Berchtesgadener Land

We drove to Berchtesgaden and Obersalzberg on Thursday. We got a late start (hey, it's a vacation - we should be able to sleep in - right?) and also ran into a traffic jam on the autobahn caused by a motorcycle-car accident. We went to the Berchtesgaden visitor center and then drove to Obersalzberg to head up to the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest). The Eagle's Nest is located on top of the Kehlstein Mountain at a height of 6,017 feet. It was the idea of Martin Bormann to build it as a gift for Hitler's 50th birthday. Six people died building the road up to Eagle's Nest. It took 13 months to build and goes up 2,300 feet in four miles.

We took the dizzying ride up to Eagle's Nest, took some pictures, and then road the brass elevator up another 406 feet to the actual building. Because the road is too dangerous to drive in the winter, Eagle's Nest is only open from mid-May through the end of October.

Hitler only visited Eagle's Nest just over a dozen times. The views were impressive. While we were up there, a thunderstorm rolled in, visibility quickly dropped, and it started POURING! We left and went to the Hotel Zum Turken (see below).

Obersalzberg was a little village at the base of the Kehlstein Mountain where Hitler's Berghof was located. Hitler started visiting the area in 1923 (before he was imprisoned after his failed coup). After he was released, he started renting a house there and wrote a lot of Mein Kampf there. In 1933 he stopped renting and bought a house in Obersalzberg (which became the Berghof). Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring and Hitler's deputy chief of staff, Martin Bormann.

On April 25, 1945 the RAF bombed Obersalzberg. 318 bombers spent an hour and a half pulverizing the area. Eagle's Nest was the only building that wasn't touched. There were a few other buildings that were not completely destroyed. From the 1950s until the mid-1990s, Obersalzberg became a resort for the US army. A few of the buildings not horribly damaged were fixed and used. The only privately owned building that survived (and still survives today) is the Hotel Zum Turken.

We visited the underground bunkers underneath the hotel. Hitler and other Nazi leaders had them built. They are dark, damp, and dank now. Then, they were warm and nicely furnished.

It was a pretty amazing day for two history buffs and their kids.

We drove around and found a little restaurant and hotel in the middle of nowhere. We decided to stop for dinner. It was all locals and no one spoke English. The food was fantastic.

(* Addendum - just found out today (August 7) that the restaurant we went to - Alpenwirtschaft Vorderbrand - was where Adolf Hitler's sister - Paula Wolf - lived after the war. She was interviewed there about their childhood in 1946. Freaky that we found this place on our own without knowing the connection.)