From the “Brown House” to nsdoku

Since the eighteenth century Brienner Straße had connected the Bavarian royal residence with the summer palace at Nymphenburg. During the reign of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria it became the main axis of the new Maxvorstadt quarter, which was characterized by villas and gardens. On the site where the Documentation Center stands today, a neo-classical mansion was erected in 1828. The architect and owner, Johann Baptist Métivier, who had already carried out a number of architectural commissions in the neighborhood, hoped that by building his own mansion in this prime location he would be able to profit from the construction boom under way in this city district. 
 
Initially the property was rented out and later changed ownership several times. The tenants, owners, and occupiers of the following years ranged from the aristocrat Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Lotzbeck and his private teacher and later protagonist of the 1848 Revolution Karl Hagen to the Italian diplomat Fabio Pallavicini (a central opponent of Ludwig I’s promotion of his mistress Lola Montez), and finally the royal court photographer Joseph Albert, a shrewd businessman.

In 1876, the twenty-eight-room property was purchased by the English industrial magnate Richard Barlow, who had moved to Munich from St Petersburg with his family two years previously. After his death in 1882, the mansion initially passed to his widow, Marie. Unlike her deceased husband, she played an active role in the life of the city and became one of Munich’s most important benefactors. After her death, their youngest son, Willy Barlow, inherited the building, but lived there only briefly with his family.

The “Brown House” on Königsplatz: the Nazi Party headquarters

Willy’s widow Elisabeth eventually sold Palais Barlow to the Nazi Party on May 26, 1930, for 805,864 Goldmark. The purchase was financed through donations, a special levy of at least two Reichsmark from each Party member, entrance fees earned from Party events, and a loan from the industrial magnates Friedrich Flick and Fritz Thyssen. 

Shortly after the purchase, the building was extensively refurbished according to plans by the architect Paul Ludwig Troost. In 1931 the Party moved into the mansion from its rooms in a rear building on Schellingstraße and established its headquarters there. The noble location corresponded with the Nazis’ new self-confidence and desire for greater prestige. The democratic press mocked the new Party headquarters, calling it “Palais megalomania” and the “Nazi bigwigs’ mansion.” 

The “Brown House” was almost completely destroyed by a bombing raid in January 1945. The remains were removed in 1947. The two other Party buildings, the former “Führer Building” and the “Administration Building,” remained intact but were soon repurposed for cultural uses. The significance of the area around Brienner Straße and Königsplatz— the former showcase administrative center of the Nazi Party—was thus largely forgotten. In 1946, the traffic circle between Brienner Straße and Maximiliansplatz was named Platz der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus for the victims of National Socialism and thus designated as Munich’s central remembrance location for the Nazi era.

Voices from Munich society repeatedly called for a more open and critical approach to the city’s Nazi history. Particularly in the 1990s, artists and other committed members of civil society drew attention to the historical significance of the location with temporary art events.