On a Munich Tour, Confronting a Dark Past

"Hitler had his own cook and special privileges and spent months -- not five years -- in jail and got out for good behavior," Unal said.

A decade later the Nazis erected a memorial to fallen putsch comrades at Feldherrnhalle. Hitler ordered pedestrians to salute guards posted there. In protest, some took Viscardigasse alley, which runs behind the Feldherrnhalle; it became known as the "alley of shirkers" or "dodger's alley." Today, its gold-painted cobblestone path is easily overlooked as people duck into the corner pastry shop. All that remains of the Nazi memorial is darkened stone where a sign had been attached.

We turned west onto Briennerstrasse, where the party offices were concentrated. At Platz der Opfer des National Sozialismus (Square of the Victims of National Socialism), an eternal flame burns in memory of concentration camp prisoners. We gazed upward at the gray monument. Unal didn't say much. As traffic whizzed by, many of those on the tour bowed their heads in silence.

The Wittelsbacher Palais -- the last palace for Bavarian kings Ludwig I and II -- was on the next block. You'd never know it. Only a plaque on the wall of a bank says so. The Gestapo turned the palace into a prison. "If you did something against the Nazi regime, you ended up here," Unal said. In 1944, it was bombed. One stone lion remains.

On Karolinenplatz, facing an obelisk from Napoleon's time, is a white stone building with neatly trimmed hedges where Friedrich Bruckmann, a prominent publisher, resided. The sign now reads Sparkassenverband Bayern. In this house, Unal said, Hitler was introduced to Munich's wealthy citizens and learned how to mingle with high society. "Hitler promised them freedom from tax" and help supplying labor for their businesses, Unal said.

A block west, we were shown buildings used as military and political headquarters where diabolical plans were conceived. But Braunes Haus, the Nazi party headquarters where Hitler once lived, and other buildings have been demolished. Some were badly damaged by Allied bombs and demolished; some were razed to erase Nazi memories.

At the intersection of Brienner and Arcis is a ground-level sign (one side in German, the other in English) detailing what this area looked like around 1941, when it was Nazi Party headquarters; though Berlin was the capital, the power remained focused in Munich. A blueprint accompanied by photos and text lists 53 buildings and their known uses: the Head Office of Party Propaganda, the Party Treasury, etc. An area where commuters speed by and tourists stroll once was a self-sufficient complex with its own power station. A photo shows the burning of books at Koenigsplatz in May 1933.

Koenigsplatz, immortalized in photos of mass rallies, was bombed heavily. The Nazis built two "temples of honor" and enshrined their heroes here; foundations obscured by grass remain. In 1988, two museums -- the Antikensammlungen (Museum of Antiquities) and the Glyptothek -- were rebuilt on the square in their original neoclassical design.

Steps from the Glyptothek is the state university for music and theater, which survived bombing. In 1936, the "Fuehrer building" -- Hitler's Munich headquarters -- sported red carpet, while swastika flags festooned balconies. The Munich Agreement, under which Europe's major powers gave most of Czechoslovakia to Germany, was signed there in 1938. American occupying forces replaced the eagle and swastika over the front door with the seal of the United States. Today, students and professors tread the still-grand staircase.

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After the tour, I retraced my steps, trying to comprehend the tumultuous past. At the music school, a soprano's voice wafted from a window. A bulletin board listed concerts open to the public.

On Koenigsplatz, carpentry students were building a Trojan horse in front of the Antikensammlungen; Glyptothek curator Vincenz Brinkmann told me the horse cost about $38,000 to build. It advertises the "Trojan Myth" exhibit focusing on Greek artifacts in the museums' permanent collections.

A block away, vines creep up the walls of Meiserstrasse 10, once a Nazi administration building. State collections of antiquities and Egyptian artifacts are housed there. Art history students sketched among reproductions of more than 100 statues and busts on the first floor. The goddess Nike -- the Winged Victory of Samothrace -- dominated the room; light flowed from the beveled-glass ceiling. I walked the marble floors and wide staircases, aware that Nazi palms had touched the brass handrail.

That evening, I returned to Haus der Kunst. There was an early-postcard exhibit, an industrial design show, oil portraits of women and modern art -- just the kind Hitler hated.

Several companies offer Third Reich tours in English. Munich Walk Tours' offering costs about $12.80; check http://www.munichwalktours.de, e-mail info@munichwalktours.de or call 011-49-89-207-02736 for days and times. Reservations are not needed. Look for a guide holding a yellow sign at the main entrance to the Neues Rathaus (town hall), directly under the glockenspiel on Marienplatz.

The Munich Tourist Office (http://www.muenchen.de/tam, 011-49-89-233-96500) has information on other companies, plus details on museum admissions, lodging and restaurants within the city.

Sue Kovach Shuman is a frequent contributor to the Travel section.