Isartor, December 11, 2007, just leaving the train station
...after a few minutes, we hopped off, and started the tour. Across the street from where we got off the train was the Hotel Torbrau, which was where the German Secret Service, or SS, was born in 1923. From there, the official tour began.
...we made it to the next stop on our tour, which was the Hofbrauhaus.
A quick, little note: the swastika was a rather ironic symbol to choose because it's an old Indian symbol for peace, and yet there it was, back in the Second World War, being used as one of the most evil symbols in all history.
Anyways, you can no longer see the swastikas on the ceiling as they've since been painted over. Apparently, though, you can just barely see where they once were if you look hard enough, and hold your mouth right.
We exited the Hofbrauhaus, and continued on our tour. There was one building we came across on the tour that was really quite fascinating. I don't remember what its purpose was then, or what it is now, but the wings on it had been completely destroyed during the war.
The wings were later rebuilt when the war ended. The neat thing about this building, though, wasn't the wings. It was the pillars at the front entrance. They were still the original pillars, but the interesting part was that you could see the damage that had been done to them during the war. When I say damage, I mean you could see, clear as day, where the pillars had been hit with bullets and shrapnel.
Because of the rain and fog, we couldn't see the old art gallery. Apparently, Hitler was also quite finicky, and not surprisingly racist, when it came to art. Any, "modern," art was banned. Any work that he found abstract or that he didn't understand was not permitted, and if it was anything created by the hands of the people who he was racist towards, it definitely had to disappear. All the stuff that Hitler vetoed was auctioned off to Americans, because those in the know knew that they could make a pretty penny from the people in the States. Even the likes of Picasso and Van Gough were sold off. Anything that didn't get sold was taken away, and was burned. Same deal applied with any literature that Hitler didn't approve of. His minions would have a big bonfire, and set fire to the books.
After our little art history lesson, we continued on our way. By this time, not only was it pouring rain, but my hands were starting to go numb, the bottoms of my pants were drenched, and my feet were wet (I was wearing shoes instead of boots).
We made our way over to Odensplatz, where Hitler's Putsch didn't go the way he'd planned.
Hitler tried to organize a revolution and march on Berlin, which had been inspired by Mussolini's march on Rome. Here was Hitler's problem: No one in the pub that Hitler stormed, which had been full of some very important leaders, took him seriously, even though he had taken his machine gun, pointed it into the air, and fired. Finally, a well-respected war hero came in to back Hitler. With the hero's help, a few of the leaders had been, "convinced," to march on Berlin. Not long after the conversation ended, though, the leaders had second thoughts, went to the police, and told them of Hitler's plans.
By the time Hitler and his men had finally left, the police had set up a barricade at Odensplatz. Someone in the crowd that had amassed had the brilliant idea to fire a shot from his pistol. Because of that, a gun fight broke out between Hitler's men and the police.When all was said and done, 25 people were left dead: 4 policemen, 15 martyrs, and 1 bartender, who Hitler claimed as one of his men, and a few civillians.
After that, Hitler, being the wimp he was, went into hiding, but he was arrested two days later.
I'd made mention to our guide that up to this point, everything was starting to sound like a nasty cross between George Orwell's 1984, and Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Hitler was taken away, and he managed to weasel his way out of a life sentence, down to five years, and then to just under one year. He was let out after nine months because of good behaviour.
While he was in prison, he wrote his book Mein Kampf. According to Maxine, that book became a best-seller, or at least in Germany.
After we were finished at Odensplatz, we traipsed the path that Hitler's men had marched when they'd have their parades to comemmorate the martyrs killed at Odensplatz. While we were on this path, we stopped by a Jewish memorial. It's an eternal flame that was first lit on the anniversary of Kristalnacht back in the 1980's.
Kristalnacht translates into, "night of broken glass," and it was the unofficial start of the Holocaust. Kristalnacht was when all the Jewish synagogues were burnt down, and Jewish businesses were destroyed.
We continued along our path, which led us to what used to be one big-ass parade square. After the war, roads, tress, grass, etc., replaced the parade grounds. There are still many buildings surrounding these former parade grounds.
Our final stop was inside one of these buildings, which is now a music academy of sorts. Everything in this building is original. When I say everything, I mean floors, light fixtures, pillars, doors, door handles, the works!
Maxine took us to the top of the grand staircase. On the other side of the hall was a door.
That door led into what was once one of Hitler's offices. Taz said something that made me shutter after we learned that everything behind that door, inside that room was still original and in tact. Taz said, "if I were to open that door, I'd be touching the same door handle that Hitler touched. That's creepy."
That door pretty much concluded the tour, except for one final story from Maxine. I guess about half a year ago, she was giving a tour, but it was very uncomfortable because who she was guiding happened to be two Jews, three Neo-Nazis, and no one else. Apparently the Neo-Nazis were treating the Third Reich tour as a pilgrimmage, while the Jewish people wanted to learn the whys in their history, and go out of respect for their families. Can you say awkward?
The tour ended, and we all went our separate ways...
I had been told that if I wanted to tour Dachau, then I ought to walk the Third Reich first, just to put everything in chronological order. So, tomorrow's post will be the second half of my WWII history adventures. The Reich tour really put history in perspective. Hopefully, I was able to do the same for you with my 2007 journal entry.
For more, refer to the other posts in my 11 Days of Remembrance series.
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