Kochwirt Restaurant The Kochwirt Restaurant is at Augsburgerstrasse 7, straight across from the back stairs of the parish Church of St. Jakob. The restaurant is on the same side of the street as the pink building that houses the Dachau Regional Museum. The word Koch means cook and this restaurant gets its name from a former owner, August Treuter, who was a cook from Puchheim. The Kochwirt was a favorite meeting spot for Dachau factory workers and remained a left-wing hangout. On November 7, 1918 the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria was overthrown by Communist revolutionaries led by a Jew, Kurt Eisner. The new government was called the People's State of Bavaria. Following the takeover of the state by the left-wingers, the Dachau Social Democrats and the Dachau Free Trade Unions held a meeting at the Kochwirt in which they organized the Dachau Council of Workers, Citizens and Farmers. When the Red Army took over the town of Dachau on April 16, 1919, a noted Communist leader, Ernst Toller, gave a speech to the Dachau workers from the porch of this restaurant. Toller was one of the Communists whose books were burned when the Nazis came to power, and he was a prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp. The Nazis seized power in Bavaria on March 9, 1933 and that was the end of the trade unions and the Communists. SS men sometimes frequented the Restaurant in the evening and there were a few brawls with the locals. The photograph below was taken from the Church steps across the street.  Dachau Regional MuseumBack to List of Historic PlacesBack to Table of ContentsHome |