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Overview
Adolf Hitler became “completely captivated” by Berchtesgaden and the Obersalzberg when he first visited the area in 1923. In time, he bought Haus Wachenfeld and made the area his second seat of government. This meant major construction of the Berghof barracks, administrative buildings, airstrips and the famous “Eagle’s Nest.” During the war massive tunnels were dug. Most were destroyed by allied bombing in April 1945.
This original book tells the story of the area, and—in contemporary postcards and photographs—how it was transformed by Hitler and his henchmen (Goering, Goebbels and Borman).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783035007 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen & Sword Books Limited |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Sales rank: | 556,893 |
| File size: | 16 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Humble Beginnings
Postcard numbers 1 to 5 deal with the early life of Adolf Hitler, his family, where he was born and how these things were later used to deliver the idea of Hitler, the man of humble origin who knew hardship and pain, but who, having ultimately triumphed, remained a man of the people.
1. Mother of the Führer.
Klara Hitler
Klara Hitler, was probably the most important female figure in the life of Adolf Hitler. He was her favourite and she, the mother he adored. This postcard shows the distinct physical resemblance between mother and son; Hitler certainly inherited his mother's piercing gaze. Klara Pölzl was born in Spital, about seventeen kilometres (eleven miles) south of Gmünd, on 20 August, 1860. The families of both Hitler's parents had their origins in the Waldviertal region of Lower Austria; this rural wooded landscape inhabited mainly by peasant farmers at that time is located approximately 140 kilometres (88 miles) north-west of Vienna. The Führer's mother has been described as quiet, polite and hard working; when aged twenty she entered domestic service in Vienna.
On 7 January, 1885, she married Alois Hitler (1837-1903), her second cousin. This was not an uncommon occurrence in the area at that time; however, an Episcopal dispensation had to be obtained before the marriage could take place. Alois Hitler was a difficult man, and the marriage was not a particularly happy one, but Klara did all she could to make a home for herself and her husband who worked as a customs officer along the Austrian-German border. They had five children together, three of whom died in childhood; Gustav 1885-87, Ida 1886-88, Adolf 1889-1945, Edmund 1894-1900 and Paula 1896-1960. Adolf, however, was her favourite. While the boy feared his father, who often put young Adolf in his place via word or belt, or both, Klara indulged her son to an extent.
Alois retired from the customs service in 1895 after which time the family lived in the vicinity of Linz. Hitler's father, having suffered respiratory problems for some time, died as the result of a lung haemorrhage on 3 January, 1903, whereupon the family moved to Urfhar, a suburb of Linz. Klara, herself not a particularly strong or healthy person, had developed breast cancer. Hitler, who was in Vienna, on learning that his mother was now terminally ill immediately returned home to be by her side. Klara spent the last weeks of her life being lovingly nursed by her devoted son; she died on 21 December, 1907.
Hitler was absolutely devastated by the death of his mother; the bonds between them had always been very strong. Klara Hitler was laid to rest beside her husband in the small graveyard at Leonding. Hitler would spend the next five years wandering aimlessly around Vienna, until rescued from depression and obscurity by the outbreak of the First World War. Years later, following Nazi electoral success in 1933, further visits of the Führer to the graves of his parents in the quiet graveyard near Linz received the usual accompanying publicity, portraying the dutiful son paying his respects. Hitler's only surviving sibling, Paula, made her home in Berchtesgaden after the Second World War where she lived quietly until her death on 1 June, 1960. She is buried in Berchtesgaden's Bergfriedhof cemetery, where her final resting place remains carefully tended.
2. Father of the Führer.
Alois Hitler
Alois Hitler, the father of the future German Chancellor was born in the village of Strones in Lower Austria, on 7 June, 1837, the result of a liaison between one Johann Georg Heidler, a miller, and Maria Anna Schicklgruber, a peasant girl. The names 'Heidler' and 'Hitler' (a later form of spelling the family name) actually sound very similar when spoken, which may account for early spelling variations and inaccuracies. The couple married five years later in May, 1842, at Döllersheim, but it was not until 1876, when he was almost forty years old, that the birth of Alois Schicklgruber would be legitimized; henceforth Alois would use the family name of Hitler.
Having served an apprenticeship as a cobbler, Alois then eighteen, left the area and joined the Imperial Customs Service near Salzburg. Thereafter he spent most of his working life serving as a customs officer in and around the area of Braunau am Inn, in Lower Austria. By 1875 Alois Schicklgruber had risen to the rank of Inspector of Customs, a supervisory position bringing responsibilities and, elevating the former peasant's son into the lower middle classes.
