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Overlooking
Königsplatz from the top of the National Socialist Documentation
Centre, at the site of the former Brown House, and from exactly the same
spot in 1937 showing the granite square and the temples of honour now
just empty overgrown plots. Each
temple had a square central well, filled with the bronze sarcophagi of
the sixteen men killed in the failed 1923 Munich putsch, the first Nazi
attempt to seize power.
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Below is Königlicher Platz by
Josef Eglseder (1938), showing the Führerbau where the Munich Agreement
was signed, Braunes Haus, Ehrentempel, and Verwaltungsbau der NSDAP
with Albert Speer's lampposts in
the foreground from the steps of the Glyptothek, and from the same
position in 2023. The
Nazi party's headquarters lay just behind the new huge buildings: the
Führerbau, which housed Hitler's Munich office and apartments, and the Verwaltungsbau der NSDAP which,
identical on the outside, are distinguished by their massive size,
their elongated proportions (275-foot façade length and sixty feet in
height, and their lack of elaborate ornament. The inner pair, comprising
the identical Ehrentempel, were square structures of the Doric order,
with a three-step podium and six square, fluted piers on each side.
These piers supported a simple, classicising architrave instead of a
full roof. In 1948 trees were planted along the Arcisstrasse to screen the Nazi buildings from Klenze's nineteenth-century Königsplatz
as can be seen here. In the mid 1930s the square was closed by a screen
of four buildings running along the east side of the Arcisstrasse. .gif)
Fritz Gärtner's A Nazi Evening Ceremony in the Konigplatz (15 October 1933)
Both the Verwaltungsbau and Führerbau were built according to plans by Hitler's favourite architect Paul
Ludwig Troost who never lived to see their completion in 1935 or of the
entire building complex at Königsplatz which was completed by 1937.
When he died his widow Gerdy, at only thirty years of age, continued his projects in cooperation with her late husband's long-time colleague Leonard Gall,
focussing especially on the interior finish of the Führerbau. Her
efforts were rewarded by Hitler with the title of Professor in 1937.
Above right in front of the Propyläen is
Hitler directing the construction of these buildings with both Troost and
Gall. Through them the place originally dedicated to the arts was
converted into the "Teatrum sacrum" of the movement. and served as a
stage for the pseudo-religious cult. Munich was officially designated by Hitler as the "Hauptstadt der Bewegung" (Capital of the Movement), and no spot in Munich was more central than the Konigsplatz. Hitler dedicated Mein Kampf to
those killed in the putsch (whom he termed "blood witnesses of our
movement") and noted that they had been denied common burial. In 1935 he
arranged for their bodies to be moved to the Temples of Honour.
According to a contemporary guidebook, this transformed the structures
into "the national shrine of the German people." The temples were also
known as the Ewige Wache, the dead serving as "eternal sentries" for the
Third Reich. Each sarcophagus was inscribed with Der letzte Appell (the
last roll call) and hier,
the imagined response of the dead to that call. Each year the November 9
anniversary of the putsch was commemorated. The march from the
Bürgerbräukeller to the Feldherrnhalle was reenacted and thence to the
Königsplatz, where a large crowd gathered. The names of the dead from
1923 were read; after each name the crowd shouted, "Hier." 
Showing the Leibstandarte-ϟϟ Adolf Hitler marching
past the Propyläen. No other place in Munich is so closely connected
with the Nazi movement and its public shows of power as Königsplatz. Its
grand classicist ambience made the square the ideal backdrop for staging Nazi spectacles.
In 1935 the square’s appearance was altered considerably as it was
turned into a parade ground alongside two Temples of Honour built, along
with other new buildings, on its eastern perimeter. By virtue of its
size and central location, Königsplatz had already become a gathering
point for political meetings during the 1920s, and even before 1933 the
Nazis showed an interest in this public space sited so near its Brown
House; the Nazis had already bought the Palais Barlow building near Königsplatz in 1930 and subsequently had it refurbished as the party headquarters. The
distinctive neo-classical architecture of Königsplatz fitted perfectly
with the Nazi leadership’s need for a grand setting for its activities.
After 1933 a number of other key offices of the Nazi bureaucracy were
housed in the area around Königsplatz. Making society conform with Nazi
ideals and achieving the bureaucratic centralisation, documentation and
control of all areas of life by means of a powerful and all-pervasive
state and party apparatus – these were the goals of the Nazi
leadership’s domestic policy. 
Showing Captain Ernst Röhm, Hitler's chief of staff, after ceremonially handing over the flag of the Freicorps Rossbach to the SA on
November 8, 1933 at the Königsplatz. Although after 1933 the Nazi
centre of power was moved to Berlin, key offices of the Nazi Party and
its associated organisations remained in the area around Munich's
Königsplatz which became the central party quarter, where many Nazi
offices and organisations were housed in over fifty buildings – from
national offices responsible for the whole Reich down to regional
branches. Sometimes as many as six thousand people were employed here. 
Alongside the party administration itself – such as, for example,
the Reich Leadership of the NSDAP on Brienner Straße (the “Brown
House”) – the head offices of many Nazi organisations were located here,
including the Reich Youth Leadership, the Reich Treasury Department of
the National Socialist Women’s Organisation, the Reich Leadership of the
National Socialist German Students’ Association, the Reich Leadership
of the ϟϟ (administrative
offices and the ϟϟ court), the Supreme SA Leadership and central party
institutions, such as the Reich Central Propaganda Office or the Reich
Press Office. These institutions and authorities were tightly organised
and centrally controlled, generally structured along the same lines as
regional and district Nazi organisations which used them as highly
effective instruments for bringing people into line ideologically and
keeping them under surveillance and controlling their private lives.
Schenk's son Walter
was a friend of Ernst Röhm's and held an important post in the
Organisation Escherich. The artwork itself is rendered in a conventional
style typical of his work, focusing on the classical structures of
Königsplatz, capturing the orderly layout of the square with its
neoclassical buildings. It employs a muted colour palette- earth
tones, pale blues for the sky, creams and browns for the stone, and
washed-out greens for the surrounding vegetation (before he later paved
the square)- and precise
lines, reflecting Hitler’s preference for architectural subjects over
human figures. The pieces lack significant artistic innovation, adhering
to traditional techniques observed in his other works from this period.
Besides the lack of interest in people- as is typical in his paintings the are tiny, stiff, and often anatomically incorrect; not characters in a scene but simply serve as "staffage"-objects placed merely to provide a sense of scale for the architecture and create no emotional resonance. Other aspects of his paintings indicate something of his psychology. In his paintings especially of the Königsplatz, trees and grass are also secondary or entirely absent. He focuses on the pavement and the stone, viewing the square as an urban stage, not a park. The skies too in these paintings are rarely dramatic but are rendered as flat, thin washes of blue or grey, ensuring that nothing distracts the viewer from the architecture. Art critics and historians often describe these works as sterile, looking less like artistic interpretations of a city and more like architectural renderings or postcards. There is no play of light or emotion but only the rigid structure of the building. 
Albert Speer designed bespoke twin-globe cast iron lamp posts that demarcated the boundaries of the granite square and provided the necessary illumination for night-time rituals shown in the foreground of these images. These lamps were strategically placed to support the hanging of massive vertical banners, which were draped across the façades of the Glyptothek and the State Gallery during ceremonies such as the Day of German Art.
