The Martiusstrasse was designed around 1885 as a connecting road between Leopoldstrasse, which was still called Schwabinger Landstrasse at the time, and Königinstrasse. It was not however actually built until 1906 and 1907 in the western section up to the former Kaulbachplatz, today Kisskaltplatz. As the eastern end of the axis Elisabeth- and Franz-Joseph-Strasse, Martiusstrasse also became the preferred area for stately apartment buildings in Schwabing. Anton Hatzl, architect and house owner at the same time, had a closed row of four buildings (No. 1, 3, 5, 7) built on the north side and another building (No. 4) on the south side opposite. This was supplemented by two similarly designed houses (No. 6, 8) by the architect Franz Popp. The client was the Munich master locksmith, building contractor, real estate speculator, shareholder and real estate owner Friedrich Trump (1857-1931). The entrepreneur, who came from Treuchtlingen, had several magnificent buildings with luxurious rental apartments built in the Art Nouveau style by such well-known architects as Max Langheinrich, Martin Wintergerst and Franz Popp in the then quite new Munich district of Schwabing (in Schelling-, Friedrich-, Franz-Joseph- and Ainmiller-Strasse). In 1906, the newspaper Tölzer Kurier praised „the large new apartment buildings of the master builder Friedrich Trump in Munich, which are constructed with modern technology, such as electrically operated elevators that can transport 35,000 bricks and a corresponding quantity of mortar every day.“ Since it was built, Martiusstrasse 8 has lost its elaborate façade design, when war damage was repaired.
The first owner was presumably Dr. Wilhelm Sohler, who originally came from Milan. He had studied in Freiburg and Munich and worked as a doctor and medical officer in Munich. After that, the merchant and shipowner Louis (Ludwig) von Kannengießer took over the house, probably in the year 1916. He came from Essen (born on April 17, 1852) and owned a Bergbau- und Schifffahrt AG in Mühlheim. During the First World War, he came to Munich, where he died on October 30, 1919. His heirs took over the house.
At the beginning of the 1920s, Ernst Walter Stauffer became the owner of the property. Ernst Walter Stauffer was born on January 7, 1887 in Sesto Cremonese, Italy, to Swiss parents. He was an Italian-Swiss entrepreneur and patron of the arts. In 1912, he took over parts of his father’s cheese dairy business and built a multi-storey production facility and a very large cheese cellar in Cremona. Cheese was soon produced there on an industrial scale and sold throughout Italy through the distribution network established by his uncle. Having become wealthy through his enterprises, he bought a lot of real estate not only in Italy, but also in Switzerland. He also owned the house at Martiusstrasse 8 from the early 1920s, probably until his death. Stauffer died on 26 February 1974 during a stay in Bern. The bachelor Stauffer bequeathed his entire fortune of 100 billion lire (equivalent to around 50 million Swiss francs in 2023) to his foundation „Centro di Musicologia Walter Stauffer“. At some point the insurance company Munich Re bought the building. Since then, Martiusstrasse 8 has been an administrative building of Munich Re.
Among the first tenants at Martiusstrasse 8 were Dr. Otto and Charlotte Perutz, who moved in on January 1, 1908, as well as Frieda and Julius Schweisheimer, who lived at Martiusstraße 8 from April 9, 1907. Their daughter Ruth was born there in 1908, her sister Dora in 1911. Frieda Schweisheimer’s mother, Ida Schönthal, moved to Munich after the death of her husband in 1905 and lived at Martiusstraße 8 from April 5, 1907.