Ehrentempel

The Honor Temples (German: Ehrentempel) were two structures in Munich, erected by the Nazis in 1935, housing the sarcophagi of the sixteen members of the Party who had been killed in the failed Beer Hall Putsch (the Blutzeugen, "blood witnesses").

On 8 November 1933 Hitler addressed the party’s old guard at the Bürgerbräukeller (where the putsch had begun) and the next day unveiled a small memorial with a plaque underneath at the east side of the Feldherrnhalle.

The next year on 8 November the putschists were exhumed from their graves and taken to the Feldherrnhalle, where they were placed beneath sixteen large pylons bearing their names.

They were given the option of having their loved ones buried in Munich cemeteries in unmarked graves, their family plots or having them cremated, common practice in Germany for unclaimed bodies.

The sarcophagi were melted down and given to the Munich tram service who used it for soldering material to repair rail and electrical lines damaged by the war.

Temple site, 2017