Today I went for a walking tour that focused on the Third Reich. It was incredibly interesting. Hitler constantly referred to Munich as the birthplace of Nazism. From 1920 to 1933, the majority of Nazi activities and movements were in Munich. Hitler came to Munich after he received a draft notice to fight in Austria. He loved Munich and visited often.
In 1920, he went to a National Socialist meeting in a beer hall as a spy, and he ended up interrupting the meeting and gaining the attention of the party’s leader. The government allowed him to join the party, thinking it would be good to have someone working on the inside. After developing a following in the party, he ended up attracting larger and larger audiences. Fairly soon, he had to move to the Hofbrauhaus to have a building that was large enough to accommodate the size crowd he was drawing to listen to his speeches.
The Hofbrauhaus still exists; I had dinner there one night. If one looks closely at the ceiling, it is possible to still faintly see the swastikas painted on the ceiling of the hall.
Once he thought he had a sizable following, he attempted to overthrow the government of Munich and move on from there to Berlin. This did not work out; his revolution resulted in him fleeing the city by hijacking an ambulance (which he later claimed was to save an Aryan girl whose parents were in the city for a Nazi rally) and hiding at a friend’s basement just outside of Munich.
After his failed revolution, Hitler was tried in a kangaroo court that allowed him ample time to share his political views and share his propaganda. He was jailed very comfortably (he had his own personal secretary in Rudolph Hess to dictate Mien Kamph; he received three vegetarian meals daily; he got lessons in government and politics, and he was allowed to receive guests daily). He realized from this time that he had to gain power through “democratic” means, or else he would always remain at the fringe of German politics. He managed to do this through the Enabling Act of 1933. From that point on, most of the important Nazi events are in Berlin.
Munich views itself as a city that was liberated at the end of the war. The memorial below indicates this feeling. Did you notice the date? It is April 30, 1945 (the day Hitler took his own life and the Americans entered Munich).
Munich is not nearly as open about WWII as Berlin. Berlin has the huge Holocaust Memorial and every building has a marker explaining the significance it had during the war years (not many survived the bombing raids). Munich has a lot of small memorials that are not marked on maps. One really has to do a lot of research to find them and read about them to understand them
The tour guide mentioned that as long as the generation that lived during the war and their children are alive, the war will remain a difficult issue to discuss. He said that the generation that lived during the WWII were too busy trying to rebuild their lives after the war that they just wanted to ignore what happened, or as the tour guide put it, “sweep it under the rug.” Their kids (people born in the 60’s and 70’s) wanted to discuss what happened to ensure that it never happens again. They have gone to great lengths to teach their kids about the events of the war and have been very instrumental in getting a lot of the small memorials built around the city.
A perfect example of the generational differences regarding memory can be found in the eternal flame memorial. It was built at the end of the 1970’s after many individuals called for a memorial for the victims to be erected, yet the wartime generation did not want to spend the money to have the flame lit 24 hours days a day and recommended that the flame have hours in which it was not on. I found this fact to be very interesting and illustrative of what the tour guide shared about the feelings of the people of Munich.
There are so many things that I never heard about - like the early Hitler/Nazi movement - when I went to school. I envy your students.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat Macey