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Last update - 21:06 20/06/2008 Visitors can't get enough of Hitler tours in Munich By DPA Tags: Hitler, Holocaust, Germany MUNICH - Visiting tourists can't get enough of Adolf Hitler tours in Munich, the southern German city where the dictator nurtured his Nazi Party and, 10 years before he was elected German chancellor, mounted the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. The guided walking tours take visitors to city sites with Adolf Hitler significance which most Munich natives today are no longer aware of, such as the fact that Hitler gave his first public speech upstairs at the world-famous Hofbraeuhaus beer hall in 1918. In the nearby Schwabing district there is a pub, the Schellingsalon, where Hitler liked to drink and often did not pay the bill. Advertisement Though he was born in Braunau, Austria, Hitler made Munich his home in 1913, before World War I. The trail follows him from his beginnings to his rise to Fuehrer of the Third Reich. Eric Loerke, 57, a U.S. national and longtime Munich resident, conducts the walks in English for a local tourist company, Munichwalktours, with a maximum of 25 paying visitors on each Third Reich Tour. "We wanted to find out some more about Hitler," said one vacationer, a lawyer from Dublin, Ireland. She and her husband were on a weekend break in Munich. Others on the tour were a family with two teenage daughters from Alabama, several U.S. teenagers and three women from Puerto Rico. Bo Williams, 22, a Washington, D.C. history student, said, "It's pretty interesting to see all the places where Hitler was." Most of the visitors have also visited the Dachau concentration camp memorial on the outskirts of Munich. "After that, a lot of them are curious to know how Hitler came to power," Munichwalktours co-owner Ralph Lluenstroth said. Wilma, 60, from Puerto Rico, said: "I've read so much about this, and I just could not comprehend how the Germans could follow a guy like that. After seeing the place, I can understand it better." Loerke, whose previous job was tending golf courses, has lived in Germany for more than 30 years and is able to explain the German mindset, as well as why modern Germans do not enjoy Hitler walking tours. He starts the tour by holding up photos of Hitler as a baby and as a mediocre artist in 1913 drawing pictures for postcards. He describes Hitler's enthusiasm for the operas of Richard Wagner. The tour begins at the heart of the city, the Marienplatz, and continues to Koenigsplatz, site of the old Nazi Party headquarters and a rally site, taking in the Hofbraeuhaus, where Hitler honed his rhetoric and founded the Nazi party in 1920. In 1923, Hitler gathered his supporters at a public meeting at another beer hall, the Buergerbraeukeller, and marched to the city's landmark Feldherrnhalle, in an unsuccessful attempt to seize power, the Putsch. That beer hall was torn down decades ago, but the tourists can see where the Nazi Party affixed a plaque on the Feldherrnhalle to commemorate the Nazi men killed when police put the coup down. Older Munich residents remember when the plaque was there, because they were required to do a Heil Hitler salute when passing it. Those who hated the Nazis preferred to pass the site by a back lane, Viscardi Gasse, nicknamed "Evaders' Alley," so that they would not have to salute. The Nazi period rouses such agony among modern Germans that few would care to do a Nazi-sites walk as part of a happy holiday. Loerke tells the visitors that he sees a certain ambivalence about how to deal with the Nazi past among the Germans. They face up to the past, but often only after long-running reluctance, he says, pointing to a program only begun in 2000 to compensate Europeans drafted by the Nazis into forced labor. Inside a palace built for Hitler overlooking the Koenigsplatz, the tourists looked stunned at the imposing red-marble staircase. The palace is one of the few Nazi-style buildings still standing in the city. It is now a college of music and theater. A choral performance, sung by students born long after World War II, wafts out of a great hall in the palace as Loerke describes to the tourists the Nazi campaign to enslave Europe. "Where is Germany today?" Loerke says. "The answer now is simple: it's part of the European Union. But defining the answer back then cost millions of people's lives." More Jewish World news and features Related articles: Berlin Jewish leader backs publishing Mein Kampf with commentary Filming begins in Vienna for tongue-in-cheek Hitler biopic Bookmark to del.icio.us   Photoshopped launch Did Iran doctor an image of its provocative missile test launch? 'Hitler was a good boss' Nazi bodyguard describes the fuhrer's last moments in a Berlin bunker.   1.   Evil is fascinating 01:31  |  sweis Melbourne 20/06/08   2.   A film to see! 02:37  |  Akiva P 20/06/08   3.   Hitler was a NUT 06:04  |  C. Varrick 20/06/08   4.   Disgusting ! 09:55  |  Aaron 20/06/08   5.   As a german .. 09:55  |  Maximilian Eberl 20/06/08   6.   White Rose 10:27  |  Steve 20/06/08   7.   Honoring evil -- far too common 14:31  |  Rick 20/06/08   8.   #5 mistaken German 14:59  |  chris 20/06/08   9.   It`s History 15:13  |  Lee 20/06/08   10.   Foreget Hitler? 15:27  |  someone 20/06/08   11.   Not Surprising 15:30  |  Gus 20/06/08   12.   The idea is not evil...... 16:19  |  irina 20/06/08   13.   IN REVERSE OF HASHEM;THEY HAIL THEIR MURDERING FURROR AFTER 17:18  |  glenna 20/06/08   14.   Germans are going extinct 17:59  |  Vercingetorix 20/06/08   15.   Erik`s tour 18:09  |  Jason 20/06/08   16.   Need To Remember 18:10  |  Jane 20/06/08   17.   HITLER TOURS 18:19  |  William 20/06/08   18.   Visitors can`t get enough of Hitler tours in Munich 18:46  |  EW 20/06/08   19.   Germans and Hitler 20:29  |  James 20/06/08   20.   Hitler tours 20:31  |  lamekiwi 20/06/08   21.   History Should NOT BE SILENCED 21:11  |  Sgt13Echo 20/06/08   22.   German population was mesmerized 22:35  |  Rick 20/06/08   23.   The bitter reality behind elections 22:49  |  Frank 20/06/08   24.   Train wreck 23:05  |  Dave 20/06/08   25.   Evil is scary 23:37  |  fghsdf 20/06/08   26.   very popular again 00:29  |  Rolf 21/06/08   27.   Visitors can`t get enough of Hitler tours in Munich 02:58  |  Dücker 21/06/08   28.   Novel means? 06:58  |  sweis Melbourne 21/06/08   29.   Hitler tyranny could have been avoided 11:22  |  Frank 21/06/08   30.   THE EISENHOWER DEATH CAMPS TOUR 17:35  |  ROLF 21/06/08   31.   Not interested in Munich 21:21  |  Mike 21/06/08   32.   Frank 22:31  |  sweis Melbourne 21/06/08   33.   Any mesmerizing to be avoided 04:04  |  sweis Melbourne 22/06/08   34.   So in England you can go on the jack the ripper tour 09:25  |  SJ 22/06/08   35.   Bike tours in Munich were great 02:59  |  Pat 01/07/08   36.   Stalin or Lenin Tours Acceptable? WHY? 04:06  |  Kurtis 11/07/08   37.   It is like visit Normandy and Okinawa beaches 13:41  |  Manolo nazi expert 11/07/08   38.   Same in Hiroshima!! Banned them!! 14:22  |  Manolo nazi expert 11/07/08   39.   and what about allied war criminals? 14:40  |  Manolo nazi expert 11/07/08

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