Face the three arches. The Feldherrnhalle, the “Field Marshals’ Hall”, was commissioned by Ludwig I and built between 1841 and 1844 as a copy of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. Under the side arches stand Tilly, a general of the Thirty Years’ War, and Wrede, of the Napoleonic Wars. Lion Feuchtwanger joked that one was not Bavarian and the other was no general.

19 November 1923

The night before, Hitler had burst into the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall and proclaimed a “national revolution”. At midday, he and General Ludendorff led a march through the centre. As they emerged onto Odeonsplatz, beside this loggia, the Bavarian police blocked their way. The shooting lasted less than a minute: four policemen, thirteen putschists and a bystander died; two more putschists fell nearby, in the attack on the army headquarters. Hitler was tried in 1924 and sentenced to five years in prison; he served about nine months.

2The detour

Once in power, the Nazis turned this spot into a shrine: in 1933 they placed a memorial to their dead on the east side, guarded by the SS day and night. Anyone passing in front had to give the Hitler salute. Many people in Munich preferred to slip down the alley behind, Viscardigasse, which locals nicknamed the “Drückebergergassl”, the shirkers’ alley.

A fifty-metre detour: the most discreet way of not raising your arm.

In 1995 the artist Bruno Wank set a bronze strip into the cobbles of Viscardigasse that traces that detour. In 2010 a plaque bearing the names of the four policemen who died was placed on the wall of the Residenz, opposite the loggia.

3What to look for

  • The plaque to the policemen on the west façade of the Residenz, opposite the east side of the loggia.
  • The bronze strip in Viscardigasse, polished bright by passing feet.
Viscardigasse with its strip of bronze cobbles winding across the paving
Bruno Wank’s bronze strip recalls the detour taken to avoid the Nazi salute.

Documented

Four policemen, thirteen putschists and a bystander died in the shooting outside the Feldherrnhalle on 9 November 1923; from 1933 to 1945 a guarded Nazi memorial stood here, and the detour through Viscardigasse is attested as a way of avoiding the salute.

Sources and credits

Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, “Hitler-Putsch, 8./9. November 1923”; NS-Dokumentationszentrum München; German Wikipedia, “Feldherrnhalle” and “Drückebergergasse”.

Photos:

  • The Feldherrnhalle, a three-arched loggia with steps and bronze statues, on Odeonsplatz: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de, CC BY-SA 3.0 de.
  • Viscardigasse with its strip of bronze cobbles winding across the paving: Richard Huber, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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