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Description
‘Die Stätte des 9. November’ (‘The City of the 9th November’)
An extremely scarce original work by Mercker that has not been overpainted (see below).
Biography: Erich Mercker
Depicted is the exact location of the Hitler Putsch at 9 November 1923.
Created before July 1944 (the stamp on the back is from Mercker studio in the Franz-Joseph-Strasse 16, Munich, which was bombed at 12 July 1944).
Overpainted Works by Mercker After 1945
Like many artists, Mercker painted his most popular subjects and motifs multiple times. Of the roughly 3,000 paintings he produced, only a limited number contained unambiguous elements of Nazi iconography. After 1945, artworks featuring Nazi symbols were banned in post-war Germany. As a result, Mercker either repainted his favorite subjects without flags, soldiers, and swastikas or, in several cases where he still possessed older paintings containing such symbols, painted over the Nazi imagery.
It is also possible that owners of Mercker paintings purchased during the Nazi era commissioned him to alter these works after the war. The paintings were often given alternative, neutral titles. Nazi flags were overpainted with the blue-and-white Bavarian flags, while swastikas, soldiers, and people raising their arms in salute were removed during the overpainting process (published on 19 May 2016 in npj Heritage Science).
Scientific research into ‘Die Stätte des 9. November by Mercker
The article in the ‘npj Heritage Science’ dated 19 May 2026, discusses an in-depth scientific investigation into the overpainting of fascist symbols in paintings by Erich Mercker. https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-026-02577-6#Fig1
In this research, ‘Die Stätte des 9. November’ by Mercker in the possession of the NS-Dokumentationszentrum München (overpainted), is compared to the version in the possession of German Art Gallery and to a version made after 1945.
The research by npj Heritage Science was published in newspapers and magazines in several countries. Below prominent in the French newspaper Le Figaro, as well on ‘Figaro TV’, d.d. 12 June 2026. L’œuvre La place du 9 novembre du peintre Erich Mercker montrait des symboles nazis
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‘Die Stätte des 9. November’ by Mercker was displayed at the exhibition ‘Nazi Design’, Design Museum Den Bosch, The Netherlands, 8 September 2019 – 1 March 2020. This world-wide highly publicized exhibition attracted over 130.000 visitors in six months. The exhibition was covered on the front page of the New York Times and Bild, and i.a. in the Guardian, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Paris Match, Spiegel, Welt, Tagesspiegel, El Pais and all Dutch newspapers. On television the exposition was covered i.a. by the ARD, ZDF, DW News, Aljazeera, AFP News Agency, SBS World News, and all mayor television chanels in The Netherlands. Because of the enormous popularity of the exhibition, the museum extended opening hours, opened its doors also on Mondays, and finally it extended the exhibition by 6 weeks.
Below: ‘Die Stätte des 9. November’ by Mercker was displayed at the exhibition ‘Nazi Design’, Design Museum Den Bosch, The Netherlands, 8 September 2019 – 1 March 2020.
Exactly the same painting by Mercker (but in a larger format) was displayed at the GDK 1939 room 10, under the name ‘Die Stätte des 9. November’ (photo below). This work was bought for 2,000 RM by Adolf Wagner, Minister of the Interior and of Cultural Affairs of Bavaria. Wagner also organized the ceremonies for the annual commemorations of the Beer Hall Putsch every November 9th in Munich. The original GDK-copy is not in the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum and not in the possession of the U.S. Army Centre of Military History (therefore probably destroyed).
Another version of ‘Die Stätte des 9. November’ by Mercker is displayed by the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, Munich. The Nazi banners with the swastikas and the SS-guards were painted over by Mercker after 1945; notice that Mercker forgot to paint over the bronze ‘Memorial of the fallen Putschists’ with the Steinadler by Kurt Schmid-Ehmen on top. Depicted in the Süddeutsche Zeitung’, 7 Mai 2025.
The painting depicts the Memorial of the fallen Putschists at the Feldherrnhalle, the spiritual center of the Nazi’s (notice the SS-guards). At November 9, 1923, at this location, the Hitler Putsch took place: precisely at this part of the Residenzstrasse, Hitler and his 2.000 supporters met a force of 130 soldiers blocking the way under the command of State Police Senior Lieutenant Baron Michael von Godin. The two groups exchanged fire, killing four state police officers and 16 Nazis.
The yellow buildings, at the background of the Statue of the Bavarian King Ludwig I, housed apartments and offices. They were located at the Ludwigstrasse and partial damaged during the war; it took until 1951 before they were fully restored. The buildings, currently used by the Bavarian Ministry of Finance, were designed in 1817 by Leo von Klenze, the architect who also designed the Palais Leuchtenberg, the Alte Pinakothek, the Glyptothek, the Odeon, the Ruhmeshalle and the Walhalla in Regensburg. At the right we see a lion-sculpture in front of the ‘Alte Residenz’, part of the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs of the House of Wittelsbach.
The Feldherrnhall was hardly damaged during WWII.
