sprinted back toward the helicopters and the police snipers opened fire. As the shots flew several of the terrorists were killed. Those still alive attempted to flee, returned fire, and attempted to shoot out airport lights that were illuminating them. A German policeman in the control tower was killed by the gunfire. The pilots fled, but the hostages, who were bound inside the helicopters couldn't escape.  Just after midnight one of the terrorists opened fire into one of the helicopters killing three hostages and wounding a fourth in the leg. It is believed that another terrorist opened fire in the second helicopter killing the rest. One had died after a terrorist tossed a grenade into the helicopter causing an explosion. Terrorist leader Luttif Afif Issa and another terrorist were killed as they fired at police. Three of the remaining terrorists, two of whom were wounded, were captured by police. Yusuf Nazzal, second in command for the hostage taking, escaped and was tracked by dogs. He was shot after an exchange of gunfire.  The rescue attempt was over and in every way it had failed. Amazingly, with the world watching the seige unfold on their television sets, the initial news reports, published all over the world, indicated that all the hostages were alive, and that all the terrorists had been killed. As recently as 2014 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn travelled to a cemetery in Tunisia specifically to honour members of Black September with one photo showing him near the grave of Atef Bseiso, intelligence chief of the Palestine Liberation Organisation who has a been directly linked to the Munich atrocity.Thankfully voters overwhelmingly repudiated him and his party in the 2019 general election.

On the left is the old town hall in the Munich district of Pasing which was taken over by the Nazis in May 1938 and made the site of an Haus der NSDAP after the municipal administration had moved to the new building on Landsberger Strasse. It currently serves as the Munich Volkshochschule.
Nearby are other locations associated with the Nazi era in Pasing, including the war memorial on Dorfstraße, the former Adolf-Hitler-Platz (now Avenariusplatz) and the high bunker hidden in the centre of Pasing. Hiterplatz enjoyed a large area which allowed for celebrations and parades that were intended to demonstrate their full strength. Located on the site was a  teacher training institute that the Nazis renamed the “Hans Schemm College for Teacher Education” after the Nazi Minister of Culture in Bavaria who had enjoyed a preferred position in Nazi education policy. Whilst the majority of the teachers came to terms with the new circumstances after the “seizure of power”, some educators stood out and both personally and professionally refused to accept the new ideology, including senior student councilor Hugo Fey, who was also a city councilor for the Bavarian People's Party, and Dr. Paul Diehl. For their resistance, they had to suffer considerable intimidation.

The new town hall in Pasing was inaugurated on November 14, 1937. By then well-known labour movement activists such as the communist Franz Stenzer and the social democrat Hans Nimmerfall, had paid for their attitude with their lives. In June 1933 the Bavarian People's Party was also expelled from the Pasing town hall. Representatives of the Catholic bourgeois opposition such as the BVP city council and editor-in-chief of the “Bavarian Courier”, Josef Osterhub, were taken into so-called 'protective custody.' The council chamber today remains controversial due to the 4.20 by 5.25 metre tapestry which has covered the niche where the bust of Hitler once sat shown here. The tapestry itself comes from the workshop of Bruno Goldschmitt, a painter, graphic artist and illustrator who had studied with Stuck at the Academy in Munich. In 1932 he joined the Nazi Pasrty and ended up as one of the painters who were allowed to advertise Hitler's Reichsautobahn on a large scale. And in 1934 he was supposed to produce a twelve-part tapestry cycle for the old Munich council chamber that dealt with the history of the city. According to Evelyn Lang, the tapestry that now hangs in the Pasing meeting room is the first and only completed one from this planned series, or the only one that survived the war. It is supposed to represent Munich founding legend when, in 1158 Henry the Lion had the Bishop of Freising's market bridge near Oberfoehring destroyed. From then on, the lucrative salt trade led upstream via a river crossing over the Isar, and Munich was allowed to thrive. However, according to Freimut Scholz, a former art teacher, museum educator witha doctorate in philosophy, it is a "characteristic work of propagandistic Nazi art" that follows the pictorial conventions of the time and which is allowed to hang "in the council chambers of a democratic community." In the centre stands Henry the Lion, larger than life in armour, whose "gaze is directed far into the distance to the east," interprets Scholz, for whom the attack on Poland is alluded to. Some more Nazi symbolism can be discovered: the bridge, for example, which is currently being put together, reminds him of a lying swastika. 

Nearby at schloß Blutenburg, beside a memorial to the April 1945 Death March by the sculptor Hubertus von Pilgrim, one of 22 that remember those who, in the winter of 1944-45, the ϟϟ had evacuated from the concentration camps that were threatening to fall into the hands of the Allied forces. Weak or ill prisoners were left behind or killed, whilst the rest were taken on foot or by train to other camps. Those who collapsed on the road or tried to escape were summarily killed on the spot whilst others starved or froze to death. Of the more than 700,000 prisoners who were registered in early January 1945, at least 250,000 were killed on the death marches.

