The memorial is so subtle that it’s easy to miss. In fact, we walked right past it two days prior during a self-guided walking tour of Munich and were completely oblivious to its existence.
But once it’s pointed out to you, it is hard to forget.
On a quiet pedestrian sidestreet, gray, rectangular pavers line the sides and frame the main footpath that consists of small cobblestones. It’s charming at first glance, like something you might expect to find in downtown Boston or another early-America historic city or town. Look closer, and you’ll spot a strip of bronze cobblestones that snake most of the way down the street.
This is Viscardigasse. It was one of the stops on our ghost tour of Munich in August 2023, the night before we flew home. Like many ghost tours we’ve done in other cities, this one was a mix of local history and lighthearted fun – except for here. This place was cold, despite it being a sweaty summer night. The energy was different; it was heavy and dark, appropriately so given this street’s horrific history.
Also known as Shirker’s Alley, the street tucks behind the Feldherrnhalle. That’s where the Nazis placed a memorial to their members killed during the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Hitler’s failed attempt to seize control of the German government. A decade later, he ultimately rose to power and seized full control of the government on a platform of resentment and vilification of others based on religion, race, sex, and geography, among other criteria.
With Hitler in power and the memorial in place outside the Feldherrnhalle, the Nazis required all passersby honor Hitler’s fallen footsoldiers by performing the Nazi salute to the memorial. Those who supported the movement from the start did so with pride, while many others did so out of fear, and some saluted with regret once they realized the movement had set its sights on them or their friends and family.
Those who opposed the Nazis and refused to align with evil took Viscardigasse to bypass the memorial and withhold the salute.
The bronze cobblestones represent the path taken by those dissenters, but they also represent the final stop for some of those who refused to comply. The bronze cobblestones begin at the entrance to the street, but they stop near a doorway tucked into the back of the Feldherrnhalle. That’s where armed Nazi soldiers would lie in wait to stop, question, threaten, beat, and occasionally kill those who dared defy the regime. The bronze cobblestones can be viewed as both the path taken and a river of blood.
The guide on our tour explained that the Viscardigasse is believed to be haunted by the spirits of those who were killed for bypassing the monument and refusing to salute. Apparently unexplained orbs have appeared in pictures taken on this street. I didn’t spot any orbs in my photos, but I felt a deep sense of foreboding. The United States had recently endured the presidency of Donald Trump, a person who bragged about sexual assault and was endorsed by the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. In 2017, a group of his supporters whom he deemed “very fine people” held a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, complete with torches, flags with swastikas, and Nazi salutes. Neo-Nazi groups marched in Boston and other cities throughout the country in the years that followed. Armed militants picked fights in his honor across the country, and ultimately served as some of his footsoldiers during his version of the Beer Hall Putsch at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Though Trump lost the 2020 election handily in both the electoral college and the popular vote, he fed his supporters with a firehose of lies that were bolstered by a robust propaganda network on social media and cable television.
As we stood there on Viscardigasse less than 15 months away from the next presidential election, the former president was wiggling out of accountability for his crimes and preparing for a second coming. He was running a campaign that blamed economic anxiety on immigrants, put targets on the backs of those in the country legally, sought to roll back equal rights and crack down on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Monuments like Viscardigasse exist to make sure we don’t repeat terrible decisions of the past; yet the echoes of history could not be more familiar.
The campaign of hate and retribution succeeded. He won the electoral college for the second time, and the popular vote for the first time in three tries with 49.8 percent of the vote. It’s February 2025 as I write this, barely a month into the former and now current president’s second term. Every day my mind wanders back to Viscardigasse. The foreboding feeling from 18 months ago has turned to sickness. I feel the cold, heavy sense of dread that hung over that barely 50-meter stretch of street tucked quietly off the main thoroughfare. I think about the bronze cobblestones and the brave people they represent. I think about the ghosts that may or may not reside there.
I suppose that’s the thing about ghosts. Whether you believe in them or not, they call on us to wonder, to question, and – most important – to remember.
Both then and now, they call on us to wonder why so many people convinced themselves to excuse the inexcusable, and how so many fell for a propaganda machine that preyed upon them and pushed so many falsehoods. Then and now, they call on us to question why perpetrators were let off the hook for their crimes, why violent supporters were absolved of their actions, and why so many people of alleged patriotism and faith embraced such moral rot. Both then and now, they call upon us to remember the wicked lessons of the past so that we don’t repeat them. Here in America, I hope it’s not too late.
A convicted felon is back in the presidency, let off the hook for his offenses. Hand-picked puppets hold positions of power. A multi-pronged propaganda operation pushes falsehoods and sows division. Pardons are given to criminals who commit violence on behalf of the president. Attacks on educators, threats to minorities and the marginalized, assaults on free speech and freedom of the press, crackdowns on research, and denigration of expertise are commonplace. And today, the president and his administration are siding with an enemy and seeking to curry favor with a villainous dictator who seeks to exterminate the people of Ukraine.
I look at the haunting image of Vicardigasse and wonder how many people I know who would stroll past the monument and proudly hoist a salute if given the chance; I am certain I know a few. I look at the picture and wonder how many people I know who would salute if required because they don’t perceive themselves as the target of the regime, only to realize they’ve been taken for a sucker once it’s too late; I know several who are doing so right now.
I look at the photo and wonder how many people I know who will follow the bronze cobblestones and never salute, never bend the knee, and never excuse or accept this evil that is upon us. That’s where you’ll find me. I hope you’ll be there, too.
Chris Wristen 