Honour
Temples
Two open pier halls by Paul Ludwig Troost, inaugurated 9 November 1935 as a mausoleum for the sixteen “blood witnesses” of the 1923 Hitler Putsch. SS guard of honour day and night. In January 1947 the US Army demolishes the superstructures. The plinths remain — as wound, as biotope, as open question.
Open pier halls
From 1934 the two Honour Temples are built on Brienner Straße between Königsplatz and Karolinenplatz — symmetrically north and south of the street, on the eastern side of the remodelled Königsplatz. Square footprint, 20 slender piers each, no roof: the coffins are to be, in Nazi staging, “exposed to the weather, the sun, the rain”. Light beige shell limestone, blockish clarity — deliberately placed as counterpoint and overlay to Klenze’s classicist forum.
Troost himself dies on 21 March 1934, in the middle of construction. His Studio Troost — continued by his widow, the interior designer Gerdy Troost, and his chief architect Leonhard Gall — completes the Honour Temples. The ceremonial inauguration takes place on 9 November 1935, as part of the new Nazi “cult and power centre” at Königsplatz. Completed at the same time: the Führerbau and the Administrative Building opposite.
The Hitler Putsch · 9 November 1923
In the failed putsch attempt of 1923, 16 Hitler followers die from shots fired by the Bavarian state police outside the Feldherrnhalle and in the courtyard of the Bavarian war ministry. After 1933 the NSDAP elevates them to “blood witnesses of the movement” — martyrs of a pseudo-religious liturgy.
Reburial · 8/9 November 1935
On 8 November the 16 dead are exhumed and transferred to the Feldherrnhalle; Hitler paces past each coffin during the night. On the morning of 9 November they are carried on flag-draped gun carriages in a staged march from Odeonsplatz along Brienner Straße to Königsplatz and laid to rest in the new Honour Temples — eight sarcophagi per temple.
The sixteen names
Felix Allfarth · Andreas Bauriedl · Theodor Casella · Wilhelm Ehrlich · Martin Faust · Anton Hechenberger · Oskar Körner · Karl Kuhn · Karl Laforce · Kurt Neubauer · Klaus von Pape · Theodor von der Pfordten · Johann Rickmers · Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter · Lorenz Ritter von Stransky-Griffenfeld · Wilhelm Wolf.
Telling is the case of head waiter Karl Kuhn: he was no NSDAP member but stepped out of his café on Theatinerstraße out of curiosity — and was hit by a bullet. In the Nazi liturgy he becomes a martyr nonetheless. The personality cult knows no nuance; any death loosely tied to the putsch will serve as a “blood witness”.
The 9 November liturgy
The high point of the Nazi calendar — alongside the Nuremberg party rallies — takes place each year on 9 November in Munich. On the eve, a torchlight procession marches from the Bürgerbräukeller — starting point of the 1923 putsch — to the Feldherrnhalle. On the morning of 9 November follows the “March of the Old Fighters” from the Feldherrnhalle along Briennerstraße to Königsplatz, past Hitler’s troops, up to the Honour Temples.
In front of the sarcophagi Hitler reads out the sixteen names — the “Last Roll Call”. At each name the assembled answer “Here!”. It is a deliberately pseudo-Catholic requiem — bells toll, swastika banners are lowered, the protagonists act like priests. This ritual is repeated annually until 1944; a centrepiece of Nazi propaganda for its own saints’ calendar.
Demolition, January 1947
As part of denazification the US Army blows up the rising columned architecture of the two Honour Temples. Most sources cite 9 January 1947, others speak only of “early January 1947”. What is certain: both superstructures are brought down in early 1947. The massive plinths/foundations remained — their full removal was judged too costly.
By then the sarcophagi had been empty for 18 months. On 5 July 1945 the Americans had recovered the bronze coffins and contacted the families. Three options were on offer: anonymous burial in a Munich cemetery, return to the original family grave, or cremation. Most of the bodies were laid to rest in unmarked graves — deliberately unmarked, so as to prevent any revival of veneration.
The plinths
The two shell-limestone plinth platforms are preserved unchanged and form low, square stairs to Brienner Straße. On the northern plinth spontaneous vegetation took hold from the 1950s; in the late 1950s it was deliberately planted with shrubs — initially for Munich’s 800th anniversary in 1958. After rare plants were found in the stone joints, the overgrown southern plinth was later placed under biotope protection. The vegetation is itself now a subject of the remembrance debate.
A permanent inscription or explanatory panel directly on the plinth is still missing. Context is provided only via mobile information stelae from the NS-Dokumentationszentrum. A permanent inscription has been debated in Munich for years: supporters argue that without explanation the plinths remain contextless; sceptics warn that every permanent marking is itself a form of perpetuation.
“Rubble and Honour” 2022
From 23 March to 18 April 2022 the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, in cooperation with the SCHULTERSCHLUSS initiative (founded 2020 by cabaret artist and author Christian Springer), shows the site-specific installation “Rubble and Honour”. Lifebuoys and fenders — bumpers from shipping — are mounted on the southern plinth of the former Honour Temple. The visual logic is clear: for decades there has been no nudging here; the plinths have a ship-like protective cordon that keeps the discourse away.
The installation, the initiative explains, is “the visualisation of this important empty space, which through its unresolved character makes clear that thinking and speaking about history can never come to an end”. It has ended — the question remains: how to deal with a plinth that is both warning and illegibility?
Words.
“On 9 November 1935 the NSDAP inaugurated the two ‘Honour Temples’ as parts of the new National Socialist cult and power centre at Königsplatz. In the two pier halls the 16 ‘blood witnesses’ who had died in the 1923 Hitler Putsch were given a new burial site.”— NS-Dokumentationszentrum · Self-description of the historic site
“Rubble and Honour — the visualisation of this important empty space, which through its unresolved character makes clear that thinking and speaking about history can never come to an end.”— SCHULTERSCHLUSS initiative · 2022
Furtherreading.
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Königsplatz, Honour Temples, Führerbau, Administrative Building, NS-Doku, Schelling-Salon, Osteria, Prinz-Carl-Palais, Consulate General.