Sunday, December 28, 2008

Last minute sightseeing

The girls and I decided to hit one more sight yesterday in Koenigplatz on a blustery cold day (Mom went home to start lunch)!  I had read about the remains of the Nazi open-air "temple" to the 16 Nazi Party members killed in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch" before Hitler came to power.  Once the Nazi party took control of the government, Hitler had two open air temples built across the street from each other, each with 8 graves and a 24-hour honor guard.

After a little looking and help from a good website (www.thirdreichruins.com) we spotted the remains of the foundations.

You can get a sense of the size of these massive blocks ... now home to trees and moss! The honor temples were torn down by  the US Army in 1947.

Each of the temples were located next to large office buildings that housed the Nazi Party offices.  The one across the street (not this one, but similar architecture) housed Hitler's office and the room where he signed the Munich Accords with Neville ("peace in our time") Chamberlain.  Today this building is part of the university and the other one is a music school.

I would highly recommend Third Reich Ruins if you have an interest in WW2 history or want to see how things have changed (and remained) in Germany.  The author does a lot of before and after pictures and obviously has done a great deal of research!

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