The Berghof was rebuilt and renamed in 1935 and was Hitler's holiday residence for ten years. It was damaged by British bombs in late April 1945, and again in early May by retreating SS troops, and it was looted after Allied troops reached the area. The Bavarian government demolished the burned shell in 1952.
History
The Berghof began as a much smaller chalet called Haus Wachenfeld, a holiday home built in 1916 (or 1917) by Kommerzienrat Otto Winter, a businessman from Buxtehude. It was located near the Platterhof, the former Pension Moritz where Hitler had stayed in 1922–23. By 1926, the family running the pension had left, and Hitler did not like the new owner. He moved first to the Marineheim and then to a hotel in Berchtesgaden, the Deutsches Haus, where he dictated the second volume of Mein Kampf in the summer of 1926. Hitler met his girlfriend at that time, Maria Reiter, who worked in a shop on the ground floor of the hotel, during another visit in autumn 1926. In 1928, Winter's widow rented Haus Wachenfeld to Hitler, and his half-sister Angela came to live there as housekeeper, although she left soon after her daughter Geli's 1931 death in Hitler's Munich apartment.[2]
By 1933, Hitler had purchased Haus Wachenfeld with funds he received from the sale of his political manifesto Mein Kampf. The small chalet-style building was refurbished and much expanded by architect Alois Degano during 1935–36 under the supervision of Martin Bormann, when it was renamed The Berghof (English: "Mountain Court").[3] The renovated interiors were designed by Gerdy Troost.[4]
A large terrace was built and featured big, colourful, resort-style canvas umbrellas. The entrance hall "was filled with a curious display of cactus plants in majolica pots."[5][6] A dining room was panelled with very costly cembra pine. Hitler's large study had a telephone switchboard room. The library contained books "on history, painting, architecture and music." A great hall was furnished with expensive Teutonic furniture, a large globe, and an expansive red marble fireplace mantel. Behind one wall was a projection booth for evening screenings of films (often, Hollywood productions, including Mickey Mouse).[7]
A sprawling picture window could be lowered into the wall to give a sweeping, open-air view of the snow-capped mountains in Hitler's native Austria.[3] The house was maintained much like a small resort hotel by several housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, and other domestic workers.
The Berghof became a centrepiece of Nazi propaganda. The Nazi-controlled German press as well as the English-language international press covered Hitler's life at home in a positive light. These stories helped to soften his image by portraying him as a man of culture, dog lover, and good neighbour.[8] Writer William George Fitz-Gerald, under the pseudonym Ignatius Phayre, published many articles about visiting Hitler at home that were fabricated from Nazi propaganda sources.[8][9][10]
The "Great Hall"Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun with their dogs at the Berghof
Based on German propaganda sources, Fitz-Gerald, writing for the British Homes & Gardens magazine, described Hitler as "his own decorator, designer, and furnisher, as well as architect", and the chalet as "bright and airy" with "a light jade-green colour scheme"; caged Harz Rollercanaries were kept in most of the rooms, which were furnished with antiques, mostly German furniture from the 18th century. Old engravings hung in the guest bedrooms, along with some of Hitler's small watercolour sketches. His personal valet Heinz Linge stated that Hitler and his longtime companion Eva Braun had two bedrooms and two bathrooms with interconnecting doors, and Hitler would end most evenings alone with her in his study drinking tea.[11]
Though Hitler did not smoke, smoking was allowed on the terrace. His vegetarian diet was supplied by nearby kitchen gardens and, later, a greenhouse. A large complex of mountain homes for the Nazi leadership, and many buildings for their security and support staff, were constructed nearby. To acquire the land for these projects, many neighbours were compelled to sell their properties and leave.[12] A mountaintop structure, the Kehlsteinhaus, nicknamed Eagle's Nest by André François-Poncet, a French diplomat, was built in 1937–38 above the Berghof, but Hitler rarely went there.[13]
The area became a German tourist attraction during the mid-1930s, after Hitler came to power as dictator.[15] Visitors gathered at the end of the driveway or on nearby public paths in the hope of catching a glimpse of Hitler.[16] This led to the introduction of severe restrictions on access to the area and other security measures.[3] A large contingent of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was housed in barracks adjacent to the Berghof. Under the command of ObersturmbannführerBernhard Frank, they patrolled an extensive cordoned security zone that encompassed the nearby homes of the other Nazi leaders. With the outbreak of war extensive anti-aircraft defences were also installed, including smoke-generating machines to conceal the Berghof complex from hostile aircraft.
