Odeonsplatz & the Feldherrnhalle
An elegant Italianate loggia at the head of Odeonsplatz, modelled on Florence's Loggia dei Lanzi. Here, on 9 November 1923, a gunfight ended Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, and the Nazis later turned the hall into a shrine guarded day and night by the SS.
About this place
The Feldherrnhalle was built between 1841 and 1844 for King Ludwig I of Bavaria by the architect Friedrich von Gärtner, who took the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence as his model and honoured the Bavarian army with bronze statues of the commanders Tilly and Wrede. On the morning of 9 November 1923, this graceful arcade became a battleground when a marching column of Nazis and their supporters, led by Hitler and General Ludendorff, was confronted by the Bavarian State Police. In the gunfire that erupted, four policemen and sixteen putschists were killed, and the coup collapsed within minutes. After 1933, the regime transformed the site into the central cult-ground of the movement. A bronze memorial plaque designed by Paul Ludwig Troost was set into the eastern wall, an SS honour guard stood watch around the clock, and every person who passed was required to raise their arm in the Hitler salute. The hall hosted annual marches commemorating the putsch until the city was liberated in 1945, when Münchner removed the plaque and restored the loggia to its earlier form.
Key facts
- 1844 completed — Friedrich von Gärtner finished the hall for King Ludwig I of Bavaria
- 20 killed — Four policemen and sixteen putschists died in the 1923 gunfight here
- 1933 year — The Nazis installed the memorial plaque and posted an SS honour guard
📍 Odeonsplatz 1, 80333, München