General Walker Hotel

General Walker Hotel
General Walker Hotel
General information
Type	Hotel
Town or city	Obersalzberg
Country	Germany
Demolished	2001

Last updated August 25, 2024

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.^[1]^[2]

History

On 10 September 1877, the landlady Mauritia Mayer (1833–1897) purchased the former Steinhaus farmstead in Obersalzberg above Berchtesgaden. Receiving financial support by well-off friends like the physician Theodor Weber she had it rebuilt as a boarding house named Pension Moritz, her nickname. Mayer pioneered tourism in the Berchtesgaden area, her lodge quickly became popular with notable guests such as the writer Richard Voss, a longtime friend, the musicians Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Joseph Joachim, the poets Peter Rosegger and Ludwig Ganghofer, the painters Ludwig Knaus and Franz von Lenbach, or the industrialist Carl von Linde. Upon Mauritia's death, the hotel establishment was continued by her younger sister Antonie, who finally sold it in 1919.

The next year, the pension was leased to the former racing cyclist Bruno Büchner (1871–1943). In 1923 Adolf Hitler first visited Obersalzberg, where Büchner accommodated the Nazi journalist Dietrich Eckart. Again in Summer 1925 Hitler, released from prison in Landsberg, was a boarder at the Pension Moritz; he and his party fellow Max Amann completed the manuscript of Mein Kampf in a small cabin on the premises. Hitler became a regular guest, from 1928 he rented the nearby Haus Wachenfeld chalet which later was rebuilt as the Berghof. Bruno Büchner acquired the Pension Moritz in 1928 and renamed it Platterhof, inspired by Richard Voss' popular novel Zwei Menschen which had been filmed a few years before. However, when Hitler became Reich Chancellor in January 1933 and his legal secretary Martin Bormann gradually had the Obersalzberg resort turned into a restricted area, Büchner ran into difficulties. He experienced losses due to numerous defamatory statements and intrigues, until his hotel was finally closed by SS personnel and the Nazi Party took possession of the Platterhof on 20 June 1936. Büchner received a small compensation and was forced to leave Obersalzberg.

Initially a hostel for Nazi faithful, the building became a hotel for visiting dignitaries; the entire hotel was renovated and large parts of the complex were torn down. The only exception was the original ground floor of the old pension. A skyline room was added in 1937 and additional renovations were completed in 1941.^[2]^[4] It became among the most modern and luxurious hotels in Europe, run by the Kraft durch Freude ("Strength Through Joy") organisation. Additionally, as part of the renovations and construction, the Platterhof was connected to other official buildings and retreats used by the Nazis through a series of bunkers and tunnels.^[5]^[6]

Ideally designed to be a national hotel, it served primarily as secluded sanctuary for high-ranking Nazi dignitaries and high-profile guests. It was guarded by machine guns and contained an air raid shelter.^[6] Lavish parties and state functions were hosted at the Platterhof, and it was prized for the pristine beauty and protection offered by the towering Alps. By 1943, however, the direction of the war required that the hotel complex be utilized as a military convalescence hospital.^[6]

Postwar

Following the Obersalzberg air raid by a RAF Lancaster command on 25 April 1945, the heavily damaged Platterhof stood vacant and crumbling for a number of years. The US Army rebuilt the hotel in 1952 and together with the neighbouring former studio of Minister Albert Speer (Evergreen Lodge) designated it an Armed Forces Recreation Center. Many original fixtures, furnishings and design pieces taken from the Platterhof, and other notable Nazi buildings in the area were used in the reconstruction and the hotel, now renamed after General Walker, was again restored to its status as one of Europe's grandest hotels.

The General Walker Hotel remained in operation until the withdrawal of the US forces and the return of the property to the State of Bavaria in 1996. The US military had come to the decision to close and consolidate all of the AFRC hotels in southern Germany into one central facility in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, opened in 2004. The Bavarian state government resumed old plans to have a luxury hotel erected at Obersalzberg. Prior to the General Walker hotel's final destruction in 2001, many of the historical and highly valuable furnishings and fixtures were plundered from the abandoned building.

Today only small remnants of the hotel complex are still visible, such as a low-rise annex built in 1940/41 according to plans by Hermann Giesler, terraces and open staircases designed by Roderich Fick, as well as a section of wall from the skyline room. The original site of the hotel has been turned into a parking lot of the Dokumentation Obersalzberg museum.

Related Research Articles

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Hitler</span> Half-sister of Adolf Hitler (1883–1949)

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.

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.

Edelweiss Lodge and Resort is a U.S. Department of Defense owned recreation hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Located in the Bavarian Alps near the Austrian border, the facility opened in September 2004 at a cost of $80 million.

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.

<i>Führer</i> Headquarters Administrative centers used by Nazi leaders throughout World War II

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.

The Columbus Globe for State and Industry Leaders were two purpose-made globes designed in Berlin in the 1930s, one each for Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.

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.

<i>Ruins of the Reich</i> 2007 American film

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.

Gerhardine "Gerdy" Troost, was a German architect, interior designer, interior decorator, and the wife of Paul Ludwig Troost.

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.

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.

References

↑ Philpott, Colin (2016-06-30). Relics of the Reich: The Buildings the Nazis Left Behind. ISBN 978-1-4738-4427-8.
1 2 Wilson, James (2014-01-13). Hitler's Alpine Headquarters. ISBN 978-1-78303-004-0.
↑ Mitchell, Arthur (2007). Hitler's Mountain: The Führer, Obersalzberg and the American Occupation of Berchtesgaden. McFarland. pp. 18, 44, 159. ISBN 978-0-7864-2458-0.
↑ Yannes, James A. (June 2013). The Encyclopedia of Third Reich Tableware. ISBN 978-1-4669-9985-5.
↑ Molnar, Alexander (1998-07-19). Mission: Apline Redoubt. ISBN 978-0-7388-0242-8.
1 2 3 Walden, Geoffrey R. (2017-05-17). "Hitler's Berchtesgaden: A Guide to Third Reich Sites in the Berchtesgaden and Obersalzberg Area".

External links

Third Reich in Ruins

47°37′50″N13°02′29″E / 47.6305°N 13.0413°E / 47.6305; 13.0413

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Philpott, Colin (2016-06-30). Relics of the Reich: The Buildings the Nazis Left Behind. ISBN 978-1-4738-4427-8.

[auto-2] 1 2 Wilson, James (2014-01-13). Hitler's Alpine Headquarters. ISBN 978-1-78303-004-0.

[3] Mitchell, Arthur (2007). Hitler's Mountain: The Führer, Obersalzberg and the American Occupation of Berchtesgaden. McFarland. pp. 18, 44, 159. ISBN 978-0-7864-2458-0.

[4] Yannes, James A. (June 2013). The Encyclopedia of Third Reich Tableware. ISBN 978-1-4669-9985-5.

[5] Molnar, Alexander (1998-07-19). Mission: Apline Redoubt. ISBN 978-0-7388-0242-8.

[auto1-6] 1 2 3 Walden, Geoffrey R. (2017-05-17). "Hitler's Berchtesgaden: A Guide to Third Reich Sites in the Berchtesgaden and Obersalzberg Area".

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]