 Main building | |
 | |
| Established | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Location | Obersalzberg |
| Coordinates | 47°37′54″N13°02′25″E / 47.6316°N 13.0403°E |
| Type | Museum |
| Visitors | 1 million |
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. [1]
Located in the German state of Bavaria, close to the Austrian border, Obersalzberg in the 19th century was one of the earliest tourist destinations in the Berchtesgaden Alps. That changed, when Hitler purchased the Berghof (Mountain House) residence upon the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 and a large area was cordoned off and evacuated. After World War II, the premises were handed over to the State of Bavaria, however, they remained occupied by a United States Armed Forces recreation center and the General Walker Hotel for US troops, which had been the original Platterhof luxury hotel that had been used by the Nazis. The hotel was demolished in 2001. [2]
The nearby Hotel Türken which was often used by the SS, was badly damaged in 1945. It was rebuilt in 1950 and reopened as a hotel before Christmas that year. Visitors can still explore the historic underground hallways and tunnels that had been used by the Nazis. [3] [4] [5] Access to the bunkers was closed for construction in September 2017 and remained closed in July 2018 "until further notice". [6]
After the withdrawal of the US forces in 1996, the Bavarian state government resumed its plans to have a luxury hotel erected, but also the documentation center on the Nazi past in order to prevent the re-opened area becoming a pilgrimage site for Neo-Nazis. The hotel (originally the InterContinental and now the Kempinski Hotel Berchtesgaden) was built at the former site of Göring's residence.
The museum itself sits on the foundation of the Hoher Göll guesthouse. There is also a link through a tunnel to the extended bunker complex at the demolished General Walker Hotel (former Platterhof), constructed in 1943–45. [7]
The museum exhibition is taken care of by the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich. It offers over 950 documents, photographs, audio clips, films and maps as well as a scale model of the Obersalzberg area overlaying current buildings with the position of historical Nazi installations.
The exhibition covers the two floors of the main building and extends through the tunnel to the bunker. However, only a portion of it is dedicated to the history of the Obersalzberg itself, including a small section on the post-1945 era, when most of the area was used by the American military. The ground floor of the main building and most of the tunnel exhibits cover general topics of Nazi Germany, such as "The Fuehrer", "Actors in the regime", "Machinery of Terror", "Resistance", "Foreign Policy" etc. that are not directly related to the Obersalzberg resort. [8] The path of the exhibition ends in a documentation of the Holocaust in the dark of the bunker. Only a part of the extensive shelter network is accessible today. There are also special exhibitions. The 2008 Winter Exhibition was about "Free time in Fascism". From October 2012 to April 2013, the museum showed an exhibition on the victims of euthanasia. [9]
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.
The Berghof was Adolf Hitler's holiday home in the Obersalzberg of the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany. Other than the Wolfsschanze, his headquarters in East Prussia for the invasion of the Soviet Union, he spent more time here than anywhere else during his time as the Führer of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the most widely known of his headquarters, which were located throughout Europe.
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.
The Colossus of Prora, commonly known as simply "Prora", is a building complex in the municipality of Binz on the island of Rügen, Germany. It was built by Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1939 as part of the Strength Through Joy project. It consisted of eight identical buildings and was 4.5 km (2.8 mi) in length parallel to the beach, with the surviving structures stretching 3.0 km (1.9 mi).
The Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared since 1875, was the former city palace of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł (1775–1833) on Wilhelmstraße in Berlin. Both the palace and a new Reich Chancellery building were seriously damaged during World War II and subsequently demolished.
Flak towers were large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed by Nazi Germany. There were a total of 8 flak tower complexes in the cities of Berlin (three), Hamburg (two), and Vienna (three) from 1940 onwards. Other cities that used flak towers included Stuttgart and Frankfurt. Smaller single-purpose flak towers were built at key outlying German strongpoints, such as at Angers in France, and Heligoland in Germany.
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.
Eva Anna Paula Hitler was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. She began seeing Hitler often about two years later.
The Institute of Contemporary History in Munich was conceived in 1947 under the name Deutsches Institut für Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Zeit. Founded by the German government and the State of Bavaria at the suggestion of the Allied Forces, it was established in 1949 and renamed in 1952. Its purpose is the analysis of contemporary German history.
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 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.
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.
The Adlerhorst was a World War II bunker complex in Germany, located near Langenhain-Ziegenberg, the later settlement of Wiesental and Kransberg within the districts of Wetteraukreis and Hochtaunuskreis in the state of Hesse.
The Hotel Geiger was a traditional hotel complex located in Bischofswiesen, Upper Bavaria, roughly 50 km south of Salzburg. It was opened by Hugo Geiger (1828–1874), a retired customs inspector, as a guest house in 1866 and then progressively extended. By 1924 there were two traditionally styled substantial hotel buildings. During its heyday in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Geiger was a leading hotel, with many financiers and aristocrats among the guests.
Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a stripped neoclassicism, typified by the designs of Albert Speer; a vernacular style that drew inspiration from traditional rural architecture, especially alpine; and a utilitarian style followed for major infrastructure projects and industrial or military complexes. Nazi ideology took a pluralist attitude to architecture; however, Hitler himself believed that form follows function and wrote against "stupid imitations of the past".
Schloss Fuschl is a castle in the gemeinde of Hof bei Salzburg, in the Land Salzburg in western Austria. It stands on a peninsula at the western end of Lake Fuschl, a glacier lake. It contains a collection of old master paintings, and a museum holding objects relating to the film Sissi, parts of which were filmed in the castle.
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 the Nazi German Empire 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.
The Kampfhäusl was a small log cabin on the forest property of the former Gebirgskurhauses Obersalzberg in Obersalzberg. The cabin was the location where Adolf Hitler wrote the second volume of Mein Kampf.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