The nearby former hotel "Türken" was turned into quarters to house the Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service; RSD) SS security men who patrolled the grounds of the Berghof.[17] It was later occupied by the Generalmajor of the Police. (The hotel was rebuilt in 1950 and reopened as a hotel before Christmas, the Hotel zum Türken. Visitors can still explore the historic underground hallways and tunnels that had been used by the Nazis.)[18][19][20]
Whenever Hitler was in residence, members of the RSD and Führerbegleitkommando (Führer Escort Command; FBK) were present. While the RSD men patrolled the grounds, the FBK men provided close security protection for Hitler.[21] Several Wehrmacht mountain troop units were also housed nearby. Hence, the British never planned a direct attack on the compound.[22]
Guests
Guests at the Berghof included political figures, monarchs, heads of state, and diplomats along with painters, singers, and musicians. The important visitors personally greeted on the steps of the Berghof by Hitler included David Lloyd George (3 March 1936), the Aga Khan (20 October 1937), Duke and Duchess of Windsor (22 October 1937),[23]Kurt von Schuschnigg (12 February 1938), Neville Chamberlain (15 September 1938), and Benito Mussolini (19 January 1941). At the end of July 1940, Hitler summoned his military chiefs from OKW and OKH to the Berghof for the 'Berghof Conference' at which the 'Russian problem' was studied. On 11 May 1941, Karlheinz Pintsch visited the Berghof to deliver a letter from Rudolf Hess informing Hitler of his illegal flight to Scotland.
Adolf Hitler greets British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the steps of the Berghof.
Hitler's social circle at his Berghof retreat – which his intimates referred to as "on the Berg"[24] – included Eva Braun and her sister Gretl, Herta Schneider and her children, Eva's friend Marion Schönmann, Heinrich Hoffmann, and the wives and children of other Nazi leaders and Hitler's staff who would all pose for an annual group photograph on the occasion of Hitler's birthday. The social scene at the Berghof ended on 14 July 1944, when Hitler left for his military headquarters in East Prussia, never to return.[25]
Two guests planned to use a visit to the Berghof as an opportunity to assassinate Hitler. On 11 March 1944, Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch arrived with a concealed pistol with the intention of shooting Hitler in the head, but guards would not allow him into the same room.[28] On 7 June 1944, Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg planned to detonate a bomb at a meeting there, but his fellow conspirators would not give him approval to do so because Himmler and Hermann Göring were also not present.
British assassination plan
The Allies rejected suggestions about derailing Hitler's train to Obersalzberg and using poison in the train's drinking water, but the British developed a plan named Operation Foxley in 1944. This called for a sniper to kill Hitler[29] on his daily 15–20 minute walk from the Berghof residence to the Teehaus on the Mooslahnerkopf Hill, which had been revealed by a prisoner of war. The operation would be undertaken by a German-speaking Pole and a British sniper wearing German uniforms after being parachuted into Austria. They would be housed and led to the area by an anti-Nazi, identified as "Heidentaler" who lived nearby in Salzburg.[29] The Foxley plan did not proceed, due to a dispute as to whether killing Hitler was a prudent idea and the lack of intelligence about his exact daily routine. By the time that the plan might have proceeded, Hitler had stopped visiting his mountain retreat; he never returned to the compound after 14 July 1944.[30]
Post-war ruins
The remnants of the Berghof in 2019One of the few sections of the retaining wall left at the Berghof siteView out of the "Great Window", September 2019Remains of the left wall of the driveway to the main entrance
The Obersalzberg was bombed by hundreds of British RAF Lancaster heavy bombers, including aircraft from No. 617 Squadron RAF (the "Dambusters"), which attacked Obersalzberg on 25 April 1945. At least two bombs struck the Berghof and did considerable damage to the building. Retreating SS troops set fire to the villa on 4 May, four days after Hitler's suicide in Berlin. Only hours later, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division arrived at Berchtesgaden along with the French 2nd Armoured Division. The Americans having only invested the town of Berchtesgaden, the French took advantage of this to attack Obersalzberg where the Berghof was located. In their Jeep, Captain Laurent Touyeras and his driver, Brigadier François Borg, overtook the half-tracks of the 2nd DB which were struggling to climb the slope. They were thus the first Allied soldiers to reach the chalet which was still burning. The French discovered kilometers of underground bunkers housing art objects looted from all over Europe, but also thousands of bottles of fine wines, tons of provisions and more surprising pieces, such as a collection of bras amassed by Göring. Allied soldiers thoroughly looted and stripped the house over the next few days.[31] The American 1st Battalion of the 506th Infantry Regiment arrived on 8 May. The 3rd Battalion of the 506th came into Berchtesgaden by a different route and sustained casualties in a skirmish with the crews of two German 88mm anti-aircraft/anti-tank guns. One of the most notable artifacts taken by American soldiers was the Columbus Globe for State and Industry Leaders, known more commonly as "Hitler's Globe".
