Palais Preysing

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The Palais Preysing in Munich is a late-baroque mansion and served as residence for the Counts of Preysing. In distinction to the nearby Palais Neuhaus-Preysing it is also called the Elder Palais Preysing.

Joseph Effner built the mansion between 1723 and 1728 for the Count Johann Maximilian of Preysing opposite to the Residenz. It is Munich's first rococo style palace. The walls on the outside were embellished with stucco. Since the restoration after the destruction during World War II the building houses shops and offices but the decorated stairway is open for the public.

The Viscardigasse: The mansion is situated behind the Feldherrnhalle at Odeonsplatz, the little alley behind the Palais Preysing connecting the Residenzstrasse and the Theatinerstrasse is called Viscardigasse (after Giovanni Antonio Viscardi), but it used to be known by the locals as "Drueckebergergasse". "Drueckeberger" is a German slang expression for someone who tries to avoid his duty. Adolf Hitler ordered that everyone passing the Feldherrnhalle had to give the Nazi salute as they walked by, as a tribute to the Nazi sympathisers who had been killed at that spot in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Many people practised a kind of passive resistance by making a detour down the Viscardigasse, to avoid passing the Feldherrnhalle and having to salute.