GERMANY: HITLER'S MUNICH

 May 25, 2025

Our very last joint activity on our family trip to Germany was a guided tour of Hitler's Munich. But before I get to that, I just have to throw in this photo of a silver lion that we passed in the Old Town square. Munich has several statues of lions, once a symbol of Bavarian strength. Besides the Old Town Square, they can be found flanking the entrance to the Munich Palace, on the top of the triumphal arch, and at the Lowenbrau Brewery. My high school mascot was a lion, and I'm a big fan of the books The Wizard of Oz and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, both of which prominently feature a lion, so I am always drawn to statues of lions. This one looks powerful. I like it!

Munich is considered the birthplace of the Nazi Party (aka National Socialism or NSDAP), and a visit to Munich is not complete without seeing a few of the sites involved with the Nazi Party, especially in the 1920s and 1930s.

Our first stop on the tour was the Hofbrauhaus, a historic beer hall that started as a supplier for the Bavarian court. 

Our guide took us up a long stairway . . .

. . . to this dining hall. It was here in February 1920 (so early!) that 30-year-old Hitler, the propaganda chief of the National Socialist Party, announced the party's official program to a gathering of about 2,000 people. Seventeen months later, on July 29, 1921, he was elected to be the head of the Nazi Party here.

GERMANY, NUREMBERG: WORLD WAR II SITES

May 19, 2025

Prior to this trip, I connected Nuremberg primarily to the well-known trials of Nazi war criminals following World War II. I hadn't thought of Nuremberg's role in the pre-war and World War II days, so I was a little surprised to learn that as early as 1927, Nuremberg was the location chosen by Hitler and the Nazi party for massive rallies and conventions. 

A special area known as the Nazi Party Rally Grounds was designed by Hitler's architect Albert Speer. The first rally was held at the Rally Grounds in 1927, the next in 1929. In 1933, Hitler declared Nuremberg the City of the Reich Party Congresses, and rallies were held in this area every year between 1933 to 1938. Once the war started, the rallies were no longer held. 

In total, the Rally Grounds covered about 11 square km (2700 acres). This wide, flat field of about 20 acres was carved out of the forest for a staging area. It could hold about 150,000 people.

Nearby, the Hall of Honor was intended to be a memorial for the 9,855 Nuremberg soldiers who fell in World War I. It was created in 1928-1929, before the Hitler era. In addition to that use, the Nazis used the site to commemorate the 16 dead of the Beer Hall Putsch on November 9, 1923, in Munich--a failed coup d'état by Hitler and the Nazis. Fire bowls were placed atop each of the pillars, but they have not been ignited since the final Nazi rally in 1938 and in fact have mostly been repurposed or destroyed.

The Grosse Strasse or "Great Road" is a mile-long avenue made of granite pavers and intended to be used as a parade route for the Wehrmacht. It was not completed until 1939, too late to be used during the rallies. After the end of the war, the US Army used it as a military airstrip. Nowadays it is used as a parking lot for events at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center.

GERMANY: NUREMBERG'S MARKET SQUARE (OLD TOWN)

 May 18-19, 2025

We spent the morning in Dresden, then drove to Nuremberg in the mid-afternoon, a drive that took about 3 ½ hours. We arrived just in time for dinner. While on the road, I researched restaurants to try to find a good, authentic German dinner. We ended up at the Bratwursthäusle (House of Bratwurst). Founded in 1312, it is the oldest restaurant in the city and is famous for producing what the European Union has declared to be the first bratwurst (grilled sausages) in Germany. Their sausages are made onsite every morning.

I got an assortment of brats (boiled, grilled, and fried) and a chunk of some other kind of meat with sides of sauerkraut and potato salad. It was wonderful, and I had it again the next day when our guide took us to the same restaurant. (We didn't tell him we'd been here the night before.) The desserts were also very good. We had chocolate mousse with a berry sauce and apple strudel swimming in custard sauce.

Were we happy? Yes, yes, we were. In my journal I note that it was our best meal so far.

After dinner and then at the end of the day the following day, we explored the Hauptmarkt, or main market square. The Nuremberg Town Hall was basically destroyed during World War II but was painstakingly rebuilt afterwards.