May 15: Munich and National Socialism: Part I

The NS Documentation Center in Munich

On Friday, our adventures took us to the National Socialist Documentation Center in Munich. Built on the site of the Nazi Party's old Munich headquarters -- the Brown House -- the center opened some two weeks before we visited. In some ways, this picked up where we left off yesterday in our journey through Germany's history. In other ways, however, it highlighted the jagged fractures in Germany's twentieth-century history. After visiting King Ludwig's castle nestled in the Bavarian Alps, we attempted to connect the Bavaria and Germany of his time to the Germany that murdered Jews and other "non-conforming" ethnic groups so that  
the Nazi state could create a racially pure empire. 


The museum exhibit begins by detailing how citizens overthrew the German monarchy because the nation was bankrupt and exhausted following four years of fighting during the First World War. Not only did the ruling Hohenzollern house lose power, but so did the other dynasties within the German Empire, including the Bavarian Wittelsbachs. In a period of crisis and desperation, royalty was now seen as a hindrance; Ludwig's castles were simply wasteful of time and treasure. The establishment of a Bavarian free state did not solve the region's problems, however. State Premier Kurt Eisner made progressive moves in regards to women's rights and rights for workers but due to his admission that Germany was culpable for the First World War, nationalist right-wing Germans murdered him. As part of the general radicalization that occurred in Munich during the immediate post-war era, the Socialist German Workers Party and other similar groups began to establish themselves throughout the country. They remained relatively small factions and did not gain a real voice in government until much later. Munich witnessed true fighting between the right, supported by Freikorps' formations, and the left, as a Soviet was declared in the city. Following the defeat of the latter, Munich became home to a varied assortment of radical right-wing organizations that looked to destroy the Weimar Republic. The documentation center displayed this material in a somewhat text-heavy manner, but it also utilized numerous case studies, maps, films, and images to try to make sense of the tumultuous post-war era in Munich.

The Altes Rathaus in Munich, March 1933

The exhibition then traced the growth of the NSDAP. In 1921 Hitler declared Munich to be the center and headquarters of the Nazi Party and the party gained supporters through the economic crises unleashed by the Allied occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 and the Great Depression. Following Hitler being named Chancellor in 1933, the party's power was even more solidified as basic civil rights were suspended by the government and with Dachau's opening in March 1933. The museum next showed the ideology behind the Volksgemeinshaft, or, in other words, how a racially pure peoples' community would supposedly solve all societal problems. This led to the persecution of Jews, Romas, Gypsies, and homosexuals. Government policies like the Nuremberg Laws, book burning, and Hitler's foreign policy such as the Munich Conference, were illustrated so that viewers could understand the German government's desire to establish a united and conformist society. One section of the exhibit recorded the destruction of cultural diversity and how only members of the Reich Culture Chamber could produce and exhibit their art, books, or music. Unlike many similar centers, the one in Munich also covers the war years, juxtaposing the war of annihilation waged in the Soviet Union by specific army and police units raised in Bavaria with the suffering of the city's population under Allied bombs during the final years of the conflict.

After the war Munich and Germany as a whole had to try to acknowledge or understand what the Third Reich had done, but as early as the 1950s former Nazis were able to resume their former careers. It was obvious that Germans wanted to let the past be the past but many groups, especially the persecuted Romas and homosexuals, attempted to force the government to see what the Nazis had done to them. In 1999 Germany was forced to look at the Nazi war crimes more closely and they began to make reparations to survivors and their families. Since then residents of Munich have held protests, acts of remembrance, and demonstrations to ensure that their city and country do not discriminate against groups of people or favor the extremist right's point of view. The museum, as well as other groups throughout Munich, have worked to develop a consciousness so that their city can become aware of its historical responsibility.

What the exhibition leaves open to interpretation is how Germany evolved from a country that built fairytale castles into a country that murdered those who were from a different race, religion, or ideology. Viewing the castles in the beautiful Bavarian mountains one would think Germany was a country of cultured people who appreciated the aesthetics of their country. It would be very difficult to foresee that in the next hundred years a German leader would rise up and declare his race and culture the only race and culture worth having. As the leaders of Germany changed so did the ideology of the people; once loyal to Ludwig, they now screamed Hitler's name in adoration. After World War One, Germany not only had to accept responsibility for the war they had to reconcile themselves to do what other nations ordered them to do. Hitler promised a Germany that was a world power, not a Germany of fairytales but a Germany that regained its rightful place and solved all the present societal problems. Germans after the First World War were more apt to believe in a promise like this that would alleviate their present suffering and the national feeling of degradation than they were to have fanciful ideas about building beautiful castles. Not everyone supported Hitler's type of Germany, but, as the exhibit made clear, those who didn't neither objected as loudly as they could have nor did they do so in great numbers. The NS Documentation Center did an excellent job of both tracing the rise of Nazism and looking at its effect on Munich.