Author: admin

I’m not sure of the etiquette of taking photos of buildings with such a sensitive history, but this was part of a self-guided walking tour on which more of in a later post. However, from 1 May 1920 to 5 October 1929 this was Adolf Hitler’s rented home in Munich, a small pair of rooms on the first floor where the recently demobilised army private developed into a political leader. The property, which was at Thierschstrasse 41, was a short walk from the beer halls and meeting rooms that allowed for the development of the party as well being close enough to be convenient and far enough to keep a low profile.

A now removed plaque (but which was located in between the two windows in the above photo) was placed here in 1936 to mark that it was where Hitler had lived for several years. Now, it has fallen back into a more anonymous building and the rooms in which he lived are now used for storage. After 1929, Hitler moved to Prinzregentenplatz into rather more decadent accommodation funded by the Nazi Party. This is another location that, if the war had gone differently, would likely be a museum. Fortunately, it’s now an unmarked property.

If the Germans had won the Second World War, then it’s likely that this building would now be a substantial museum. This was once a beer hall for the Sterneckerbräu Brewery who had been located on this site since perhaps as early as 1557. The brewery name comes from the Sternegger family who lived in this area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The current building was constructed between 1901 and 1902, designed by architects Heilmann & Littmann, following the purchase of the entire site by the brewer Josef Höcherl in 1894. The large arches on the ground floor were the entrance to the beer house that was once located here.

In September 1919, Adolf Hitler came here to a meeting of the German Workers’ Party. He debated with a speaker, Adalbert Baumann, and it seems that he impressed Anton Drexler, the founder of the German Workers’ Party which was the precursor of the Nazi Party. Baumann, who married a Jew who was killed during the Holocaust, argued that Bavaria should join with Austria, a position that Churchill actually took at the end of the Second World War. Drexler, who have evaded fighting in the First World War and who later died from alcoholism, was never given any influence of note in the Nazi Party.

The Nazis wanted to celebrate Hitler’s achievements here, so in 1933, they opened a small museum above the beer hall with random artefacts from the early days of the Nazi Party, so posters, furniture and any other assorted material that they could find. The building survived the Second World War, but the museum was inevitably closed down immediately.

The building continued as a beer house until 1957 and then it was turned into commercial space downstairs for shops. In early 2025, it became the Haxnbauer, so returning to a traditional Bavarian restaurant. There is no plaque on the building and the restaurant themselves take great care with their language, noting on their website that it’s a:

“Historic building with a long hospitality tradition.”

As I mentioned earlier, if history had gone differently then I’m sure this would now be some sort of tourist site and Nazi museum. Fortunately though, it didn’t.

Richard and I visited the exterior of Field Marshal’s Hall (Feldherrnhalle) as part of a self-guided walking tour, but more on that in a future post. There’s actually a limited amount to see here as the building is being restored and there’s a temporary frontage on at the moment. This does at least give a representation of what the building looks like.

The hall was built between 1841 and 1844 at the behest of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who admired the decadence and grandeur of Italian art and architecture. He wanted something in Munich that echoed the grace of Florence’s Loggia dei Lanzi, and so he entrusted Friedrich von Gärtner with creating a Bavarian version. Rather than a sombre fortress, it was conceived as a dignified and open structure, a kind of outdoor gallery honouring military greatness which is something that Bavarians rather quite like.

Inside the three arches stand bronze statues of two of Bavaria’s martial icons, Count Tilly, famed from the Thirty Years’ War, and Karl Philipp von Wrede, who battled Napoleon’s forces. These figures were cast from melted-down cannon, an aesthetic and symbolic link to war itself. Later, in 1892, a third bronze ensemble was installed in the centre, commemorating Bavaria’s role in the Franco-Prussian War. Marble lions flank the steps, one snarling at the Residenz palace, the other more demurely facing the church, added in the early 1900s.

But, the building is perhaps best known for something more sinister that happened in 1923. That was the year of the failed Beer Hall Putsch when Adolf Hitler led 2,000 followers around in his ‘revolution of the people’. They were met by Bavarian police in front of this Hall and four police officers and sixteen insurgents were killed. Hitler was arrested and imprisoned soon after, but within a decade he was leading the Nazi Party into Government.

Hitler made this into something of a memorial after 1933 and it was under permanent ceremonial guard by the SS. A monument known as the Mahnmal der Bewegung was added to recast the sixteen insurgents as heroes of the people. This memorial was smashed and destroyed by local residents on 3 June 1945, with the area soon being restored by the authorities back to its pre-1933 appearance.

It did feel a little strange standing in the location when just over 100 years ago this hatred took place. At that time it was Hitler who was the enemy of the people as far as the police were concerned, but things changed with alarming speed in that regard.