The teahouse on Mooslahnerkopf hill was unscathed in the April 1945 bombing raid, but the Bavarian government knocked it down by 1951 because of its link with Hitler. For 55 years, the ruins lay in the woods by the 13th hole of the Gutshof golf course, but these were taken away altogether during the summer of 2006. The Berghof's shell survived until 1952, when the Bavarian government demolished it with explosives on 30 April.[32] The Berghof, the houses of Göring and Bormann, the SS barracks, the Kampfhäusl, and the teahouse were all destroyed. This had been part of an agreement under which the Americans handed the area back to the Bavarian authorities. There was fear that the ruins would become a neo-Nazi shrine and tourist attraction.[33]
More than 50 Obersalzberg Nazi buildings were destroyed. The Platterhof had been a nearby hostel for visitors to the area, and it was turned into the General Walker Hotel for American troops after the war. It was demolished in 2001.[34][35]
Location of the Berghof and Hitler's other headquarters
Berchtesgaden is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, 30 km (19 mi) south of Salzburg and 180 km (110 mi) southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps. South of the town, the Berchtesgaden National Park stretches along three parallel valleys.
Operation Foxley was a code name of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. At the height of World War II, one option to swiftly end the war was killing Hitler. The SOE developed two potential assassination modules, one was to poison, and the other, shooting with a special gun. Although detailed preparations were made, no attempt was made to carry out the plan. The secret document, a 20-page dossier, was declassified in July 1998 by the British Public Record Office following the 30-year confidentiality limit.
The Kehlsteinhaus is a Nazi-constructed building erected atop the summit of the Kehlstein, a rocky outcrop that rises above Obersalzberg near the southeast German town of Berchtesgaden. It was used exclusively by members of the Nazi Party for government and social meetings. It was visited on 14 documented instances by Adolf Hitler. Today, it is open seasonally as a restaurant, beer garden, and tourist site.
Angela Franziska Johanna Hammitzsch was the elder half-sister of Adolf Hitler. She was the mother of Geli Raubal by her first husband, Leo Raubal Sr.
Adolf Wagner was a Nazi Party official and politician who served as the Party's Gauleiter in Munich and as the powerful Interior Minister of Bavaria throughout most of the Third Reich.
Obersturmbannführer Bernhard Frank was an SS Commander of the Obersalzberg complex who arrested Hermann Göring on April 25, 1945, by order of Adolf Hitler, who had been manipulated by Reichsleiter Bormann into believing Göring was attempting to usurp the Führer's authority. Frank placed Göring under house arrest but ignored later orders to execute the Reichsmarschall.
Obersalzberg is a mountainside retreat situated above the market town of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Germany. 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". All of the Nazi era buildings were demolished in the 1950s, but the relevant past of the area is the subject of the Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzberg museum, which opened in 1999.
The General Walker Hotel was a hotel for US troops after World War II in the mountain (Alpine) retreat of Obersalzberg, Germany. The former Pension Moritz boarding house, boasting opulent accommodations and sweeping views of the Bavarian countryside and Alpine scenery, had been opened in 1878 and renamed Platterhof in 1928. After the Nazi seizure of power, it became a "people's" hostel for visitors to the extended containment area around Hitler's headquarters at the nearby Berghof residence. It was subsequently rebuilt into a luxury hotel for visiting dignitaries and in 1943 was converted into a military hospital.
The Führer Headquarters, abbreviated FHQ, were a number of official headquarters used by the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and various other German commanders and officials throughout Europe during World War II. The last one used, the Führerbunker in Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, is the most widely known headquarter. Other notable headquarters are the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, where Claus Graf von Stauffenberg in league with other conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944, and Hitler's private home, the Berghof, at Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, where he frequently met with prominent foreign and domestic officials.
Dokumentation Obersalzberg is a museum in the Obersalzberg resort near Berchtesgaden, providing information on the use of the mountainside retreat by Nazi leaders, especially Adolf Hitler who regularly spent time in this area beginning in 1928. The museum was opened in 1999, and by 2007 had been visited by more than one million people.
Margarete Berta "Gretl" Berlinghoff was one of the two sisters of Eva Braun. She was a member of the inner social circle of Adolf Hitler at the Berghof. Gretl became the sister-in-law of Hitler following his marriage to Eva, less than 40 hours before the couple killed themselves.