These banners, often featuring the national eagle and swastika on a red field, masked the original nineteenth-century reliefs and effectively rebranded the classical structures as party property. This decorative strategy was most visible during the state visit of Mussolini on September 25, 1937, when the square was filled with a forest of pylons and standards topped with gilded eagles creating a closed architectural circuit that functioned as a monumental void, capable of containing tens of thousands of participants. Every element, from the subterranean drainage systems beneath the granite slabs to the placement of the sarcophagi, was designed to facilitate the aestheticisation of politics so that the individual was meant to feel dwarfed by the scale of the architecture whilst simultaneously partaking in the collective power represented by the state. It wasn't until the
end of the 1980s that saw the start of efforts in Munich to further
neutralise or rather obliterate the architectural traces of the Nazis as
when, in 1987-88, the Nazis' granite slabs were removed from Königsplatz,
the largest Nazi construction element in terms of area in Munich, with
the declared aim of getting rid of the architectural reminder of the
Nazi era. Plans were also drawn up to build museums in the place of the
plinths of the Nazi ‘Temples of Honour’. However, these plans to dispose
of Nazi history were withdrawn after they met stiff resistance from
many residents and in the following decade the confrontation with the
city’s Nazi past shifted to the level of exhibitions, conferences, and
publications. 
The American 45th Infantry Division marching through Königsplatz
on May 17, 1945. Ironically enough,the division's original shoulder
sleeve insignia, approved in August 1924, featured a swastika, a common
Native American symbol, as a tribute to the Southwestern United States
region which had a large population of Native Americans. However, with
the rise of the Nazis in Germany with its infamous swastika symbol, the
45th Division stopped using the insignia. After a long process of
reviewing design submissions, a design by Woody Big Bow, a Kiowa artist
from Carnegie, Oklahoma, was chosen for the new shoulder sleeve insignia
which featured the Thunderbird, another Native American symbol, and was
approved in 1939. The division crossed the Danube River on April 27 and
liberated 32,000 captives of the Dachau concentration camp two days
later, accused of indiscriminately massacring surrendering German prisoners in
retaliation for the scenes of horror they encountered. The division
captured Munich during the next two days, occupying the city until V-E
Day and the surrender of Germany. During the next month, the division
remained in Munich and set up collection points and camps for the
massive numbers of surrendering troops of the German armies. The number
of PoWs taken by the 45th Division during its almost two years of
fighting totalled 124,840 men.
Königsplatz is the most significant square in Munich and is known as the Athens on the Isar with
the Propyläen, Glyptothek and Antikensammlung on its three sides built
in classical style, conceived by Ludwig I and built in 1817 by Klenze.
Troost designed the square to make it a colossal parade ground with
22,000 slabs of concrete, the temples of honour, Führer building and the
Nazi Party central office. Unlike Berlin with its Topography of Terror,
Munich has managed to avoid building a memorial to the past. Today, the
only thing that signifies the role of the Königsplatz square during the
Third Reich is a paltry plaque displayed
on the stone foundation of one of the former “Temples of Honour.” The
former “capital of the Nazi movement” now claims itself the “Weltstadt
mit Herz” (world city with a heart).
1936 and today
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This interpretation was integrated into the museum’s displays, where vases depicting athletic scenes, warrior farewells, and symposia were presented as precursors to Nazi ideals of physical culture and communal bonding. During the war the museum fought to protect its collection of
Etruscan pottery in particular, which had been stored in the bombed Neue
Pinakothek. Its holdings were directly mobilised for propaganda during the 1938 exhibition Griechische Kunst der Vor- und Frühzeit, organised in collaboration with the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. This exhibition featured Attic black- and red-figure vases alongside bronze weapons and jewellery to construct a narrative of a militarised, racially homogeneous ancient Greece. A catalogue entry for an Attic amphora depicting Herakles, dated to 520 BC, described the hero’s labours as an allegory for the "struggle of the Nordic spirit against Asiatic decadence," a phrase repeated in the Völkischer Beobachter’s review of the exhibition on March 15, 1938. The exhibition’s curatorial framework was overseen by the Amt Rosenberg, which ensured that the interpretive labels aligned with Alfred Rosenberg’s racial theories. For example, a 5th-century BC kylix depicting a symposium was relabelled to emphasise the "Aryan" practice of moderation in contrast to "Semitic" excess, a claim unsupported by the vase’s original context but central to the regime’s cultural propaganda. 
The collection’s role extended to the Ahnenerbe, the Nazi research organisation, which borrowed artefacts from the Antikensammlungen for comparative studies aimed at proving the racial continuity between ancient Greeks and modern Germans. A 1940 Ahnenerbe report, archived in the Bundesarchiv, documents the loan of a geometric-style amphora to support a study on the "Nordic origins of Greek ornament," a project led by the racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther. The report notes that the vase’s patterns were analysed to demonstrate the "inherent order" of the "Indo-Germanic" mind, a pseudoscientific claim that was later published in the Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde. The Antikensammlungen’s bronze collection, including a 5th-century BC Greek helmet, was similarly repurposed in exhibitions like Waffen der Vorzeit, held in 1941, where it was presented as evidence of the "warrior spirit" shared by ancient Greeks and the German Wehrmacht. During the war, the Antikensammlungen’s holdings were partially evacuated to avoid bombing damage. A transport log dated November 10, 1942, records the relocation of 120 vases and 45 bronzes to the salt mine at Altaussee, whilst the remaining collection was stored in the museum’s basement. The building itself sustained minor damage during the air raid of April 24, 1944, but the stored artefacts survived intact. Post-war, the collection was restored to its original location, though the Nazi-era interpretive frameworks were dismantled during denazification. 
During the annual commemorative march on November 9, 1938 and me today with the Antikensammlungen behind. The ceremonies on the square blended 1923 with the present of the late 1930s,
implying that the men in the sarcophagi were still "here" and
suggesting that both the dead and those present in the square were
sentries answering the same roll call. But the Nazi Königsplatz went
further, not only blending 1923 with the 1930s and 1940s, but also
obscuring the line between the Nazi here and now and two other pasts
that are the stock in trade of the Glyptothek: classical antiquity and
Ludwig I's Munich. 
Instead
of Fischer's residential buildings, two so-called honorary temples were
built as a common burial site for those who died during the
Hitler-Ludendorff putsch. Their
bodies were transferred there and reburied in iron sarcophagi. A cult
was staged around these dead, referred to as “ martyrs of the movement ”
which was supposed to portray them as martyrs. At
the eastern end, the Führerbau was erected north of Brienner Strasse
and, symmetrically to the south, the Nazi Party's administration
building. The
conversion significantly increased the width of the Königsplatz. By
removing the green, the Königsplatz was able to expand in the direction
of the Troost buildings and focus on the temple of honour like a funnel.
This reversed the viewing direction by 180°. 
At the same time, the square was paved with 20,000 granite slabs deliberately sourced from all parts of Nazi Germany.