The Führer's father, while carrying out his duties both honestly and efficiently was popular with colleagues and superiors alike. It must be said that, given his background, Alois had actually done extremely well for himself in a world then dominated by a strict social class system.
Alois Hitler would marry three times during his lifetime; in 1864 he married Anna Glasl-Hörer, the daughter of a fellow customs official. Anna was fourteen years older than Alois and the relationship was not a particularly happy one ending in legal separation in 1880. Following a long illness Anna died in 1883. A month later, Alois married again; Franziska Matzelsberger, a hotel cook, had already borne him a child Alois Jr., outside wedlock in 1882, then Angela in 1883 shortly after they were married. Sadly, within a year Franziska had succumbed to tuberculosis.
On 7 January, 1885, and, as previously discussed, having acquired the necessary Episcopal dispensation required for a marriage between second cousins, Alois married for the third and last time. Klara Pölzl and Alois Hitler were married in the Pommer Inn at Braunau am Inn, the very building in which Klara would give birth to her third child Adolf, on 20 April, 1889. Alois retired from the customs service in 1895 to receive a pension on which the family could live fairly comfortably. Unable to settle and, finding retirement difficult, Alois and family moved several times, finally settling in the village of Leonding just outside Linz.
The father of the future German Chancellor was an obstinate and unsympathetic man and his relationship with young Adolf was not a happy one, the latter often bearing the brunt of his father's displeasure by way of beatings. While perhaps sounding brutal, this was common practice at the time; the belief 'spare the rod and spoil the child' was one practiced by many. The fact that Alois could not settle, nor make a success of farming during his retirement may have added to an already strained relationship between the former customs official and his rebellious son; that, together with his occasional bouts of heavy drinking would have led to even more domestic disharmony. When young Adolf declared that he wished to pursue the life of an artist, his father, who was planning a life for his son as a civil servant, reacted in the usual way.
Klara, who had always cared for the two children from her husband's previous marriage as if they were her own, having already lost two children herself, Gustav 1885-87, and Ida 1886-88 before Adolf was born, may have overcompensated by lavishing too much attention of the young Adolf.
On 3 January, 1903, while taking his usual morning walk, Alois Hitler, having just entered his local tavern, Gasthaus Stiefler, complained of feeling unwell and died almost immediately of a pleural haemorrhage. He was buried in the quiet churchyard within sight of the family home two days later. Adolf Hitler, then almost fourteen, reportedly broke down and wept bitterly on seeing his father's body; the unrelenting struggle between domineering father and rebellious son was finally at an end.
3. The room of Adolf Hitler's birth in Braunau am Inn (Upper Austria).
It was in this room that Klara Hitler gave birth to her son Adolf, on 20 April, 1889.
While obviously celebrated by his immediate family, the event of Hitler's birth was otherwise without significance. It is therefore reasonable to assume, that this photograph if contemporary, would have been taken for other reasons, or at a later date; consequently we cannot be certain that the room appears exactly as it would have done in April, 1889.
4. Braunau am Inn, Salzburger Vorstadt. Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town close to the German border. The house on the right, Gasthof Josef Pommer, 15 Salzburger Vorstadt, is where Adolf Hitler was born at 6.30 on the evening of 20 April, 1889. Apart from the introduction of modern traffic etc., the scene remains virtually unchanged.
5. Braunau am Inn, Adolf Hitler's birthplace.
As Hitler achieved political success it was inevitable that the place where he was born would also acquire status. Here we see the building adorned with flags and Party symbols. To the left of the doorway stands an SS man, on the right a member of the SA.
CHAPTER 2Creating the Führer
Postcard numbers 6 to 10 reveal something of the transformation of Adolf Hitler from that rather awkward individual, obviously not at ease in front of the camera, to that point where his persona almost leaps from the image grasping the viewer's attention. Hitler had worked hard on these problems, these imperfections in the image he wished and needed to project together with his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. The results, over a relatively short period of time were staggering. Postcards such as these played no small part in creating the belief that in Hitler the German people had found a strong leader, one who would improve their lives in so many ways. These simple postcards projecting Hitler as the consummate political leader, gave little indication of the effort involved in their creation, or their true intention. A form of propaganda used so skilfully by the Nazis that its impact was neither apparent, nor accurately assessed during the period of the Third Reich; only when the regime had passed away would its influence be fully understood.
6. Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
While lacking the impact of later examples, this rather gloomy study of Hitler was probably photographed soon after his having been elected Reich Chancellor. The Führer's unsurpassed popularity reached its zenith during the 1930s. Hitler's appeal transcended traditional class divisions still very much in existence at that time attracting support from a complete cross-section of society; workers, intellectuals and the upper classes, even to members of the German royal family offered their allegiance.
