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Munich / München
Part 5 - Other Third Reich
Buildings and Sites in Munich
Since it was
the "Capital of the Nazi Movement," Munich had several buildings,
monuments, and other sites associated with the Third Reich. This page features
the following sites: Munich Rathaus, Luftgaukommando,
Reichszeugmeisterei, Oberfinanzpraesidium,
offices of the Volkischer Beobachter and Illustrierter
Beobachter newspapers, Haus des Deutschen Rechts,
Deutsches Museum, Entartete Kunst
exhibit, Freikorps monument, Neptune
Fountain, Karlsplatz, SS
Barracks,
Funk Kaserne, Oberschleissheim airfield, Nazi burials at the Nordfriedhof,
Gräfelfing Cemetery, Ostfriedhof, and Westfriedhof, and the Munich War
Memorial.
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| The
Munich Rathaus (City Hall) on the Marienplatz, decorated with a large Nazi banner on 9 March
1933, during the Nazi rise to power in Germany. The flag was placed by
Max Amann, one of Hitler's closest comrades and later Nazi Party
publishing chief. (Munich City
Museum) |
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| Munich
was the headquarters of Luftgaukommando (or Luftkreiskommando)
VII, an air defense district command headquarters, located at
Prinzregentenstraße 24-28. The 1937 building has changed little, and is
now an office building for several Bavarian state ministries. (above
- Frau Prof. Gerdy Troost, "Das Bauen im Neuen
Reich," Vol. 1, Bayreuth, 1938; below - Munich City Museum) |
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| The
Luftgaukommando building featured several martial decorations, including
Greek heads and armored torsos, German WW1 helmets, Luftwaffe eagles,
and iron grillwork swastikas, which can still be seen on the building
today (see here).
("Kunst im Deutschen Reich," 1939) |
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| Munich
was also the headquarters of the Reichszeugmeisterei, the Nazi
Party quartermaster office and material control office. The RZM
controlled design, manufacturing, and quality control of Nazi uniforms,
insignia, badges, and equipment items. The headquarters, completed in
1937, consisted of a complex on the Tegernseer Landstraße. Below is an
artist's model of the entire complex. (above - Werner Rittich, "Architektur
und Bauplastik der Gegenwart," Berlin, 1938; below - Herbert
Hoffmann, "Deutschland Baut," Stuttgart, 1938) |
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| The
complex included a large automotive garage, and living quarters for the
employees (these still exist along both sides of the Tegernseer
Landstraße). The buildings remain very much as they were during the Third Reich
period (save
for the removal of Nazi emblems), mainly because they was taken over by the
U.S. Army in 1945 and served as McGraw Barracks until the early 1990s.
The complex is now used by the Munich police. A faint shadow on the
façade shows where the Nazi eagle used to be. (above - Herbert
Hoffmann, "Deutschland Baut," Stuttgart, 1938; below - Frau Prof. Gerdy Troost, "Das Bauen im Neuen
Reich," Vol. 1, Bayreuth, 1938) |
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| The Oberfinanzdirektion
or Oberfinanzpraesidium (finance headquarters) was built from
1938-1941 on Sophienstraße. The
Third Reich eagle remains on the façade, minus its original swastika,
and the building still serves as a financial center. (left - Frau Prof. Gerdy Troost, "Das Bauen im Neuen
Reich," Vol. 2, Bayreuth, 1943; right -
courtesy Keith Ball) |
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| The
offices of the Nazi newspaper "Volkischer Beobachter" and
later the "Illustrierter Beobachter" were at Thierschstraße
11-17. This building also housed the Franz Eher official Nazi Party
publishing firm. Hitler's Mein Kampf and countless other Nazi
books were published here. Today
the building houses a piano business. (left - Albert Reich,
"Aus Adolf
Hitlers Heimat," Munich, 1933; right - Munich City Museum) |
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| The Haus des
Deutschen Rechts (House of German Justice) was located at Ludwigstraße 28. The
building shows almost no exterior changes, except the removal of the
eagle over the main entrance. The fountain seen in the photos below
is across the street in front of the Munich University (now the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), where members of the White Rose
resistance group (Hans and Sophie Scholl) distributed the anti-Nazi
leaflets that led to their execution. (above - Frau Prof. Gerdy Troost, "Das Bauen im Neuen
Reich," Vol. 1, Bayreuth, 1938; below - Fritz
Wächtler, "Die Neue Heimat," Munich, 1940) |
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| The
