Obersalzberg
Located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-east of Munich, close to the border with Austria, it is best known as the site of Adolf Hitler's former mountain residence, the Berghof, and of the mountaintop Kehlsteinhaus, popularly known in the English-speaking world as the "Eagle's Nest".
[1] All of the Nazi era buildings (except the Kehlsteinhaus, which still exists and now serves as a restaurant and tourist attraction) were demolished in the 1950s, but the relevant past of the area is the subject of the Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzberg museum, which opened in 1999.
In the late 19th century German intellectuals like Mayer's close friend Richard Voss, artists such as Johannes Brahms, Ludwig Ganghofer, Joseph Joachim, Ludwig Knaus, Franz von Lenbach, Peter Rosegger and Clara Schumann as well as industrialists like Carl von Linde began using the area as both a summer and winter vacation retreat.
The scenic landscape and sweeping mountain views also attracted Adolf Hitler, who in 1923 visited his fellow party member and anti-semite, Dietrich Eckart at the Obersalzberg boarding house,[6] shortly before the Beer Hall Putsch and his imprisonment at Landsberg.
He became so fond of the area that by 1928 he began using his royalty income to rent a small chalet nearby called Haus Wachenfeld[6] from the widow of a Buxtehude manufacturer.
Several months after the Nazi seizure of power (Machtergreifung) in January 1933, Chancellor Hitler purchased Haus Wachenfeld and began making a series of three important renovations.
[7][8] Around Hitler's home, several Nazi leaders such as Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann and Albert Speer acquired residences.
[9] By 1935–36 Party Secretary Bormann had all residents of Obersalzberg either bought out or evicted, and the area evolved into a retreat for high-level Nazis with a cinema, a school for young children, an SS barracks, and an underground shooting range.
Under the command of Obersturmbannführer Bernhard Frank, they patrolled an extensive cordoned security zone that encompassed the nearby homes of the other Nazi leaders.
Two other security zones protected the heavily expanded SS and SD barracks, support staff, guest houses, underground bunkers, and air-raid shelters.
From 1937 the German Reich Chancellery maintained a second seat in the nearby village of Bischofswiesen with Hitler receiving numerous guests of state at the Berghof.
With the outbreak of war extensive anti-aircraft defences were installed, including smoke generating machines to conceal the Berghof complex from hostile aircraft.
Further, the nearby former Hotel zum Türken was turned into quarters to house the Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) SS security men who patrolled the grounds of the Berghof.
[18][19] The nearby Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzberg museum, opened in 1999, provides historical information on the use of the mountainside retreat during the war, and about the history of National Socialism; visitors can tour the bunker complex.
