About this place
Conceived in the nineteenth century under King Ludwig I as a Bavarian vision of ancient Athens, Königsplatz was framed by stately museums and a Doric gateway. After 1933 the Nazis seized this grandeur for their own ends, paving the open square with heavy granite slabs and transforming it into a marching and rally ground at the symbolic heart of Munich, the city they styled the Capital of the Movement. On its eastern side they erected two open Ehrentempel, honour temples, to enshrine the sixteen men killed in the failed 1923 putsch, flanked by the Führerbau and the Verwaltungsbau, the party administration building. In the Führerbau the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938. After the war the American military government dynamited the temples in 1947 to prevent any future cult, and in the late 1980s the granite slabs were finally lifted and the lawns restored. Today the temple bases survive as overgrown, tree-covered ruins, a deliberate scar left in place so the square can never fully forget what it once served.
Key facts
- 16 men — Killed in the 1923 putsch and enshrined in the two honour temples here
- 1947 year — The US Army demolished the Ehrentempel, leaving only their bases standing
- 1988 year — The Nazi granite slabs were removed and the square's lawns restored
📍 Königsplatz 1a, 80333, München