The completely level, one square metre slabs made both the museum
buildings and the Propylaea look very out of place. It was Troost's
intention that the historic buildings should no longer dominate the
square, but appear equal or subordinate to the new buildings. Through
this, Nazi Germany was to show in the monumentally reduced
architectural style developed by Troost in particular that it is derived
from the old order, architecturally from the classicist style of Ludwig
I, but represented its own new order that relativised everything. Since
then, Königsplatz had been used for Nazi parades and rallies. A 1936 guidebook to Munich went so far as to claim that the hardness of the granite paving stones
laid by the Nazis on the Königsplatz was a mirror of the spirit of the
dead buried there. Goebbels summed up the square's exceptional symbolic
importance in a lapidary 1935 diary entry: “Here
the Führer wrote his will in stone." Such hyperbolic claims meant that
the significance of the Königsplatz was overdetermined; not
surprisingly, then, the square kept its meaning long after the defeat of
the Nazis in 1945. According to Winfried Nerdinger, “[o]n the Königsplatz, old residents of Munich still hear thousands of voices shouting 'Here.'" After
the massive remodelling with granite slabs that did not allow rainwater
to drain well, others derisively dubbed Königsplatz 'Lake Plattensee' given the water that accumulated over the blocks given the lack of drainage. 
The iconography displayed on these banners and the surrounding facade was specific to the state rather than the party's paramilitary wings. The central motif was the Reichsadler, the Imperial Eagle, rendered in gold. In the context of the Day of German Art, which celebrated the opening of the Great German Art Exhibition, this symbol represented the state as the guardian of culture. The eagles were positioned within the aedicules of the Glyptothek, effectively replacing or overshadowing the classical statuary niches. This placement communicated the subordination of individual artistic expression to the collective will of the state.Furthermore, the scale of the decoration was calibrated to the monumental proportions of the site. The banners were sized to match the height of the portico, emphasising verticality and order. At the apex of the pediment, a singular swastika standard was often mounted, visually capping the classical triangle with the ultimate symbol of the regime. This arrangement created a hierarchy of visual command, where the classical foundation supported the National Socialist superstructure. The decoration of the Glyptothek for these events demonstrates how the regime utilised the existing urban fabric of Munich, treating the city not as a living organism but as a static backdrop for the performance of ideology. 
Hitler at the Propylaeon during the November 9, 1938 Beer Hall Putsch commemoration, only weeks after the Munich Agreement had been signed at the other end of the square. Also shown are Goering and Rosenberg. For the first time, Keitel and Brauchitsch, occupied the places of the fired generals Blomberg and Fritsch with Raeder and Milch also participating in the march here from the Feldherrnhalle. In a few hours within a French hospital, the legation counsellor Ernst Eduard vom Rath would die at 16.30 of the various injuries he had sustained in an attack by Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jewish emigré, who had apparently wanted to protest and draw attention to the denial of rights to Jewish people in Germany as his parents remained in no man's land on the border of Germany and Poland, having been expelled from the former and denied entry into the latter. Regardless of the background, it would lead that night to Kristallnacht and the systematic targeting of Jews nationwide by the German state. On the right Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, Rudolf Hess and Gauleiter Adolf Wagner in two years later for the 1940 Beer Hall Putsch commemoration with Jakob Grimminger holding the Blutfahne behind.
During
the war, Königsplatz was a prominent orientation point for the
approaching pilots during air raids because of its large and bright open
space. For this reason, a dense development was simulated on the square
by laying out large tarpaulins
and directly painting the panels. During the air raids on Munich during
the war, the classical buildings in particular were badly damaged.
However, since the Nazi buildings on the Königsplatz were not damaged by
the bombing that devastated Munich and which virtually destroyed the
Glyptothek, the problem of how to de-Nazify the Königsplatz arose after
the war. The
slabs on the square, however, were preserved; the Nazis' "royal square"
became the "royal parking lot," popularly dubbed "Lake Balaton". After
initial proposals to remove the battered, broken and patched plates by
the 1972 Olympic Games, the original condition was not reconstructed
until 1988. The square is therefore representative of the reconstruction
of Munich, in which most of the traces of Nazism and the war were
erased through extensive reconstructions. As a result of the
restoration, Königsplatz lost its role as a procurer of the old and a
warning against new abuse.
Seen from the Propylaea in 1937 from where Hitler stood above, and with Drake Winston today. The building itself
was the brainchild of Ludwig, whose love of classical art had been stimulated by the Grand Tour. One of the great collectors of Europe, Ludwig commissioned his favourite architect, Leo von Klenze, to design a museum worthy of his collection. Both the museum and its holdings were shrines to neoclassical taste. The Munich Glyptothek was also the first public classical archaeology museum. The Aegina marbles were its centerpiece, but agents of Ludwig like Wagner and Friedrich Thiersch purchased widely on the international art market, and in 1841 Ludwig laid the foundations there of what became one of the great European vase collections by acquiring choice examples of Greek vases from Lucien Bonaparte, the prince of Canino, who owned the site of Etruscan Vulci and was actively mining it for artifacts.
Dyson (135) In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts
Standing in front of the Glyptothek in full toga before making a suitable entrance and Nazis holding a memorial service for Albert Leo Schlageter on June 10, 1923. In May that year, Schlageter was turned into a political martyr by the radical nationalist right, including the Nazi Party, after Schlageter was executed by a French firing squad in Düsseldorf on May 26, 1923 for sabotage activity during the Ruhr occupation. The gathering featured SA units conducting a memorial service on the Königsplatz with the Glyptothek museum in the background, where speakers emphasised Schlageter's sacrifice as a symbol of national defiance against foreign occupation, and Hitler addressed the crowd on the theme of hammer or anvil in relation to Germany's position in Europe, stating that the nation had to choose to be the hammer forging its destiny rather than the anvil enduring blows from others.
The event formed part of the Nazi Party's early propaganda efforts to elevate Schlageter's death into a rallying point for völkisch movements, with approximately 30,000 attendees reported in contemporary accounts, including members of the Bund Oberland and other paramilitary organisations that had collaborated with Schlageter in the Ruhr, and the service included wreath-laying ceremonies at a temporary monument erected on the square to mark the occasion. Hitler in his speech highlighted Schlageter's actions as an example of individual heroism against the Versailles Treaty-imposed humiliations, declaring that such figures represented the true spirit of the German people in their struggle for freedom, and the memorial concluded with marches by SA formations past the Königsplatz, reinforcing the Nazi narrative of Schlageter as the first soldier of the Third Reich, a title later formalised in party literature.
The Barberini Faun as it appeared in the opening sequence of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (Fest der Völker), released in April 1938 and with it today. Commissioned
by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the film utilised
the Glyptothek as a key location to establish the aesthetic and
historical legitimacy of the Nazi state before the international
audience, including a
tracking shot moving through the Glyptothek’s rotunda, explicitly
focusing on the Barberini Faun. The camera lingers on the sculpture’s
muscular tension and the marble’s sheen, juxtaposing it with the
"Olympia" marble relief in the background, thereby visually equating the
ancient Greek athletic ideal with the Nazi concept of the Vir Novus as
documented in Riefenstahl’s production notes confirming that the
lighting was artificially enhanced to highlight the musculature of the
Faun for this specific scene to utilise the Faun as a symbol of the
"heroic body" that the
regime sought to cultivate through the Hitler Youth and the ϟϟ.
The Barberini Faun in its pre-war restoration and today with Drake Winston.