foundation stone of the Haus des Deutschen Rechts was laid on 24
October 1936, and the building was completed in 1939. In the distance is the famous Siegestor, or
Triumphal Arch of King Ludwig I. The upper part of the arch was
badly damaged in wartime bombings and was rebuilt with a blank upper façade. (above - Bundesarchiv; below -
"Illustrierter Beobachter," Sonderheft 1937) |
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The Kongreß-Saal (Congress Hall) of the Deutsches Museum was
completed in 1936 on a design by architect German Bestelmeyer. This
building sits on the northern point of Museum Island, at the
Ludwigsbrücke. It was used during the Third Reich for meetings,
exhibits, speeches, and the state funeral of Gauleiter Adolf Wagner. It
is used today primarily for rock concerts. (Herbert Hoffmann,
ed., "Moderne
Bauformen," 1937) |
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| When the
Greater German Art Exhibition was opened in the Haus
der Deutschen Kunst in July 1937, a companion exhibition of
"Entartete Kunst" ("Degenerate Art") was opened in
Munich in the Hofgarten Arcades near the Odeonsplatz. The "Degenerate Art" or "modern art"
on exhibit was chosen to contrast with the Nazi art ideal of realism
and heroic "Volk." The building façade at Galeriestraße 4 has changed
over the years, but is still recognizable. (Munich City
Museum) |
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| In May
1942 a memorial was dedicated to the Freikorps (a post-World War 1
right-wing organization) on the Giesing Hill, the site of a May 1919
battle between the Freikorps and local communists. The Freikorps
memorial itself was removed after the war, but its concrete base can
still be seen today on Ichostraße. The concrete wall now carries a memorial to
victims of the Nazi regime. (Munich City Museum) |
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| In 1937
a fountain with a sculpture of Neptune by Third Reich sculptor Josef
Wackerle was erected in the Old Botanical Garden on the
Elisenstraße. The view today is practically identical. (Werner Rittich, "Architektur
und Bauplastik der Gegenwart," Berlin, 1938) |
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| Above, a
Panther tank abandoned on the Karlsplatz (Stachus) at the end of the
war, with a corresponding modern view. Below, a 1946 view of the
Karlsplatz from a different angle, showing the destruction from bombing
- a photo taken by my father, U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Delbert R.
Walden. (above - U.S. Army Signal Corps Collection;
below - G.R. and G.A. Walden collection) |
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| Other
parts of Munich also suffered heavy damage from the bombing attacks. My
father photographed the Marienplatz in 1946, with the Neues Rathaus (New
City Hall) on the left, and the Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall) in the
right distance. The building in the center was rebuilt in a more modern
style. (left - G.R. and G.A. Walden
collection; many thanks to Christian Lauw for the modern view) |
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| Munich
was the home of several military barracks (Kaserne). The largest
and best known of these was the Kaserne for SS Standarte
"Deutschland" on Neuherbergstraße and Ingolstädterstraße in
northern Munich. This was one
of the largest military complexes in Germany, and housed the SS guards
for the Führerbau, Ehrentempel, Feldherrnhalle, War Memorial, and other Nazi
locations in the Munich area. It also served as a training site during
the war. After the war it was used by the U.S. Army as Warner Barracks,
and is now used by the Bundeswehr as Ernst-von-Bergmann-Kaserne. (period
postcards) |
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| Above,
the main gate to the SS-Deutschland-Kaserne. Below, a period view of
the huge exercise and parade ground. (period postcards) |
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| The
Funk-Kaserne was built in 1936 on Freimanner Straße (now the
Frankfurter Ring). The Kaserne is now closed, but
the Luftwaffe eagle remains outside the former front gate. A period view
of the main kaserne building appears below. (Frau Prof. Gerdy
Troost, "Das Bauen im neuen Reich," Vol. 2, Bayreuth, 1943) |
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| The
Oberschleissheim Airfield was used for military purposes during World
War II and was occupied by the U.S. Army Air Forces in April 1945. My
father, 2nd Lt. Delbert R. Walden, was stationed there in the 344th Bomb
Group in 1946. Above, my father poses in front of the adjacent
Schleissheim Palace (which had suffered bomb damage during the war).
