We turned up to the visitor's centre in Munich to find out that it opened at 10am - the scheduled start of the tour. After quickly buying the tickets we waited around for the tour to start, only for a worker at the centre to come out and tell us that it had started already in Marien Platz - a 1.5km walk away! And so began the quick rush with around 4 other people through Munich. The tour guide, Levi, was very patient and waited for us to arrive (bent over, huffing and puffing) before he began the tour. Levi was an American and incredibly knowledgable about Munich.
We started the tour by looking at a few plaques, including one under the Town Hall where the decision was made for the "final solution" (murder of the Jews of Germany) to begin. We also looked at the hall (now a mobile phone shop) where Hitler was sent by the German army to investigate a meeting of the German Workers Party (precursor of the National Socialist German Workers Party). Although Hitler was given instructions to be subtle, he thought that the party was actually quite good and ended up joining and giving a speech.
We also visited the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler gave an early speech - 1000 people needed to turn up so the party didn't go bankrupt after hiring out the hall, and over 4000 people attended.
The Odeonsplatz is a large square in Munich. It's massive, and it's here that gunfire was exchanged after Hitler and the Nazis marched on Munich following Hitler's speech at the Hofbrauhaus. In this interaction, 16 Nazi members and 4 policemen were killed. The 16 Nazi members were then honoured as the "foundational martyrs" of the Nazi party. Other Nazis were wounded, including Hitler who dislocated his shoulder and legged it from the scene - how's that for leadership? Although Hitler was eventually resisted, he served an impossibly short time in prison (9 months), and upon gaining power, he turned the Ferdherrnhale, the Field Marshalls' Hall honouring the army, into a memorial to the "martyrs" who had fallen.
There is a small plaque where the four policemen are commemorated and named, however it is the Nazi's commemoration of their fallen members that makes the area a prime example of control in Nazi rule. When anyone passed the Feldherrnhalle, a Nazi salute had to be given as a sign of respect to the "martyrs". This was policed, and those who refused to salute were arrested.
Dodger's Alley is a lane behind the Odensplatz where people would "dodge" down to avoid having to salute to the Ferdherrnhalle. Eventually the Nazi party realised that people were evading showing their respect to their members and stationed police at the other end of the lane, however for a time, it was a prime example of the passive resistance that Munichers showed to the Nazi regime. There is now a gold streak on the cobblestones down this alley, paying tribute to those who resisted Nazi rule - incredibly courageous given that disrespecting the Nazi party was an incredible risk.
After this, we walked to a touching memorial, paying tribute to those who were killed by the Nazi party.
We then walked to what used to be the Gestapo (secret police) headquarters, now a huge, glass bank. But history is not forgotten and there is a tribute in the front window to those who were impacted by Nazi rule in Germany. It's interactive, and focusses on those who resisted and who were responsible for plots to attempt to kill Hitler.
It was here that I read and heard the part of the tour that touched me the most: information about the resistance group the White Rose. This was a group of university students and their philosophy professor who focussed on intellectual resistance to the Nazis by releasing leaflets, encouraging the people of Munich to actively resist Nazi rule. Between the six students and their professor, they wrote and distributed 6 leaflets, with a seventh draft discovered around the time they were caught. The White Rose had the last say - their sixth leaflet was smuggled through Europe and eventually reached the Allies, who edited it and air dropped millions of copies around Germany.
All the main members of the group were killed, and anyone associated with them tried and jailed. The two most famous members of this group were the Scholl siblings - Hans and Sophie. Sophie was only 21 when she was killed - beheaded by the Gestapo. Just before she was killed, she said "such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands are awakened and stirred into action?" The White Rose members have been honoured all over Germany because of their courage shown even in the face of a certain death.
The buildings that the Nazi party was lead from still stand near the Koenigsplatz, just down the road from where the Gestapo buildings are. Where the HQ used to stand will soon house a museum that is dedicated to Nazi history in Munich. We saw the Fuhrerbau (Fuhrer's house) that still stands and is used now as a university building. Across the road is the Verwaltungsbau, where the Nazi records were kept.
Through so much bombing in Germany, it is interesting that these two buildings survived. However this ended up working in favour of the Allies, as it meant that evidence of the Nazi's unspeakable cruelty was maintained and used in trials.
I would recommend this tour 100% if you happen to be in Munich - our guide was absolutely fantastic and the sites were so interesting and absolute must sees. So much has been preserved and the memorials in place are very tasteful. It's important to remember the atrocities of the past so they are not repeated in the future, so if you are in this wonderful part of the world, make time to see this part of its history.
No comments:
Post a Comment