Found in Rome in the 1620s during restoration to the fortifications of
the Castel Sant'Angelo, the ancient Mausoleum of Hadrian, it was missing
most of its right leg, sections of the left leg, the lower part of its
left arm, and pieces of the base. It was restored multiple times during
its history, notably by Giuseppe Giorgetti and Lorenzo Ottoni in the
seventeenth century, and then again by Vincenzo Pacetti at the end of
the eighteenth century. Originally, it appears that the statue was
displayed in a seated position, but a print from 1642 indicates that at
some point it was reoriented and placed in a reclining position. In 1679
Giorgetti and Ottoni reattached the ancient left leg, filled in missing
sections of the base, and provided a right leg and left arm made of
stucco. The statue was then displayed in a seated position once again.
In 1799 Pacetti created a new right leg and left arm for the Faun and
modified the base causing the position of the Faun to shift again, but
still in a seated position until the 1960s, when the Glyptothek removed
Pacetti's restorations in order to return the statue to its appearance
at the time of the discovery. However, the museum's later analyses
determined that Pacetti's restoration and choice of seated position had
been mostly correct and so the restored right leg was returned to the
statue, whilst the hanging left arm was left unattached.
The
strategic bombing of Munich by the Royal Air Force beginning in 1942
posed a direct threat to the Faun’s existence. On April 24, 1944, a
high-explosive bomb struck the Glyptothek’s rotunda, causing the
collapse of the dome which would have pulverised the statue had it remained in situ. On the right showing it being removed for safety from the bombing to the Zentralministerium's Luftschutzkeller on Ludwigstrasse with Drake Winston and the Medusa Rondanini in the background.
Specialised heavy-lifting equipment was utilised to hoist the Barberini
Faun from its pedestal in the Glyptothek. The statue was encased in a
protective timber framework designed to shield the projecting limbs,
particularly the legs and the left arm, from vibration and impact. The
transport covered the short distance from the Königsplatz to
Ludwigstraße under the supervision of museum officials and state
conservationists. Upon arrival at the Zentralministerium, the crate was
manoeuvred into the deep cellar complex, which had been upgraded to
serve as a secure bunker for government personnel and critical state
assets. The decision to store the Faun within the city rather than
transport it to the countryside was dictated by the sheer mass of the
Parian marble and the structural risks associated with long-distance
vehicle transport. Hans Diepolder, the director of the Glyptothek,
oversaw this operation, prioritising a secure subterranean location in
the immediate vicinity of the museum district to avoid the vibrations
and shocks inherent in truck travel to locations like Schäftlarn. 
The
Zentralministerium possessed a reinforced concrete Luftschutzkeller
designed to withstand direct impacts, which was deemed safer for the
heavy statuary than the open roads. The Faun was lowered from its plinth
and transported on heavy-duty skids and rollers to the Ludwigstraße 2
facility. The statue remained in this specific cellar for the entirety
of the conflict, alongside other heavy sculptures such as the pedimental
figures from the Temple of Aphaia, the Aeginetes, which were also
deemed too fragile for rural evacuation. Following the cessation of
hostilities and the occupation of Munich by American forces in April
1945, the statue was retrieved from the shelter. Due to the destruction
of the Glyptothek, the Faun couldn't be returned to its original
location and was subsequently displayed in temporary exhibitions at the
Prinz-Carl-Palais and later the Haus der Kunst, serving as a testament
to the survival of Munich’s art collections amidst the city's physical
annihilation.
The event formed part of the Nazi Party's early propaganda efforts to elevate Schlageter's death into a rallying point for völkisch movements, with approximately 30,000 attendees reported in contemporary accounts, including members of the Bund Oberland and other paramilitary organisations that had collaborated with Schlageter in the Ruhr, and the service included wreath-laying ceremonies at a temporary monument erected on the square to mark the occasion. Hitler in his speech highlighted Schlageter's actions as an example of individual heroism against the Versailles Treaty-imposed humiliations, declaring that such figures represented the true spirit of the German people in their struggle for freedom, and the memorial concluded with marches by SA formations past the Königsplatz, reinforcing the Nazi narrative of Schlageter as the first soldier of the Third Reich, a title later formalised in party literature.
The Barberini Faun as it appeared in the opening sequence of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (Fest der Völker), released in April 1938 and with it today. Commissioned
by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the film utilised
the Glyptothek as a key location to establish the aesthetic and
historical legitimacy of the Nazi state before the international
audience, including a
tracking shot moving through the Glyptothek’s rotunda, explicitly
focusing on the Barberini Faun. The camera lingers on the sculpture’s
muscular tension and the marble’s sheen, juxtaposing it with the
"Olympia" marble relief in the background, thereby visually equating the
ancient Greek athletic ideal with the Nazi concept of the Vir Novus as
documented in Riefenstahl’s production notes confirming that the
lighting was artificially enhanced to highlight the musculature of the
Faun for this specific scene to utilise the Faun as a symbol of the
"heroic body" that the
regime sought to cultivate through the Hitler Youth and the ϟϟ. 
The
strategic bombing of Munich by the Royal Air Force beginning in 1942
posed a direct threat to the Faun’s existence. On April 24, 1944, a
high-explosive bomb struck the Glyptothek’s rotunda, causing the
collapse of the dome which would have pulverised the statue had it remained in situ. On the right showing it being removed for safety from the bombing to the Zentralministerium's Luftschutzkeller on Ludwigstrasse with Drake Winston and the Medusa Rondanini in the background.
Specialised heavy-lifting equipment was utilised to hoist the Barberini
Faun from its pedestal in the Glyptothek. The statue was encased in a
protective timber framework designed to shield the projecting limbs,
particularly the legs and the left arm, from vibration and impact. The
transport covered the short distance from the Königsplatz to
Ludwigstraße under the supervision of museum officials and state
conservationists. Upon arrival at the Zentralministerium, the crate was
manoeuvred into the deep cellar complex, which had been upgraded to
serve as a secure bunker for government personnel and critical state
assets. The decision to store the Faun within the city rather than
transport it to the countryside was dictated by the sheer mass of the
Parian marble and the structural risks associated with long-distance
vehicle transport. Hans Diepolder, the director of the Glyptothek,
oversaw this operation, prioritising a secure subterranean location in
the immediate vicinity of the museum district to avoid the vibrations
and shocks inherent in truck travel to locations like Schäftlarn. 
The
Zentralministerium possessed a reinforced concrete Luftschutzkeller
designed to withstand direct impacts, which was deemed safer for the
heavy statuary than the open roads. The Faun was lowered from its plinth
and transported on heavy-duty skids and rollers to the Ludwigstraße 2
facility. The statue remained in this specific cellar for the entirety
of the conflict, alongside other heavy sculptures such as the pedimental
figures from the Temple of Aphaia, the Aeginetes, which were also
deemed too fragile for rural evacuation. Following the cessation of
hostilities and the occupation of Munich by American forces in April
1945, the statue was retrieved from the shelter. Due to the destruction
of the Glyptothek, the Faun couldn't be returned to its original
location and was subsequently displayed in temporary exhibitions at the
Prinz-Carl-Palais and later the Haus der Kunst, serving as a testament
to the survival of Munich’s art collections amidst the city's physical
annihilation. 
The
remains of the Glyptothek after the war with Drake Winston in front
today. At the beginning of the war, the museum was closed and the
ancient sculptures outsourced which was fortunate given that, whilst the
neighbouring Nazi party buildings survived the war almost unscathed,
the museums on Königsplatz were badly damaged by air raids. After
the war, serious damage caused further damage. The destroyed roof of
the Glyptothek was not restored, and the valuable wall and ceiling
paintings that were preserved fell victim to the weather. Debates
arose over whether the building should be restored to its original
state, with its splendid neo-rococo decorations, or rebuilt in a more
stark manner that reflected modernist sensibilities and the desire to
highlight the original sculptures. 