Extreme scarce work of art
Art works considered as overt propaganda were massively destroyed
As described below, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement of August 1945, the Allied Control Council laws and military government regulations, all collections of works of art related or dedicated to the perpetuation of German militarism or Nazism, were destroyed. Thousands of paintings were considered of ‘no value’ and burned. Around 8,722 artworks were shipped to military deposits in the U.S. In 1986 the largest part was returned to Germany, with the exception of 200 paintings which were considered as overt propaganda: depictions of German Soldiers, war sceneries, swastika’s and portraits of Nazi leaders.
Erich Mercker’s stamp on the back of the painting. His studio in the Franz-Joseph-Strasse 16, Munich, was bombed at 12 July 1944, and much of his art works were destroyed.
The Feldherrnhalle
Munich’s Feldherrnhalle, prominently located at the Odeonsplatz, was built between 1841 and 1844. At the instruction of King Ludwig I, architect Friedrich von Gärtner designed this open loggia and modelled it after the Loggia di Lanzi in Florence. Built as a tribute to the Bavarian army that fought in the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648) and in the War of Liberation against Napoleon (1812 – 1814), the 20-meter-high structure features bronze statues of two generals of Bavaria, Count von Tilly (1559-1632) and Marshall Wrede (1725%-1838). In addition, two lions, sculpted by Wilhelm Ruemann in 1906, grace the steps. The sculpture at the center of the Feldherrnhalle represents the Bavarian army and was created in 1899 by Ferdinand von Miller. On the back wall of the loggia hang two bronze reliefs, one honouring the fallen soldiers in the war with France (1870/1871), and the other honouring the fallen soldiers in World War I.
Left: Reich Chancellery 29 November 1933. VLTR: Hitler, Minister of Interior Wilhelm Frick, Goebbels. At the back a painting depicting the Feldherrnhalle (artist unknown).
Right: The Feldherrnhalle painted by Adolf Hitler (early 20th century).
The Beer Putsch
The Feldherrnhalle became famous as the site of a pre-World War II skirmish between the Bavarian police and followers of Adolf Hitler. On Sunday, November 9th, 1923, approximately 2,000 Hitler supporters organized an illegal march down the Ludwigstrasse towards the Feldherrnhalle to start the so-called ‘people’s revolution’. The state police ordered the marchers to stop and when they failed to do so, the police opened fire and killed 16 marchers. Four policemen were also killed during the clash and many others were wounded. Following the skirmish, Hitler was arrested and sent to prison to serve a short term. The battle between the marchers and the police has come to be known as the Beer Hall Putsch because the march began at the Bürgerbräu Keller, one of the city’s largest beer halls.
Left: Annual Midnight Swearing-In Ceremony of SS, Feldherrnhalle, Munich, 1938
Right: Recruits being sworn in front of the Feldherrnhalle on November 7, 1935.
Nazi Memorial: ‘Und Ihr habt doch gesiegt!’
In 1933 a memorial to the fallen putschists was erected (the ‘Mahmal der Bewegung’) on the east side of the Feldherrnhalle, opposite the spot in the street where the dead had fallen and the putsch had been halted. The memorial, designed by architect Paul Ludwig Troost and executed by sculptor Kurt Schmid-Ehmen, bore the names of the sixteen ‘martyrs of the movement’ who were killed on 9 November 1923 (fourteen here at the Feldherrnhalle and two others at the War Ministry). The back of the monument bore the slogan ‘Und Ihr habt doch gesiegt!,’ which was from a speech by Hitler and can be translated ‘And yet you triumphed!’. During the Third Reich, SS men constantly guarded the monument, demanding the outstreched arm and accompanying salute known as the ‘Hitlergruss’ from passerby as a gesture of respect. Since citizens who refused this gesture were harassed, some begain to avoid walking by the monument altogether by cutting through the Viscardigasse immediately behind it, which soon acquired the name ‘Drückberger-Gassl’, or Shirkers’ Alley.
Left and below: ‘Memorial of the fallen Putschists’, Feldherrnhalle, Munich, during WWII.
Right: The cenotaph in June 1945. After being dismantled by the American military government, the memorial (measuring 3 meters wide and 3,5 meters high, including the ‘Steinadler’ by Kurt Schmid-Ehmen on top) was removed and melted down to be used for the restoration of the Residenz.
After 1945
In 1945 the Putsch-memorial was removed and destructed. Today a small bronze plaque in front of the hall commemorates the four policemen killed in the attempted putsch.
In 1995 Reinhold Elstner, a 75-year-old German World War II veteran committed self-immolation in front of Feldhernhalle to protest against “the ongoing official slander and demonization of the German people and German soldiers 50 years after the end of World War II”. Elstner died twelve hours later in a Munich hospital.
| – condition | : II |
| – size | : 54 x 54 cm, unframed 49 x 49 cm |
| – signed | : right, under |
| – type | : oil on paperboard |
| – misc. | : created approx. 1939 |
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