Munich: Day 3 (March 26, 2009)
April 9, 2009 – 13:18Day 3 began with a Third Reich tour that kicked off near the Rathaus. It was led by a British guy who had moved to Munich a year earlier and (appropriately) knew a lot about the Third Reich.
The tour’s first stop was next to the former Sterneckerbraukeller where Adolf Hitler was sent by the Army in September of 1919 to spy on the German Workers’ Party (DAP). Here, he ultimately ended up giving his first political speech, in reaction to what one of the DAP members said onstage about the need for Bavaria to secede from Germany and join Austria. This building now hosts a company that sells and repairs Apple products.
Next, we moved on to the private dining hall at the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler delivered many speeches.
According to our guide, the stage and backdrop are the same today as they were during Hitler’s rise to power. As our guide led us downstairs, he stopped us to mention something interesting about the ceiling of the Hofbrauhaus’ main dining room. Hofbrauhaus doesn’t like to advertise this, but at one point in time its ceiling was covered in swastikas that got painted over sometime after the war. Well, the paint they used was cheap and over time has gradually faded so that it is a noticeably different color than the paint surrounding it. The guide told us not to make too big a deal of it since doing so annoys the Hofbrauhaus employees. I was able to take a picture anyway.
Next we headed to the site where Hitler’s infamous Beer Hall Putsch ended, near Odeonsplatz. Odeonsplatz, bordered on the west by the Felderrnhalle, was the site where Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor and was host to many S.S. induction ceremonies and Putsch anniversary celebrations.
From the south side of Felderrnhalle:
After a coffee/restroom break at a coffee shop on the edge of Odeonsplatz, we continued on to the former S.A. headquarters, which is now a bank.
After hearing a bit about the S.A. and how their role in the NSDAP changed over time, we continued on to our final stop of the tour, Königsplatz.
Königsplatz is currently surrounded by Munich’s gallery and museum quarter, but during the Third Reich it served as a site for the Nazi party’s mass rallies. Just to the south of Königsplatz is the Führerbau, which was home to Adolf Hitler’s office and was where the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938. Today, it is the Munich School of Music and Theater.
At the conclusion of the tour, Karol went back to take a shower while Adam and I went back to the Augustiner beer hall for dinner and yes, beer. This time I opted for some “Brewer’s” Goulash, and was I ever happy with that decision. It was a big mess of stewed beef, goulash gravy, and chopped up potatoes and carrots. I didn’t get a picture of this one, likely because I was too busy stuffing my face.
After an hour or so, Karol met up with us and we each put down a few more rounds of beers and soft pretzels.
Later on, we decided to give Schwabinger 7 another try since it seemed like it would be a cool place if we could get there before it hit capacity. So we did, and this time was a lot better. We managed to get seats up at the bar and had a good time chatting with the bartenders. Our battle stations manned, we settled in for a night of cheap drinkin’ (relative to other places we’d been). The verdict afterwards was that Schwabinger 7 was easily the coolest bar we found while in Munich.
After finishing up at Schwabinger 7, we headed back to the hostel for some much needed rest. Well ok, maybe we visited the hostel bar one more time before bed…