The latter mode was selected in which
the decoration, some of which was still preserved, was removed and the
brick shell exposed, thus removing some problems. The conception of the
sculptures had changed significantly compared to the pre-war state: the
Egyptian and Assyrian monuments were now shown in the Residenz where the
Egyptians now had two rooms. However, since the building ornamentation
was based on the exhibited statues and reliefs, there would be no
connection between the reconstructed interior and the exhibition. In
the event of a reconstruction, the restoration of the Cornelius frescoes
would also be complicated: although there are sketches and
black-and-white photos, there were no coloured representations of the
frescoes. This is seen particularly here with the Trojanischer Saal as it appeared before the war and today with Drake Winston. .gif "Trojanischer Saal then now")
After the building's destruction during the air raids on Munich in the war reconstruction was finally begun in 1947 with the
reopening taking place in 1972. The frescoes executed by Peter Cornelius
between 1820 and 1830 such as Die Götter Griechenlands had
been destroyed and were not restored, but rather isolated fragments
were preserved and are held in the National Gallery in Berlin. Hitler
and his followers were fascinated with antiquity (hence the classical
style of Troost's party buildings). The Königsplatz was called Acropolis Germaniae in
a reminder of Ludwig's Athens on the Isar, and Hitler claimed, "[n]ever
has mankind been nearer to antiquity in appearance and sensibility than
today." This last point was made visually in Hans W. Fischer's 1935
book Menschenschönheit,
which juxtaposed works of art with photographs of contemporary people,
mainly athletes. In one two-page spread, a warrior from the east
pediment at Aegina was juxtaposed with a modern javelin thrower. These figures from the
Temple of Aegina had been originally 'restored' by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen in
the early 19th century. Thorvaldsen's restorations have been a subject
of considerable debate among scholars, with some praising his efforts to
revive the classical spirit, whilst others criticise his
interpretations as overly imaginative and lacking in historical
accuracy.
The latter mode was selected in which
the decoration, some of which was still preserved, was removed and the
brick shell exposed, thus removing some problems. The conception of the
sculptures had changed significantly compared to the pre-war state: the
Egyptian and Assyrian monuments were now shown in the Residenz where the
Egyptians now had two rooms. However, since the building ornamentation
was based on the exhibited statues and reliefs, there would be no
connection between the reconstructed interior and the exhibition. In
the event of a reconstruction, the restoration of the Cornelius frescoes
would also be complicated: although there are sketches and
black-and-white photos, there were no coloured representations of the
frescoes. This is seen particularly here with the Trojanischer Saal as it appeared before the war and today with Drake Winston. .gif "Trojanischer Saal then now")
After the building's destruction during the air raids on Munich in the war reconstruction was finally begun in 1947 with the
reopening taking place in 1972. The frescoes executed by Peter Cornelius
between 1820 and 1830 such as Die Götter Griechenlands had
been destroyed and were not restored, but rather isolated fragments
were preserved and are held in the National Gallery in Berlin. Hitler
and his followers were fascinated with antiquity (hence the classical
style of Troost's party buildings). The Königsplatz was called Acropolis Germaniae in
a reminder of Ludwig's Athens on the Isar, and Hitler claimed, "[n]ever
has mankind been nearer to antiquity in appearance and sensibility than
today." This last point was made visually in Hans W. Fischer's 1935
book Menschenschönheit,
which juxtaposed works of art with photographs of contemporary people,
mainly athletes. In one two-page spread, a warrior from the east
pediment at Aegina was juxtaposed with a modern javelin thrower. These figures from the
Temple of Aegina had been originally 'restored' by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen in
the early 19th century. Thorvaldsen's restorations have been a subject
of considerable debate among scholars, with some praising his efforts to
revive the classical spirit, whilst others criticise his
interpretations as overly imaginative and lacking in historical
accuracy. 
King Laomedon, also known as the "Dying Hoplite", in its restored and current 'de-restored' version.
The preservation of Thorvaldsen's restorations by Bertel was a calculated political decision documented in the correspondence between Museum Director Hans Diepolder and the Bavarian Ministry of Education. By the 1920s, the archaeological consensus, led by scholars such as Adolf Furtwängler, favoured the removal of Thorvaldsen’s additions shown here in my GIFs which included heads, arms, and legs to reveal the original Greek fragments. However, on January 14, 1937, a formal proposal to de-restore the figures was rejected by the Ministry on the basis that the heroic integrity of the figures was essential for the edification of the German people. The Nazi aesthetic, which fetishised the whole, capable body of the soldier, viewed the fragment as a symbol of weakness and defeat; a warrior without limbs couldn't serve as a model for the Wehrmacht or the ϟϟ. Consequently, the Thorvaldsen restorations were protected by decree to ensure that the visual narrative of an invincible, unbroken ancestry remained intact. This policy froze the Aeginetes in their 19th-century state throughout the Nazi era, prioritising ideological coherence over archaeological accuracy. 
The propagandistic exploitation of the Aeginetes is quantifiable in the visitor statistics maintained by the museum administration. In the fiscal year 1932, the Glyptothek recorded 38,000 visitors. Following the integration of the museum into the Strength Through Joy leisure programme and the intensified promotion of the Greek-Nordic link during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, attendance figures rose to 112,400 by the end of 1936. The exhibition Sport der Hellenen, organised in conjunction with the Olympics, featured casts of these dying warriors, explicitly juxtaposing them with photographs of modern German athletes. The catalogue for this exhibition, supervised by the Amt Rosenberg, described the calm expression of the fallen warriors not as a stylistic convention of the Archaic period but as a manifestation of heroic racial character. This narrative was enforced in the museum’s 1935 guidebook, Führer durch die Glyptothek König Ludwig's I, which was revised to align with Nazi terminology. The text expunged previous art-historical references to Near Eastern influences on Archaic Greek art, positioning the sculptures instead as a purely autochthonous Northern creation. 
Hitler himself inspected the Glyptothek on October 3, 1933, accompanied by architect Paul Ludwig Troost, Gauleiter Wagner, and Bavarian Minister of Education and Culture Hans Schemm. Apprently the delegation bypassed the Roman portraiture collections, which Hitler derided as symptomatic of racial decline, to focus exclusively on the Hall of the Aeginetes. The specific ideological utility of the Aeginetes was rooted in the racial theories propounded by Hans F. K. Günther in Rassenkunde des griechischen Volkes, published in 1929. Günther argued that the geometric structure and the so-called archaic smile of the Aeginetan figures were physiognomic evidence of a Nordic migration into the Peloponnese, distinct from the later, racially diluted Hellenistic art. During the twenty-minute observation of the pedimental figures, Hitler explicitly validated this theory, instructing Troost that these forms represented the artistic archetype for the New Germany. This directive resulted in the immediate prioritisation of the Aeginetes over other collections, as confirmed by the budgetary reallocations for 1934, which diverted funds from the maintenance of the Roman halls to the enhancement of the lighting and presentation of the Aegina pediments. 
