The story of this place
The Feldherrnhalle, a loggia modelled on Florence's Loggia dei Lanzi, was built in 1844 to honour Bavaria's generals. On 9 November 1923 it became the climax of Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch: as some 2,000 Nazis marched on the square, Bavarian state police opened fire, killing sixteen Nazis and four policemen and ending the coup. Hitler fled but was jailed, where he wrote 'Mein Kampf'. After 1933 the regime turned the spot into a shrine, posting an SS guard and forcing every passer-by to give the Hitler salute. Locals who refused slipped down a side alley, Viscardigasse, now nicknamed 'Dodger's Lane' and marked with a winding bronze trail in the cobbles.