Munich Notes

My last stop before returning was Munich – the place where the Nazi party was birthed, where Adolf Hitler became something more than a petty local nuisance and where the groundwork for the ‘Final Solution’ were drawn up.

As I had just a day in the city, I quickly checked out the main cathedral, the biergarten, the Munich Residenz from where the Bavarians ruled and then made a dash for the Munich Documentation Center.

The center has been built in the site of the former ‘Brown House’ – the headquarters of the Nazi Party. It meticulously documents the role that Munich played in the rise of the Nazis and like most European museums has mounted an exhaustive exhibition tracing this bloody, violent and shameful legacy. To see a city and a nation acknowledge its role, atone for its crimes and constantly remind all of the perils of such dangerous ideologies is something out of this world.

The center has a well stocked library and also a gallery on the books banned by the Reich. One could spot Freud, Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Zweig and many others.

The Gambian gentleman working at the center was curious about us and on knowing that we came from India, immediately expressed his condolences for the Ahmedabad disaster, which had occurred the previous day.

For me, Munich was always synonymous with the Munich Agreement – the only real opportunity that the West had to stop Hitler in his tracks. They instead agreed to his tantrums, sealed the fate of Czechoslovakia and convinced Hitler that he could have his way. The rest, as they say, is history. The Führerbau next to the center was the site of the signing of the Munich Agreement.

While walking towards the center, I was confronted by a stunning obelisk. On checking ChatGPT, I got to know that it was erected in memory of the 30,000 Bavarians who perished in the 1812 campaign against Russia that was launched by the other monster – Napoleon! As I’ve written earlier, I have always believed that had it not been for the Holocaust, Hitler would probably have managed to be remembered today just like Napoleon. The Little Corporal was no better, but has somehow managed to become a celebrated figure.