Drake with the figures from the Eastern pediment, as as they would have appeared in colour. As with the Barberini Faun, the construction firm Gebrüder Rank was contracted to dismantle the figures and place the figures under protection from wartime bombing at the Zentralministerium about 800 metres away. The sculptures were encased in double-walled timber crates, with the void between the walls filled with shock-absorbing sand to dampen ground vibrations from bombing. The crates were lowered from their plinths using hydraulic jacks and transported on heavy-duty sleds towed by tractors to the Ludwigstraße bunker and eventually deposited in the deepest level of the shelter, designated Keller 3. The climatic conditions within the bunker were strictly monitored given the struggle to maintain humidity levels at 60% to prevent the dissolution of the gypsum plaster used in the Thorvaldsen restorations. On November 8, 1940, additional protective measures were implemented, including the stacking of sandbags around the crates to mitigate the shockwaves from high-explosive impacts.
The Glyptothek was eventually destroyed during a concentrated aerial bombardment on July 13, 1944, executed by the US Eighth Air Force during a daylight raid targeting the railway and administrative infrastructure of Munich. The museum suffered three direct hits from high-explosive ordnance which penetrated the copper-sheathed roof and detonated within the gallery spaces, shattering the internal vaulting and compromised the structural stability of the northern and eastern wings. The initial blast damage was compounded by the subsequent firestorm, fed by the dry timber of the attic spaces and the parquet flooring. The intensity of the thermal load within the building was sufficient to melt the lead caming of the windows and calcify the limestone surfaces of the interior walls. Whilst the exterior façade designed by von Klenze remained largely standing due to its massive masonry construction, the interior was gutted. This isn't always evident as seen on the right showing Drake with the so-called “Apollo Barberini” within its rebuilt room and as it appeared before the war. The most significant cultural loss during this event was the total destruction of the monumental fresco cycle by Peter von Cornelius. These frescoes, which had depicted scenes from Greek mythology including the Hall of the Gods and the Hall of Heroes, were obliterated by the heat and the collapse of the plaster substrate. The destruction of the Cornelius frescoes was absolute, leaving only blackened brickwork and charred debris where the celebrated 19th-century polychromy had once dominated the visitor experience.
Drake with the figures from the Eastern pediment, as as they would have appeared in colour. As with the Barberini Faun, the construction firm Gebrüder Rank was contracted to dismantle the figures and place the figures under protection from wartime bombing at the Zentralministerium about 800 metres away. The sculptures were encased in double-walled timber crates, with the void between the walls filled with shock-absorbing sand to dampen ground vibrations from bombing. The crates were lowered from their plinths using hydraulic jacks and transported on heavy-duty sleds towed by tractors to the Ludwigstraße bunker and eventually deposited in the deepest level of the shelter, designated Keller 3. The climatic conditions within the bunker were strictly monitored given the struggle to maintain humidity levels at 60% to prevent the dissolution of the gypsum plaster used in the Thorvaldsen restorations. On November 8, 1940, additional protective measures were implemented, including the stacking of sandbags around the crates to mitigate the shockwaves from high-explosive impacts. 
The Glyptothek was eventually destroyed during a concentrated aerial bombardment on July 13, 1944, executed by the US Eighth Air Force during a daylight raid targeting the railway and administrative infrastructure of Munich. The museum suffered three direct hits from high-explosive ordnance which penetrated the copper-sheathed roof and detonated within the gallery spaces, shattering the internal vaulting and compromised the structural stability of the northern and eastern wings. The initial blast damage was compounded by the subsequent firestorm, fed by the dry timber of the attic spaces and the parquet flooring. The intensity of the thermal load within the building was sufficient to melt the lead caming of the windows and calcify the limestone surfaces of the interior walls. Whilst the exterior façade designed by von Klenze remained largely standing due to its massive masonry construction, the interior was gutted. This isn't always evident as seen on the right showing Drake with the so-called “Apollo Barberini” within its rebuilt room and as it appeared before the war. The most significant cultural loss during this event was the total destruction of the monumental fresco cycle by Peter von Cornelius. These frescoes, which had depicted scenes from Greek mythology including the Hall of the Gods and the Hall of Heroes, were obliterated by the heat and the collapse of the plaster substrate. The destruction of the Cornelius frescoes was absolute, leaving only blackened brickwork and charred debris where the celebrated 19th-century polychromy had once dominated the visitor experience. 
One
of Hitler's first acts on attaining the Chancellorship was to order the
construction of a massive stone Temple of Honour in Munich's
Konigsplatz. Its construction lasted over two years, and the Celebration
of November 9. 1935 was the event by which it was consecrated. Hitler
commemorated the sixteen dead as “Heroes of the Movement” as soon as he
took power by having twin Temples of Honour built on Königsplatz
between the two main Nazi Party buildings. Twenty fluted columns
towering 23 feet above the ground were arranged on two 70-foot-wide
limestone pedestals and which supported an open roof of steel and
concrete with etched glass mosaics decorating the underside. In
a two-day ceremony, Hitler brought the dead to their final resting
place. On November 7, 1935, twelve years after the attempted putsch, the
bodies of Ehrlich and others were exhumed and taken to the Feldherrnhalle,
escorted by SA storm troops. After the pallbearers ceremoniously
carried the caskets up the massive steps, the crowd sang the Horst
Wessel song. Soon after, Hitler appeared and individually saluted the
dead men before pausing in front of each casket.
The
next morning began with a 16-gun salute. The old comrades assembled
around the “Bürgerbräukeller” and, commemorating the infamous march of
1923, silently retraced their steps to the Feldherrnhalle led by Julius Streicher behind whom were three men bearing the Blutfahne.
Hitler was flanked by veteran fighters followed by members of the
“Blutorden”, SA and ϟϟ troops, Hitler Youth, and paramilitary troops. A
crowd of tens of thousands stood along the parade route lined by a
cordon of SA soldiers. Accompanied by marching drummers, the Horst
Wessel song blared from gigantic loudspeakers. Black smoke wafted from
400 blazing pylons along the route, each bearing the name of one of the
“martyrs” of the movement in gold letters. Flag-bearing delegations from
the Nazi administrative districts stood nearby. As Hitler passed each
pylon, the immortalised name of each “martyr” was announced over the
loudspeakers.
The
caskets were then taken on carriages to Königsplatz square. The moment
the first carriage arrived on the square, a shot was fired and the flags
of the movement and of the Wehrmacht were lowered. Veteran fighters
placed the caskets on the podium. Two large swastika banners were then
raised in unison. The Völkischer Beobachter reported
that Königsplatz had thus been transformed into “a mighty forum for the
movement.” The heroes were now resting in the Nazi Party’s “holy
sanctuary.” Hitler proclaimed: “Just as they marched fearlessly, so too
shall they lie in the wind and weather, in the storms and rain, in the
snow and ice, and in the sun, under the heavens. They will lie here in
open as an eternal symbol of the German nation. For us they are not
dead.”
