About this place
The Hofbräuhaus on the Platzl began in 1589 as the private brewery of the Bavarian dukes and grew into the best known beer hall in the world, a place of folk music, tourists, and litre tankards. Yet its cavernous festival hall on the upper floor also belongs to the darkest chapter of Munich's history. Here, on 24 February 1920, Adolf Hitler stood before a crowd of around two thousand people and read out the twenty five point programme of what would, that same evening, be renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The German Workers' Party had already held an early mass meeting in these rooms in October 1919, and through 1920 Hitler delivered some twenty speeches here, honing the techniques of agitation that would carry the movement out of the beer halls and toward power. The original festival hall was destroyed by Allied bombing in the Second World War and faithfully rebuilt by 1958. Today most visitors come for the music and the beer, often unaware that one of the founding moments of the Nazi party unfolded above their heads.
Key facts
- 1589 year — Founded as a ducal court brewery by Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria
- 2000 people — Attended the meeting where Hitler proclaimed the party programme in 1920
- 25 points — The number of demands in the programme read out here on 24 February 1920
📍 Platzl 9, 80331, München