Berchtesgaden

I'm only a 30 minute bus ride from Berchtesgaden. For a Nazi history nerd like me, this is like living as close to history paradise as possible. Knowing that the historic points shut down at the end of October, I prodded a friend of mine, Walter, into going with me. I booked a tour to see the old Nazi sites on the mountain and to take us up to the Eagle's Nest, Hitler's playhouse on the tip top of the mountain. A short bus ride and border crossing later, we were in Berchtesgaden. Berchtesgaden used to be just a quiet little mountain village until some members of the Nazi party started buying out local residents in order to make their own playground. Many high-up Nazi officials had homes here, including Hitler, Speer, and Goering. Soon, the small town was a bustling Nazi center. They even had to build a train station to receive the flow of visitors visiting Hitler. Part of the station as it looks today:



Those three arch ways are were Hitler's private receiving area was. It's now a travel office and hocks cheap souvenirs. Haha, Hitler. Ha. Ha.

Remnants of the train station's Nazi past can still be seen. Such as this victory wreath, which used to have a swastika in it. Above the door, you can barely make out the faint outline of where the Nazi eagle used to be:



You can see more pictures of the building's past in my Flickr.
After exploring the train station, we took a short walk into the old city. It's a typical, quaint Bavarian town.

We found an amazing looking cemetery. Wandering through, you see many graves from Wehrmacht soldiers. The saddest one I saw was of three young brothers who all died in the war.

I found the fountain where Storm Troopers took a picture back in the 1930s. (Click here to see the original). I look just as fierce, don't I?


The buildings in town were gorgeous and I took many pics. See Flickr.

Also found the infamous Rathaus mural. You see this in many film clips from the end of the war when the US reached the town.


The Wehrmacht soldiers were modified after the war to be less menacing. A pair of them used to hold grenades triumphantly over a dead Russian's body. Not too PC nowadays, I guess.

After thoroughly exploring, we hooked up with our tour group, only to learn that the Eagle's Nest was closed. It started to snow early up in the high elevations and they closed the house the day before. I was really bummed out, but they did off us another tour for a reduced price. They drove us part way up the mountain and showed us where so-and-so's house used to be, where the old SS barracks were, etc etc and then we went to the documentation center. The documentation center stands on what used to be a Nazi hotel built originally for use "by the people" on the cheap. However, it was used exclusively for high ranking visitors. It has a nice little museum in it. But the best part, is that some of the hotel and Martin Bormann's (Hitler photographer) bunkers are still intact underneath. We got to go in and explore. These particular bunkers (there were miles of bunkers that transversed the mountain) are a great example of the entire system because they were never completely finished. So, one can see the finished product in some places, but also where they just stopped working, leaving the rock exposed. I took way too many pics, but here's a small sampling:





You can see more bunker pics and descriptions of the rooms/tunnels in Flickr.

The Eagle's Nest wasn't visible all day. There was a snow cloud that hung over the mountain and though we knew it was there, we just couldn't see it. There's a local legend that a dark cloud literally hangs over the mountain because of its Nazi past. Well, that day, just as I was coming out of the bunkers, that cloud lifted for about 15 seconds:



TA DA! The Eagle's Nest! At least I got to see it. I'll be coming back in spring when it reopens. I'm sure the view from the top will be astounding.

Back down in town, Walter and I took some gorgeous shots before hopping the bus back to Salzburg:



As always, please head over to my Flickr account to view all the photos. The bunker shots and the panoramic pictures are great!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itcouldbewurst
And click on the Berchtesgaden set.

Up next (internet speed and school willing) Vienna and Venice!