The
caskets were then taken on carriages to Königsplatz square. The moment
the first carriage arrived on the square, a shot was fired and the flags
of the movement and of the Wehrmacht were lowered. Veteran fighters
placed the caskets on the podium. Two large swastika banners were then
raised in unison. The Völkischer Beobachter reported
that Königsplatz had thus been transformed into “a mighty forum for the
movement.” The heroes were now resting in the Nazi Party’s “holy
sanctuary.” Hitler proclaimed: “Just as they marched fearlessly, so too
shall they lie in the wind and weather, in the storms and rain, in the
snow and ice, and in the sun, under the heavens. They will lie here in
open as an eternal symbol of the German nation. For us they are not
dead.”It
was in 1935 that the remains of the sixteen putschists were brought
here on the anniversary. This had followed the purge of the SA during
the Night of the Long Knives the year before. The bodies were exhumed
from their graves and taken to the Feldherrnhalle where they were placed
beneath sixteen large pylons bearing their names. The next day, after
Hitler had solemnly walked from one to the next, they were taken down
the monument’s steps and taken on carts, draped in flags to Paul Ludwig
Troost’s new Ehrentempel monuments
at the Konigsplatz, through streets lined with spectators bustling
between 400 columns with eternal flames atop. Flags were lowered as
veterans slowly and orderly placed the heavy sarcophagi into place. In
each of the structures eight of the martyrs were interred in a
sarcophagus bearing their name. In fact, it is believed that the
sixteenth person to be honoured at the celebrations was not a National
Socialist, but an uninvolved waiter from the nearby Café Annast, Karl Kulm, who was killed by a ricochet. Each temple held the sarcophagi of eight 'martyrs' with two ϟϟ honour guards keeping vigil.
.gif)
Hitler and Mussolini beside one temple with the Braune Haus behind in 1937. Designed
by Professor Heinlein, the sarcophagi originally cast at the
Wasseralfingen steel works in Baden-Württemberg and the eight columns
weighing over 21 tonnes were recycled to make brake shoes for municipal
buses. Weighing nearly 2,900 pounds, the metal caskets were converted to
repair rail ties and electrical lines. Munich
had discreetly rid itself of its former Nazi “heroes.” The bronze
eagles designed by party member Kurt Schmidt-Ehmen were removed and the
former Nazi buildings on Königsplatz are now used by music students and
cultural institutions. At
the temples visitors were required to be silent, not wear hats and keep
children from running over the centre of the temples. The Ehrentempel was
made of limestone except for its roof which was made of steel and
concrete with etched glass mosaics. The pedestals of the temples, which
are the only parts remaining, are seventy feet wide. The columns of the
structures each extended twenty-three feet. The combined weight of the
sarcophagi was over 2,900 pounds.
During the state funeral of Munich Gauleiter Adolf Wagner on April 27, 1944. When Wagner
died from a stroke in 1944 he was interred metres away from the north
temple in the adjacent grass mound in between the two temples until after the war when it had been disinterred and reburied elsewhere. The funeral ceremony was shown in Die Deutsche Wochenschau 1944 № 713.
Standing in front of and atop the ruins of the Ehrentempels. Only the foundations are visible today after the temples had been blown up in January 1947; trees and bushes are growing on top.
The Führerbau behind one of the "temples of honour". The sunken area for the sarcophagi became a pool of water after the war. In a thread on Axis History Forum, pionier44 provided
several photos of the area around Konigsplatz, including a few on top
the Ehrentempels. In a couple are shown small holes which he suggests
could have been used for drainage; indeed, he later asks "the only
visible thing up top is some open stand pipes. Were these for the
eternal flames?"
According
to the Munich tourist board, the “Ehrentempeln” – or Temples of Honour –
on Munich’s Königsplatz were “National shrines of the German people.”
Millions of Hitler Youth and Nazi party members regarded the men buried
there as role models of self-sacrifice. Ehrlich and the others had
become National Socialist heroes. In 1945, Munich officials decided to
eradicate this former Nazi shrine. Even Karl Meitinger, head of the city
planning department under the Nazis, was busy thinking about the
future. Speaking at the city council’s first postwar meeting in
August 1945, he said: “We must strive to salvage the form and
appearance of the old city centre at all costs.” He expressed the hope
that, within a few decades, “our beloved Munich” would be restored to
what it once was. The city would then be the focus of a new era of
tourism, and its reputation as Germany’s city of the arts could once
again flourish. To this end, he said that the Königsplatz would be
“de-Nazified,” the Temples of Honour torn down. The bodies of Ehrlich
and the other Nazi “martyrs” would have to be removed as discreetly as
possible.
I had revisited the site on March 11, 2011 and found a glass candle holder and a bone (!) placed on top a stone:
From atop the other ehrentempel remains beside the Fuehrerbau, January 2012
As they appeared May 17, 1945, still intact.
From atop the other ehrentempel remains beside the Fuehrerbau, January 2012
As they appeared May 17, 1945, still intact.
On the night of July 5, 1945, the sixteen “martyrs” from the Temples of Honour were removed and quickly buried elsewhere.Beside the grave of Andreas Bauriedl whose blood had supposedly consecrated the so-called blutfahne, and whose remains were relocated to the cemetery at Nordfriedhof.
The remains of Johann Rickmers were sent to the city crematorium but,
as domestic mail services had been suspended by the Allies forces, his
ashes couldn't be sent to their final resting place in Westphalia. All
these burials were lonely affairs. On June 27, 1945, Mayor Karl
Scharnagl, appointed by the American occupying forces, published the
following decree: “Any public participation during the burials, or any
kind of outward display whatsoever, must be avoided.” On July 12, the
director of Munich’s municipal cemeteries submitted his report to the
mayor: “On July 5, 1945, the bodies, or the remains thereof, were
removed from the temples on Königsplatz square without incident. The
bodies were placed in family gravesites or buried in common graves. This
was carried out at a time of day when the cemetery was closed to the
public.” The sarcophagi themselves were melted down and given to the
Munich tram service which used it for soldering material to repair rail
and electrical lines damaged by the war.
Führerbau (site of the Munich Agreement)
.gif)
Hitler
and Mussolini on the reviewing stand beside a temple of honour with the
Führerbau behind during the latter's September 25, 1937 state visit
which followed the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis the year before. The
day began with Mussolini’s arrival at Munich’s main railway station at
10.00 and the procession to Königsplatz commenced shortly after, with
Mussolini and Hitler travelling in an open-topped Mercedes-Benz,
escorted by 36,000 guards lining the route. The streets were adorned
with red, white, and black swastika flags alongside Italian red, white,
and green banners, complemented by Roman eagles and scarlet-gold
festoons. The parade at Königsplatz, which began around noon, was a
focal point of the visit, lasting approximately two hours. 
An estimated
100,000 spectators, including Nazi Party members, Hitler Youth, ϟϟ
units, and local citizens, gathered to witness the event including Reichsführer ϟϟ Himmler shown here in front of the Glyptothek at the time in his full ceremonial
Nazi Waffen SS uniform.
Mussolini, visibly impressed, remarked to Hitler, “It was wonderful! It couldn’t have been better in Italy.” Approximately 10,000 troops participated, including 3,000 ϟϟ members under Himmler’s command and 5,000 SA members led by Lutze. Mussolini’s speech at Königsplatz which he delivered in German at 13.30 (but translated into German by Attolico for clarity), lasted ten minutes and addressed the crowd on the importance of Italo-German unity against common enemies declaring “[t]he future of Europe depends on the strength of our combined will,” a statement met with prolonged applause from the estimated 80,000 party-affiliated attendees. Hitler responded with a brief five-minute address, emphasising the “unbreakable bond” between their nations, which was broadcast via radio to an estimated 2 million listeners across Germany. The event was captured by 30 Italian and 50 German photographers, with footage later used in propaganda films directed by Leni Riefenstahl..gif)
Looking down Adolf-Hitler-Strasse, the obelisk now the only point of reference remaining.
