Munich Day 1: The Hitler Tour

(The New City Hall)


Let's start at the train going to Munich. It was an overnight train so we slept the whole way. It was very Harry Potterish, we went into a compartment, it was cool. Of course we had reservations, so in our compartment were two young people, and I took a seat by the window, and Monica sat diagonal from me. It was midnight, we had been up since 7:30am, so yeah good night. I made my coat into a pillow, put my bag under my arm, and yeah was fast asleep. Well actually that happened as soon as the conductor stamped my Eurorail pass. I had some room on the seat to put my feet up, sweet deal. When I woke up the first time, the guy next to me was gone, so yeah totally stretched out, and fell into a nice sleep. It was so comfortable. By the end of the trip, Monica had the seat to herself too, so we both got a pretty good sleep.

We got into Munich about 8ish, and went right to the hostel which was two seconds away from the train station. Sweet deal! Another nice place too! They gave us tickets for free breakfast, so we put our bags in the back room, we couldn't completely check in yet, and then went to get breakfast. They just had toast, tea, fruit, cheese, and some weird looking cereal, so I had toast and tea. A very English breakfast. It was good. But while we were waiting to check in, I picked up a few things about Munich, one being different walking tours. One of the tours was Hitler and the Third Reich. Now I'm not obsessed with Hitler or the Nazis, but I do spend a lot, er, an insane amount of time watching Hogans Heroes, and it does interest it. It's history, it's not Roman history, but whatever. I suggested it to Monica, I said I could take it or leave it, but it might be a good idea. She agreed. So now it's like 9:40, and the tour begins at 10:30. We left for Marienplatz where the tour begins. Marienplatz is also the city centre, and where we were headed anyway. So we got there a few minutes before 10:30am, and we took the tour. Now I'll bring you through it.

First, it started in the doors of the New City Hall, where we all introduced ourselves. There was like 10 people in the group. He told us a few facts about Munich, like 88% of it was destroyed, 10% hit but still usable, and 2% not touched. Wow. Two of the buildings not touched were Nazi buildings, like SS Headquarters. So we first went to the Hobrau where it all started. After WWI, Hitler got the job of spying on political groups, one being the German Workers' Party. He evidently joined, and in the Hobrau we went to was the place of his first big speech. We saw the banquet hall that he spoke in. Now across the street is the Hard Rock Cafe. It was interesting though, because here in Munich, it's where everything started.. amazing. When you stand in the Hobrau, and you look up, there is the Nazi symbol, the swastika. It was so interesting that it was there of all places. Anyway, so from the Hobrau we went to the Square where the Opera House is, and where the March of 1923 started from. It was also at the hobrau across the street from the Opera House that Hitler once pulled two men out of it, and made them sit through a performance of Wagner. They fell asleep during it, so the next night they had to stand during it. Anyway, so we then followed the route the march took, which wasn't long, just down the street to where the police were, and there was shots fired, and 16 Nazis were killed. These 16 men were remembered by Hitler until he died, he had temples built in Nazi plaza as I call it, next to SS Headquarters, and every year on the anniversary of the march their coffins would be carried down to the spot where they fell, and it was a huge deal. Anyway though, Hitler put up a memorial to them, and when anyone walked by they had to salute. In a small form of rebellion though, there is a street right before the memorial, and people would walk down that street to avoid saluting, because if you walked by it, and didn't salute, in about an hour you would have the Gestapo knocking at your door. Okay then.

So the memorial is right before Oldeonplatz, where WWI was announced. There is a picture of that assembly, and someone found Hitler in it. Crazyness. It's a really nice plaza though, it's all cobblestone, and there is a big statue of someone, and two big lions. It's neat.

From there we went into this garden, a Hofgarten, that features the Staatskanzlei aka government building. Interesting place, it's the most hated building in Munich. It's one of those big old Greek looking buildings, with the columns and everything, but during the War it got hit, and only the middle was not destroyed. After the war they rebuilt it, and it's designed so that the sides are made out of glass... no secrets from the people, and the people know what is going on with the government. The only problem is, you never see anyone inside!! It's funny actually. In front of it is a WWI memorial, a big wooden box with the words, "They Shall Rise Again." It's kinda creepy looking, I mean its a wooden box. Nice memorial. But then the German people are still kind of mad about that, they feel like the government quit on them. Next to the building is the White Rose memorial, for the 5 students and one teacher who were beheaded by Hitler during the War. A few of them were in Poland during the War, and noticed some weird stuff going on, and thought hey this isn't right. When they got back they started passing out leaflets, and yeah they were found out by the Gestapo and beheaded. Not cool. It's a nicer memorial than the big wooden box though.