Stadelheim Gaol

Outside the main entrance at Stadelheimer Straße 12 in the Giesing district of Munich, one of the largest prisons in Germany with fourteen hectares of usable space. Hitler had been imprisoned for a month in 1922 here for assaulting Otto Ballerstedt on September 14, 1921 when Hitler, Hermann Esser, Oskar Körner (later to die in the Beer Hall Putsch) and some other Nai supporters stormed a Ballerstedt meeting in the Löwenbräukeller in order to prevent him from giving a lecture. Hitler reached Ballerstedt, then assaulted and injured him severely. Ballerstedt was then forcibly dragged out of the Hall. As a result, Hitler was on trial from January 27 to 29, 1922 on charges of a breach of the peace, public indecency and assault. He and Esser were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for 100 days and payment of 1,000 Reichsmarks. The prison sentence was served from 24 June to 27 July 1922. In total, at least 1049 prisoners were executed in Stadelheim, of which only thirteen took place in the period between 1895 and 1927, including Eugen Leviné in 1919. Most of the executions took place during the Nazi period when Stadelheim, together with the Stuttgart Detention Centre and the Bruchsal Penitentiary, was designated as the "central execution site for the Execution District VIII." Johann Reichhart acted as the executioner. Among the at least 1035 people killed this time were found, inter alia, Ernst Röhm and the members of the White Rose. The executed were partially buried in the neighbouring cemetery at Perlacher Forst. In the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic at the beginning of May 1919 there were numerous unlawful killings in the Stadelheim prison by the victorious Soldierska . According to the testimony of Ernst Toller , who was imprisoned in Stadelheim, a slogan within scrawled in white chalk read: "Here is blood and liver sausage made of Spartakistenblut, here are the Reds carried free of charge to death."  One peculiarity is that Kurt Eisner , Count Arco-Valley , Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm had all been serving in the same prison cell (Cell No. 70) at different times.

Hitler, in a final act of what he apparently thought was grace, gave orders that a pistol be left on the table of his old comrade. Roehm refused to make use of it. ”If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself,” he is reported to have said. Thereupon two S.A. officers, according to the testimony of an eyewitness, a police lieutenant, given twenty-three years later in a postwar trial at Munich in May 1957, entered the cell and fired their revolvers at Roehm point-blank. ”Roehm wanted to say something,” said this witness, ”but the S.S. officer motioned him to shut up. Then Roehm stood at attention – he was stripped to the waist – with his face full of contempt.”

Shirer, 197

Also executed at Stadelheim were Hans and Sophie Scholl, who lie together in a grave with their comrade Christoph Probst, executed with them. The graves are to be found within Neu-Perlach cemetery nearby. The execution chamber at Stadelheim apparently was converted into an automobile repair shop (right) before being destroyed in 1968. A memorial for the members of the White Rose, designed by the sculptor Wilhelm Breitsameter, was built in 1974 and can be visited by groups within the prison after registration. On the 65th anniversary of the execution (February 22, 2008) of Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst in Stadelheim, the memorial was opened to the public for the first time.

On Dachauerstraße 128 is this memorial to Bavarian railwaymen who died in the Great War. Erected 1922, destroyed in 1945 and replaced in 1962, it reads they "died for Germany's fame and honour / The dead of the Bavarian railway group / in the World War of 1914-18."
It has been the subject of attack from two men who have been fined 6,300 euros for defacing it with a mere board reading how "We mourn for all who lost their lives in the cruel and senseless World War 1914-1918. To ensure peace and to prevent wars." The men, Hans-Peter Berndl and Wolfram P. Kastner, describe it an "unspeakable scandal that every year on memorial day the Bundeswehr present dazzling wreaths financed from tax money." They point out that those who claim "that the soldiers of the First World War were killed for fame and honour" is consciously twisting the truth, if not lying.
The memorial is located at the former site of the Railway Battalion barracks; today the Bundeswehr Administration Centre Munich occupies the area on the western edge of the Olympic Park, including the Munich branch of the SÜD military area administration, the Bundeswehr Medical Service (since 2002), the South Military Service Court, the Munich Military Service Agency, the Munich Army Service Centre, and other such agencies. Some of the original barracks buildings north of Hedwig-Dransfeld-Allee have been preserved to this day and are among the last remnants of Munich military buildings of the 19th century. 

Every party in Germany had its own paramilitary force and this is the SPD's Eiserne Front, marching in front of the Gebsattelbrücke on July 3, 1932 before the national elections. In the centre with the raised fist is the Landtag deputy Rosa Aschenbrenner (SPD). Aschenbrenner was in the USPD from 1920 to 1922 and then for the KPD from 1924 to 1928 and finally from 1930 to 1932 and from 1946 to 1948 a member of the SPD. The Eiserne Front was an anti-Nazi, anti-monarchist, and anti-communist paramilitary organisation formed from a union of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the General German Trade Union Confederation (ADGB), the General Free Workers 'Union (Afa-Bund), the SPD and the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation (ATSB) in opposition to national socialism . Their political opponents included the KPD. The KPD chairman, Ernst Thälmann, characterised the Iron Front as a "terror organisation of social fascism." In his call for the founding of the Iron Front, Reichsbanner chairman Karl Höltermann stated:  

The year 1932 will be our year, the year of the final victory of the Republic over its opponents. Not a day, not an hour more, we want to remain on the defensive - we are attacking! Attack down the line! Our deployment already has to be part of the general offensive. Today we call - tomorrow we will beat! 

 The symbol of the union were three arrows, which were interpreted differently. They stood for the opponents of the Iron Front, the three enemies of democracy: Communists, monarchists and national socialists, but also for the three pillars of the workers' movement: the party, the union and the Reichsbanner as symbols of the political, economic and physical power of the Iron Front. The three arrows of Carlo Mierendorff and Sergei Tschachotin were developed. The Iron Front ceased to exist with the suppression of the workers' movement and the destruction of the trade unions on May 2, 1933.

Other Munich Pages
Odeonsplatz

Around Königsplatz
Various sites in central Munich (1)
Sites around central Munich (2)
 Sites around central Munich (3)
Nazi locations around Munich (4)
Around Dachau