The Eagle's Nest: From Adolf Hitler to the Present Day

Packed with black & white, colour photographs and maps of the area - this souvenir guide shows off Adolf Hitler's EAGLES NEST home during construction, in it's heydey, after the arrival of the American army in 1944 & and to the present - showing its use as a restaurant in 1986.

The Berghof was developed in stages from a much smaller house, named "Haus Wachenfeld". "Haus Wachenfeld" was a vacation home built by a businessman from Buxtehude, Otto Winter. Winter's widow originally rented the house to Hitler for 100 reichsmarks in 1928. In 1933 Hitler was eventually able to purchase the house with funds he received through the sale of his political book Mein Kampf. The site is breathtakingly scenic. The valley below appears by illusion to be a lake almost at one's feet. It was located lower down the same mountain as the Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle's Nest, which Hitler rarely visited due to his fear of heights. A large complex of mountain homes for the Nazi leadership (along with many buildings for their security and support staff) was constructed nearby.

The Berghof's great room featured a picture window which could be lowered into the wall below, opening the space to the outdoors and sweeping mountain view. Hitler considered the Berghof his home. He and Eva Braun spent much time there during the 1930s and his last known visit was in July 1944.

Severe damage was inflicted on the Berghof during an RAF bombing raid on April 25, 1945. The Berghof was set on fire on May 4, 1945 by retreating SS guards as the Allies approached and the contents were reportedly looted by Allied soldiers and officers.

The Berghof was connected to the Platterhof Hotel by a series of complex bunkers deep in the mountain, a superb example of underground engineering built at great speed and powered by a subterranean engine like the one remaining at the Eagle's Nest. The government of Bavaria gradually destroyed or buried almost every trace of the Berghof and the site is now overgrown with evergreen trees. The Hotel Platterhof, where many Nazi officers stayed while visiting Hitler, was later renamed the General Walker Hotel by occupying US forces. It was torn down in the late 1990s. Some of the Nazi's massive underground structures can be toured from the Obersalzberg Documentation Center as well as the old Zum Türken Hotel which was used by the SS and borders the Berghof complex of ruins. The main remaining structures of the Berghof are the large retaining wall, now overgrown with foliage planted after World War II. The site can be reached by a short trail leading from a driveway just below the Zum Türken. Local authorities regularly visit the area to remove occasional Nazi-oriented shrines and grafitti (as noted at the Obersalzberg Documentation Centre) The area was used from 1945 to the late 1990s as a recreational area for U.S. Armed Forces. With the end of the Cold War, much of the area has been returned to the Bavarian state government. Obersalzberg has also been redeveloped, with a luxurious Intercontinental Hotel opening in 2005 on the grounds of what was once Hermann Goering's house.

80 pages packed with black & white and colour photographs
size 21 cm x 29 cm

Andrew Frankel
Large format cardcover 80pp Plenk Verlag Berchtesgaden 1985