Munich and National Socialism

Winfried Nerdinger, Hans Günter Hockerts, Jefferson S. Chase, Germany) NS-Dokumentationszentrum (Munich

Munich is associated with the rise of National Socialism like no other city. After the First World War, the 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' (NSDAP) emerged from anti-Semitic and radical right-wing circles in the Bavarian capital with Adolf Hitler becoming its leading figure. Here he tried to assume power via a putsch in 1923. Here, after the 'seizure of power', a party district arose in which about 6000 people organised the apparatus of the NSDAP. Moreover, with the opening of the nearby concentration camp in Dachau, the 'Capital of the Movement' took on a pioneering role in the construction of the dictatorship. The Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism occupies the site of the former party headquarters on Königsplatz and illuminates the Nazi history of the city. Its permanent exhibit, with plentiful new material, presents the history of National...