“Capital of the Movement – Munich” – US Soldiers Remove the Nazi City Sign, 29 April 1945
Three soldiers of the US 7th Army carry off the official Nazi city sign reading “Capital of the Movement – Munich” as a trophy at the city’s edge.
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The NSDAP had declared Munich the “Capital of the Movement” in 1935, commemorating the failed Hitler Putsch of 1923 and the party’s headquarters at Königsplatz. From that point on, corresponding signs marked every road into the city. When the US 7th Army entered Munich on 29 April 1945, soldiers — likely from the 42nd Infantry Division (“Rainbow”) or the 45th Infantry Division (“Thunderbird”), both of which reached Munich that day — took these signs down as trophies and posed with them. A symbolic act that made the regime’s defeat visible at its ideological birthplace. The image is among the most iconic photographs of the liberation of Munich and was reproduced worldwide in the press.
