For this event of Ruine München Companions we explored multiple visible and invisible webs of interrelations surrounding the biotope on the base of the former ‚Ehrentempel‘, located in the center of Munich, close to Königsplatz. The foundations are the remnants of a Nazi monument built in 1935 as a cultic site, housing the coffins of members of the Nazi Party who had been killed in the failed ‚Beer Hall Putsch‘ in 1923. After the war in 1947, the ‚Temples‘ were demolished but their bases remained. Later they were filled with earth and planted over, and over time and over time biotopes developed that inhabit the bases to this day. Their existence is living testimony to a debate about the ‚proper‘ way to deal with the former monument that remains unresolved to this day.

During our research, we came into exchange with the composer Leon Zmelty, who studies at the Academy of Music, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the Nazi monument, in the building of the former ‚Führerbau‘. Leon has written a composition for six saxophones, which takes the historically grown entanglements around the biotope on the Nazi monument as a starting point. The choice of instrument is related to the fact that, as we learned from musicologist Tobias Reichardt, there was probably no instrument in Nazi Germany that was more controversial, more symbolic, more ‚political‘ than the saxophone. On July 16, 2023 the composition was performed at the Max-Mannheimer-Platz for the very first time. The attendees could take a copy of our research publication free of charge. The text was also displayed on the flagpoles next to the ruins of the Nazi monument.

This event was developed in cooperation with the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism.
You can find more extensive documentation here and read the full text in German and English here.