Across the street from this is the Modern Art museum, which actually Hitler had built, but then it was a classical art museum. He hated the modern arts. The weekend it opened, a good number of people went, but twice that went to the Modern Art Museum which is across the street, and when are you looking at the White Rose memorial, it's behind you. It's not a very good looking building, but of course that was on purpose. So we had a good laugh at that, and after the War it was turned into the Modern Art Museum, just because Hitler would hate that.

After that we went to Hitler's favorite place to get coffee, Carlton's. The owners deny the fact that he came to Carlton's often... too bad it's like a proven fact. No one wants to be connected with Hitler at all. Actually one of the owners tried to convince our tour guide once that Hitler's favorite cafe was down the street... and the tour guide was like ummm ok. When we left there, we were on Brienner Street, which is known for the Night of Broken Glass. A lot of Jewish people lived on that street. There is a memorial on that street, it's a flame inside a black cage and it's for all those who suffered because of Hitler, but people in Munich have no idea what it is for. There is no label on it, people think it's for the 1972 Olympics. There is a street sign for the little area, but it's right next to the street sign for the road, so it's all very confusing. But that's Munich, they have memorials, but they hide them.

Down the street from that is the old Gestapo headquarters, which is now a bank. The building was destroyed, but there is a sign above eye level saying that it was once Gestapo Headquarters. I thought that was interesting. But now we are just about done with the tour, just Nazi Plaza left. We went to see the two buildings that were not hit by the War, but should have been. One was SS Headquarters, and we went into the building. It's a music school now, but wow is it beautiful! Pink marble, beautiful columns, a sweet looking staircase... really nice looking. They haven't done a thing to the building since it was occupied by the SS, but why would they want to? Next to that building and the one across the street were temples that held 8 graves each, so 16 in total, and for the 16 men who died in the march many years ago. Every year on the anniversary of the march, the coffins were carried back to Oldeonplatz, and there was a huge ceremony and stuff, it was pretty intense. It's not far, but still intense.

So that was the tour. From there, Monica and I walked back to Marienplatz, got some coffee, well for me a hot chocolate and a piece of cake, and then we did nothing until 3pm when in the New City Hall the characters were suppose to do something. Well don't get excited they didn't do anything. So disappointing. Actually before then, we tried to climb the tower to the top but it was closed, so we think the two are connected. It was sad though, I love seeing cities from really high up. But after no show of the characters we went back to the hostel to check in, we both used the computers to e-mail home, and then we went back to Marienplatz, and went to the Modern Art Museum. We went in, but there was like 4 shows going on, and each of them was a different price, and we didn't know what the shows were, so we just left. We walked around a little bit more, didn't really see anything exciting, but then we got dinner. We went back to the Hobrau! Now all I can think of is Shultz, so I was so exciting. Monica asked if we could do this, and I was like OF COURSE! One of my favorite Hogans takes place in a Hobrau! There is such a great atmosphere there, but it was so busy we took seats in a less crowded and busy section. It was fun though. Monica got one of the large things of beer, wow it was huge! I don't drink beer, I tried it but ICK! No thank you. She says that since she is in Germany she will drink it, but no thanks. We both got pretzels there, and I just had a salad, I wasn't too hungry. We were there forever, the service was unbelievably slow. It was fun though, just watching the waiters carrying like 6 of those big things of beer! Monica looked like Merry in Fellowship of the Ring when he gets a pint at the Prancing Pony. HAHA! I had a good laugh over that one.

So that was our first day in Munich, after the Hobrau, we walked around more, saw the characters barely do anything at 9, but then we went back to the hostel and hung out there. We both went to bed somewhat early. Thankfully we did, since we were woken up at 5am by a cat fight. Two girls were a little drunk and one of them brought back three boys... and if it wasn't 5am it would have been SO FUNNY! One of the girls was like, "I don't trust you." and the other was like, "Well I never trusted you either." Hahaha, it was just great. 18 people in a room, and we got 2 girls fighting at 5am! That's a hostel for ya! The beds were so amazingly comfy though! So next post is Dachau.