The event’s 2,000-meter route through Königsplatz was lined with 50,000 swastika and Italian flags, creating a visual unity of the two regimes. The event’s scale, involving 10,000 troops and 100,000 spectators, dwarfed similar fascist displays in Italy, such as the 1935 Rome parade, which had drawn 50,000 attendees. Mussolini’s reactions, recorded by Italian diplomat Attolico, revealed his mixed feelings: while impressed by the spectacle, he privately noted the “mechanical” nature of German discipline compared to Italian “spontaneity.” The parade’s choreography, overseen by ϟϟ-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, included 20 armoured vehicles and 50 artillery pieces. The event was planned over three months, with 500 municipal workers preparing Königsplatz over a fortnight, including the installation of 200 temporary flagpoles, erecting 300 temporary stands for spectators, and 1,000 metres of decorative bunting. The parade’s timing, from noon to 14.00, was chosen to maximise visibility under clear September weather, with temperatures recorded at 18°C. Although Mussolini’s visit was a public success, it also highlighted underlying tensions, as Italian diplomats expressed concerns over Germany’s aggressive expansionism, particularly regarding Austria, discussed privately by Ciano and von Neurath during lunch in the Führerbau. which underscored Italy’s unease with Germany’s ambitions in Central Europe, despite the public display of unity.
Ciano reported that Hitler
spoke “with a reserve and a perspicacity which, after such a victory,
are really astonishing.” It was almost exclusively Hitler who spoke
during the conference, which lasted several hours. Apparently Hitler did
so for a special purpose as by speaking constantly, he wished to rob
Mussolini of the opportunity to voice any inopportune questions
regarding his manner of procedure. Hitler wished to leave everyone in
the dark as to his precise plans for France in the near future, and this
included what he held in store for the Duce as well as for the French
negotiators. Of course, he admitted that he planned to disarm France and
to press it to yield to certain “reasoned,” although vague German
demands. What was to happen later to France was hidden beneath a shroud
of “implementing regulations;” in other words, he reserved all further
decisions for himself.
The former Führerbau was built between 1933 and 1937 according to the plans of the architect Paul Ludwig Troost in Arcisstraße 12 in Munich for Hitler. The first plans for the construction date back to 1931 and was completed three years after Troost's death by Leonhard Gall. During the Nazi era, the Führerbau served as a representative building. The building, along with the administration building of the Nazi Party, closed the Königsplatz in an urbanised direction eastwards. In 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed here. In the air-raid shelter of the Führerbau from 1943 about 650 mostly looted paintings were stored for the proposed Führermuseum in Linz. Shortly before the invasion of American troops on the night of April 29-30, 1945 the cellar was plundered; more than 600 paintings, including many works from the Dutch Masters, disappeared. From 1945 onwards the former Führerbau was used by the American military government together with the administration building as a Central Collecting Point for the booty exploited by the Nazis throughout Europe during the war, including Göring's art collection. From this point on, identified works of art were restored to the countries of origin. Today the building serves the University of Music and Theatre Munich. In 1954, the congress hall was converted into a concert hall (it today claims to be exorcising the dæmons of the past with music). The building is nevertheless in poor structural condition and needs a general renovation.
The former Führerbau was built between 1933 and 1937 according to the plans of the architect Paul Ludwig Troost in Arcisstraße 12 in Munich for Hitler. The first plans for the construction date back to 1931 and was completed three years after Troost's death by Leonhard Gall. During the Nazi era, the Führerbau served as a representative building. The building, along with the administration building of the Nazi Party, closed the Königsplatz in an urbanised direction eastwards. In 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed here. In the air-raid shelter of the Führerbau from 1943 about 650 mostly looted paintings were stored for the proposed Führermuseum in Linz. Shortly before the invasion of American troops on the night of April 29-30, 1945 the cellar was plundered; more than 600 paintings, including many works from the Dutch Masters, disappeared. From 1945 onwards the former Führerbau was used by the American military government together with the administration building as a Central Collecting Point for the booty exploited by the Nazis throughout Europe during the war, including Göring's art collection. From this point on, identified works of art were restored to the countries of origin. Today the building serves the University of Music and Theatre Munich. In 1954, the congress hall was converted into a concert hall (it today claims to be exorcising the dæmons of the past with music). The building is nevertheless in poor structural condition and needs a general renovation.
.gif)
Hitler
and Mussolini on the reviewing stand beside a temple of honour with the
Führerbau behind during the latter's September 25, 1937 state visit
which followed the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis the year before. The
day began with Mussolini’s arrival at Munich’s main railway station at
10.00 and the procession to Königsplatz commenced shortly after, with
Mussolini and Hitler travelling in an open-topped Mercedes-Benz,
escorted by 36,000 guards lining the route. The streets were adorned
with red, white, and black swastika flags alongside Italian red, white,
and green banners, complemented by Roman eagles and scarlet-gold
festoons. The parade at Königsplatz, which began around noon, was a
focal point of the visit, lasting approximately two hours. 
An estimated
100,000 spectators, including Nazi Party members, Hitler Youth, ϟϟ
units, and local citizens, gathered to witness the event including Reichsführer ϟϟ Himmler shown here in front of the Glyptothek at the time in his full ceremonial
Nazi Waffen SS uniform. Mussolini, visibly impressed, remarked to Hitler, “It was wonderful! It couldn’t have been better in Italy.” Approximately 10,000 troops participated, including 3,000 ϟϟ members under Himmler’s command and 5,000 SA members led by Lutze. Mussolini’s speech at Königsplatz which he delivered in German at 13.30 (but translated into German by Attolico for clarity), lasted ten minutes and addressed the crowd on the importance of Italo-German unity against common enemies declaring “[t]he future of Europe depends on the strength of our combined will,” a statement met with prolonged applause from the estimated 80,000 party-affiliated attendees. Hitler responded with a brief five-minute address, emphasising the “unbreakable bond” between their nations, which was broadcast via radio to an estimated 2 million listeners across Germany. The event was captured by 30 Italian and 50 German photographers, with footage later used in propaganda films directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
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Looking down Adolf-Hitler-Strasse, the obelisk now the only point of reference remaining. The event’s 2,000-meter route through Königsplatz was lined with 50,000 swastika and Italian flags, creating a visual unity of the two regimes. The event’s scale, involving 10,000 troops and 100,000 spectators, dwarfed similar fascist displays in Italy, such as the 1935 Rome parade, which had drawn 50,000 attendees. Mussolini’s reactions, recorded by Italian diplomat Attolico, revealed his mixed feelings: while impressed by the spectacle, he privately noted the “mechanical” nature of German discipline compared to Italian “spontaneity.” The parade’s choreography, overseen by ϟϟ-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, included 20 armoured vehicles and 50 artillery pieces. The event was planned over three months, with 500 municipal workers preparing Königsplatz over a fortnight, including the installation of 200 temporary flagpoles, erecting 300 temporary stands for spectators, and 1,000 metres of decorative bunting. The parade’s timing, from noon to 14.00, was chosen to maximise visibility under clear September weather, with temperatures recorded at 18°C. Although Mussolini’s visit was a public success, it also highlighted underlying tensions, as Italian diplomats expressed concerns over Germany’s aggressive expansionism, particularly regarding Austria, discussed privately by Ciano and von Neurath during lunch in the Führerbau. which underscored Italy’s unease with Germany’s ambitions in Central Europe, despite the public display of unity.