Ruins of the Reich is a documentary series that traces the rise and fall of the Third Reich through its architecture. Written and directed by film maker R. J. Adams, the film's "then and now" format focuses on the primary sites that played key roles from Hitler's rise to his final days in his Berlin bunker.
Albert Bormann was a German National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) officer, who rose to the rank of Gruppenführer during World War II. Bormann served as an adjutant to Adolf Hitler, and was the younger brother of Martin Bormann.
Gerhardine "Gerdy" Troost, was a German architect, interior designer, interior decorator, and the wife of Paul Ludwig Troost.
Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment was an apartment owned by Adolf Hitler, located at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in the German city of Munich, the birthplace and capital of the Nazi Party which was formed in Munich in 1920.
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust. He was hated by his persecuted enemies and even by some of his own countrymen. Although attempts were made to assassinate him, none were successful. Hitler had numerous bodyguard units over the years which provided security.
The bombing of Obersalzberg was an air raid carried out by the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command on 25 April 1945 during the last days of World War II in Europe. The operation targeted Obersalzberg, a complex of residences and bunkers in Bavaria which had been built for Adolf Hitler and other key members of Germany's leadership. Many buildings in the complex were destroyed, though Hitler's residence and the bunker network were only slightly damaged. Two Allied bombers were shot down with the loss of four airmen, and 31 Germans were killed.
The Berchtesgaden Chancellery Branch office in Bischofswiesener district Stanggaß was built between 1937 and 1945 after plans by Alois Degano as the second seat of government of Nazi Germany for the time of Adolf Hitler's presence on nearby Obersalzberg.
The Teahouse on Mooslahnerkopf Hill was the favourite destination of Adolf Hitler when he was at the Berghof at Obersalzberg.
Alois Degano was a German architect and Baurat. Degano studied architecture in Munich and then worked as an independent architect and master builder in Gmund am Tegernsee. About Franz Xaver Schwarz, the "Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP", for whom he had built a house in Gmund, he met Adolf Hitler at the beginning of 1933. Degano joined the NSDAP on 1 May 1933 . After many years of working at Tegernsee, he was born in the Third Reich one of the master builders in the Führersperrgebiet Obersalzberg. His most famous building was the conversion of the Wachenfeld house into the Berghof Adolf Hitlers in Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. Other buildings in the Third Reich were the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz (1935–1936), the Reich Chancellery Berchtesgaden (1936–1937) as well as the new building of the Reichsschule Feldafing (1937–1938) on Lake Starnberg.
↑ Phayre, Ignatius (November 1938). "Hitler's Mountain Home". Homes & Gardens. Retrieved 19 February 2016. For example, in 1938 Fitz-Gerald wrote "Hitler's Mountain Home" for Homes & Gardens. It was written in a tone which has been described as "breathless... Hello!-style." The photographs had all been taken by Heinrich Hoffmann (many of them years earlier) and given to the magazine as publicity handouts. The article happened to surface in 2003 after decades of obscurity, see the Guardian reference below.
↑ Yamin, Antonia. "Elizabeth Kalhammer (Former maid to Adolf Hitler) is now a 92 year old woman. yet she has a secret story in her past. She used to work at Hitler's private estate from 1943 to 1945". Israeli Broadcasting Corporation. Antonia Yamin interviewed the Former maid to Adolf Hitler - on her life at his private estate.
↑ Raiber, Richard, "Guide to Hitler's Headquarters", After the Battle, No. 19, Special Edition, Battle of Britain International Ltd, 1977, London, p. 2.
Sources
Eberle, Henrik; Uhl, Matthias. The Unknown Hitler.
Guido, Pietro (2013). Hitler's Berghof and the Tea-House (2nded.). Milan: ISEM. ISBN978-88-87077-07-0.
Stratigakos, Despina (2015). Hitler at Home. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-18381-8
Stratigakos, Despina (September 2015). "Hitler at Home", Places Journal.
Walden, Geoffrey R. (2014). Hitler's Berchtesgaden: A Guide to Third Reich Sites in the Berchtesgaden and Obersalzberg Area. Fonthill Media. ISBN978-1-78155-226-1.
Wilson, James (2005). Hitler's Alpine Retreat. Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, England: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN1-84415-263-4. 271 photos of the Obersalzberg complex and biographies of leading Nazi figures.
Döhring, Herbert (2018). Living with Hitler:Accounts of Hitler's Household Staff (1sted.). Berlin: Pen & Sword. ISBN9781784382971.
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