In the centre of Munich, behind the Frauenkirche, you’ll find a traditional Bavarian Wirtshaus (pub) called the Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom
The original proprietors came from Nürnburg, so the place specialised in Franconian food. It did a brisk trade in those small Nürnburger sausages (which Americans would call breakfast sausages), served with sinus -scorching horseradish, and washed down by lashings of Augustiner beer. The Glöckl still stands today.
By the early 1930s, the Zehnter family had run it with great success for a number of years. On the untimely death of his parents, 24 year-old Karl Zehnter took the helm.
As is German custom, Zehnter kept Stammtische, or standing tables for regulars. One such table belonged to a group of Karl’s buddies. It became known as Stammtisch 175, after the notorious paragraph 175 of the German criminal code which outlawed homosexuality.
Among the Stammtisch regulars were Edmund Heines, a particularly brutal murderer and enforcer, and his boss, Ernst Röhm. Röhm and Heines were numbers one and two in the Sturmabteilung, a group of militarized criminal rabble who sowed fear among Nazi enemies. They were a very useful bunch.
Zehnter moved in right-wing political circles, too, and all were assumed to be part of the same…
