Third Reich period

In the Third Reich period, Munich’s Königsplatz embodies the regime’s power to replace ordinary civic space with monumental spectacle and enforced political ritual. For Paul von Hartmann, the transformation is also personal: the ground he had preserved in memory as a picnic place with Hugh Legat and Leyna has been remade into a stark setting for the conference he is approaching.

A landscape remade

The park has been eradicated to create a vast parade ground. Tens of thousands of granite slabs replace the grass, while trees give way to metal flagpoles; two carry swastikas more than 40 metres high. The scale of the paving and the height of the flags turn the open space into an instrument of display, no longer a place for an intimate summer afternoon but a stage for the spectacles of the Third Reich.

Monuments and political ritual

Two Temples of Honour stand on either side of the square, supported by yellow-limestone pillars. Each contains eight bronze sarcophagi holding the martyrs of the Beer Hall Putsch, and eternal flames burn outside under the watch of two motionless Schutzstaffel guards. The monumental arrangement joins commemoration to surveillance: the dead are made part of the regime’s public symbolism, while the guards make its authority immediate. Paul von Hartmann salutes the dead because the gesture is required by law; refusing would be dangerous, since he cannot know who may be watching.

Architecture and the approaching conference

Beyond the temples stand the Nazi Party administration building and its near-identical counterpart, the Führerbau. The scene’s white, grey, and black palette, straight lines, sharp edges, and even square neoclassical columns make the built environment seem uniformly ordered. Outside the Führerbau, cars arrive amid guards, flashbulbs, and milling crowds. After complying with the compulsory salute, Paul von Hartmann picks up his suitcase and walks toward the conference. The scene thus places private memory, state spectacle, and present political business in one view: the transformed square is not merely a backdrop but the threshold through which he must pass to enter the conference.