Johann Georg Elser was a German worker who planned and carried out an elaborate assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi leaders on 8 November 1939 at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. Elser constructed and placed a bomb near the platform from which Hitler was to deliver a speech. It did not kill Hitler, who left earlier than expected, but it did kill 8 people and injured 62 others. Elser was held as a prisoner for more than five years until he was executed at Dachau concentration camp less than a month before the surrender of Nazi Germany.
The Bürgerbräukeller after the bombing
Dornier flying boat, 1932
"The solemn act of state in front of the Feldherrnhalle in Munich (11 November 1939) for the seven victims of the criminal bomb attack in Bürgerbräukeller on 8 November 1939" (original caption)
Himmler (centre) in conference with Huber, Nebe, Heydrich, and Müller, (left to right) in November 1939
Munich is the capital and most populous city of the Free State of Bavaria. With a population of 1,589,706 inhabitants as of 29 February 2024, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and thus the largest which does not constitute its own state, as well as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The city's metropolitan region is home to about 6.2 million people and the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union.
Image: Stadtbild München
Image: Schloss Nymphenburg Münich
Image: Englischer Garten München
Image: Ludwigstraße, München