Below, some of the aircraft hangers in 1946, and today. (G.R.
and G.A. Walden collection; below right courtesy Jacqueline Wilson) |
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| Most
Munich cemeteries hold graves of interest to Third Reich researchers.
Above is a view of a mass burial and memorial ceremony for victims of
Allied bombing attacks, held at the Nordfriedhof (Friedhof = Cemetery)
in 1944, with a modern view of the main gate from a different
angle. (Munich City Museum) |
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| Julius
Schreck, one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party and a founding
member of the SS, served as Hitler's personal chauffeur. He died of meningitis
on 16 May 1936, and received a Nazi state funeral and burial
at the cemetery in Gräfelfing, a suburb of Munich. His casket was borne
to the grave by "Old Fighters" and SA and SS members. ("Illustrierter
Beobachter," 28 May 1936) |
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| Adolf
Hitler delivered the eulogy at Schreck's graveside. Also attending were
Rudolf Hess, Christian Weber, Victor Lutze, Josef Goebbels, Hermann
Göring, Wilhelm Brückner, Heinrich Himmler, Otto Dietrich (all seen
above), and Franz Xavier Schwarz, Wilhelm Frick, Martin Bormann, Julius
Streicher, Julius Schaub, Max Amann, Fritz Todt, Robert Ley, Walter
Darré, Adolf Huhnlein, Josef "Sepp"
Dietrich, and other Nazi leaders (seen in the photos below). ("Illustrierter Beobachter," 28 May 1936) |
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| In common with most other
notable Nazi burials, Schreck's body and grave marker were removed after
the war. A memorial to war victims now sits where Schreck was originally
buried. ("Illustrierter Beobachter," 28 May 1936) |
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| Hitler
also attended the burial of Dr. Gerhard Wagner, chief of medicine in the
Third Reich, at the Ostfriedhof on 27 March 1938. The crematorium in the
Ostfreidhof had been used to cremate the remains of the victims of the
"Night of the Long Knives,"
the 1934 Nazi purge of Ernst Röhm and his followers. The Ostfriedhof
crematorium figured large in history again on 17 October 1946, when the
bodies of the ten Nazi leaders who had been executed in Nürnberg
were brought there for cremation. Their ashes were strewn into the
nearby Isar River. (press photo) |
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| During
the ceremonies marking the opening of the Haus
der Deutschen Kunst in July1937, Hitler visited the grave of
architect Paul Ludwig Troost in the Nordfriedhof. The original grave
marker is overgrown with ivy today and naturally has the eagle and
swastika removed. Troost's wife Gerdy was later buried in the same
plot. ("Illustrierter Beobachter," 22 July 1937) |
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| One Nazi
grave in Munich that Hitler almost certainly did not visit was that of
Ernst Röhm, the SA leader who was executed at Hitler's orders as part
of the "Night of the Long
Knives" purge of the SA on 30 June - 1 July 1934. Röhm's grave
is in the Westfriedhof. |
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| The
Munich War Memorial (Kriegerdenkmal) is located adjacent to the
Hofgarten, in front of the old Bavarian Army Museum (now a government
office building). A large stone block, with the slogan "Sie werden
auferstehen" (They will rise again), covers a sunken crypt area
with a sculpture of a German soldier laid out for burial. The memorial
was erected in 1924-26 in memory of the 13,000 "heroic sons of
Munich" who fell in the First World War, 1914-1918. After the
Second World War, a memorial inscription was added for the 22,000 dead
and 11,000 missing Munich soldiers and 6600 victims of the Allied
bombing attacks, 1939-1945. (period postcards) |
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| The War
Memorial is regularly decorated today. The original soldier sculpture
was replaced in 1972 - the original is now in the Bavarian Army Museum
in Ingolstadt. (above - period postcard; center - courtesy
Roland Fogt; bottom - Georg Schorer, "Deutsche Kunstbetrachtung"
Munich, 1941) |
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(period postcard)
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