Third Reich tours in Munich: which walking tour, and what to add

For most visitors, book the Third Reich and WWII walking tour: €29 per person, 4.6 stars from 7,641 reviews, about 2.5 hours, offered in English and German. It follows the story from the first mass meeting at the Hofbräuhaus to the failed putsch at the Feldherrnhalle and the Königsplatz, and it stops in the Hofgarten for the White Rose resistance. Then, if you want more than a walk, add the free documentation centre on Königsplatz.

The four walks

Tour	From	Duration	Language	What sets it apart
Third Reich and WWII walking tour	€29	About 2.5 hours	English, German	The most-reviewed; ends at Königsplatz
Birthplace of the Third Reich walking tour	€24.70	2.5 hours	English	Beer halls, Nazi headquarters, Kristallnacht
Hitler’s Story walking tour to the 1923 putsch site	€30	2.5 hours	English	The party’s early offices and the Führerbau
“The Beginning and End of the Third Reich” walking tour	€16	3 hours	Italian	Runs on to the university and the White Rose

All four are walking tours with a guide. None includes tickets for a museum.

What each one actually covers

The €29 walk. The route, as the listing gives it, runs from the Hofbräuhaus, where Hitler held an early mass meeting, to the Feldherrnhalle, where the attempt to seize power failed in 1923, and on to Königsplatz, where the party held rallies. The Hofgarten stop covers the White Rose. You meet in front of the tourist information office at Marienplatz, and the walk ends at Königsplatz in front of the music academy, which suits the next item on this page. Plan on comfortable shoes; the listing tags the tour as wheelchair accessible, so confirm the route with the operator if that matters.

The €25 walk. Its description is about the beginnings: the beer halls where Hitler spoke, the building where Goebbels plotted the Night of Broken Glass, the official party headquarters and the memorials to victims and opponents. The listing says that many Nazi buildings survived the Allied bombing and still stand, next to memorials. Check on the booking page where you start, because the starting point depends on the option you pick, and note that hotel pickup is not included.

The €30 walk. This is the one for people who want the early years in detail: the Sterneckerbräu, the party’s first office, the former Eher Verlag publishing house that printed Mein Kampf, Hitler’s second home near the Isar, the 1923 putsch site, the Führerbau and the Hofbräuhaus. The meeting point is beside the Mariensäule on Marienplatz, where the guide holds a red sign. Only 60 reviews stand behind it, and the listing lists several groups as not suitable, among them wheelchair users and children under 12 on its booking page.

The €16 walk. It is in Italian, so it matters only if that is your language. The listed stops are Isartor, the Hofbräuhaus, Maximilianstraße, Odeonsplatz, the Platz der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Karolinenplatz, Georg-Elser-Platz and the university, where it finishes at Geschwister-Scholl-Platz. It is the only one of the four whose listing gives a duration for each stop, and at three hours it is the longest; its last stops, Georg-Elser-Platz and the university square named for the Scholl siblings, are places of resistance.

What a walk cannot show

Central Munich was heavily bombed, and a Third Reich walk is mostly a story told at places that no longer look the way they did. That is not a defect of any one operator; it is the shape of the city. If you want the evidence rather than the story, the NS Documentation Centre on Königsplatz is built on the site of the former party headquarters. Admission is free, with no tickets and no advance booking; it is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and also on public holidays that fall on a Monday. A free media guide runs on your own phone, so bring headphones. There is a free English-language tour every Sunday at 1 p.m. The centre suggests a visit on your own from the age of 14, and it has a guide for children over 10 to use with a parent.

Take one of the walks, then go to the documentation centre on the same day, and you have both the story and the sources. For a day that goes beyond the city, see the Dachau Memorial tour from Munich.

Which to book

• First visit, one walk: the €29 tour, for the review count and the Königsplatz ending.
• You have read about the early party years and want the detail: the €30 tour.
• You prefer Italian, or want the resistance route: the €16 tour.
• You want the cheapest English-language walk: the €25 tour.

If you bring children, check the operator’s age limit on the booking page before you book.

For the full range, see the Third Reich and Dachau tours and the city walking tours.

Our pick for most travellers: the Third Reich and WWII walking tour.