Crown Prince Wilhelm openly supported Hitler during the 1932 presidential elections and Prince Auguste Wilhelm, another of the Kaiser's sons, joined the Nazi Party in 1930, later serving as a Gruppenführer (LieutenantGeneral) in the SS. Having witnessed Communism's rough attempts to establish itself in Germany, many of the nobility became alarmed at the prospect of such ideology winning popular approval. These genuine fears influenced the decision of many of the aristocracy, amongst them Prince Philip von Hessen, nephew to the Kaiser and grandson of Queen Victoria, to support Hitler.
On one hand, world economic depression and crippling reparations resulting from a particularly harsh Versailles Treaty coupled with inept German government; on the other, Hitler's personal magnetism, charisma and a gift of brilliant oratory combined with an ability to exploit and make political profit from the least opportunity. These explosive ingredients, together with a mastery of previously unseen and innovative electioneering tactics would see Adolf Hitler elected, and appointed German Chancellor on 30 January, 1933.
It is well known that Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII harboured Nazi sympathies. Edward abdicated (in part forced upon him, in part self-inflicted) on 11 December, 1936, in favour of the woman he loved, Mrs Wallis Simpson. On 22 October, 1937, both visited Hitler at the Berghof then as Duke and Duchess of Windsor. At the same time, powerful elements certainly still existed in England who would have preferred to see Edward on the throne rather than his brother George, who was generally perceived as lacking in both character and personality when compared with Edward. The suggestion has been put forward that had England been defeated during the Second World War, Edward would almost certainly have regained his throne and remained a close friend of Nazi Germany.
7. Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
While not a particularly natural pose and looking rather uncomfortable, the calculated semblance of authority has been achieved by wearing full uniform, together with a stern expression deliberately directed away from the camera.
8. Uncaptioned.
An altogether much more self-assured and confident look. This Hoffmann study of the Führer reveals something of Hitler's intense mesmerizing gaze, a characteristic remarked upon by many who met him.
9. Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
A most compelling image projecting the man of destiny. Hitler's expression and bold posture challenges the camera to capture the moment.
10. Uncaptioned.
Hitler reads the Völkischer Beobachter (Racist Observer); this was the official Party newspaper which had been acquired in late 1920. The headline reads; 'Large remembrance meeting in Lipper country today'.
CHAPTER 3Munich: City of Struggle & Triumph
Postcard numbers 11 to 26 relate to those places having the greatest significance in Hitler's early political life, with the exception of Landsberg Prison, all were located in the Bavarian capital, Munich. From the Sternecker Bräustübl, where Hitler first encountered the German Workers' Party in September, 1919, (by July, 1921, less than two years later, Hitler had won the internal battle for control of the Party, by then renamed the NSDAP and emerged as its undisputed leader) to the impressive buildings constructed around the Königsplatz, the centre of Nazi power when victory had been achieved.
11. Foundation corner of the NSDAP in the Sternecker Bräustübl Munich.
The notice on the table states: 'At this table the Reich's Chancellor Adolf Hitler founded the NSDAP'. The Sternecker Bräustübl located in Sterneckerstrasse im Tal, near the Isartor (Isar Gate, fourteenth century) was indeed the birthplace of the National Socialist German Workers Party; it was here that Adolf Hitler's political life began on 12 September, 1919. This postcard shows that part of the building where the Party held its first meetings. Here the area has been set aside as a shrine to the founder and other leading Nazis.
12. Adolf Hitler's cell in the prison fortress Landsberg am Lech.
Located on the first floor, room number seven is where Hitler served a small part of the five year sentence he received for his role in the Putsch (revolt). His period of incarceration in Landsberg prison began on 11 November, 1923, and ended on 20 December, 1924. During the time he spent there Hitler was treated extremely well; he received visitors in his room and enjoyed unrestricted access to the grounds. It was here, during the latter half of his sentence that he began to dictate Mein Kampf, (My Struggle) to his fellow prisoners Rudolf Hess and Emil Maurice. On examining this postcard a little more closely we can just make out a large picture of Hitler on the wall to the right, below that a wreath with small Nazi drape attached.
13. Munich, Brown House.
Located at 45 Brienner Strasse and formerly known as the Barlow Palace, this building was acquired by the NSDAP in 1928 using Party funds and contributions from rich industrialists, particularly those of the Rhineland. Following internal alterations to Hitler's own ideas, the 'Brown House' opened as the new headquarters of the NSDAP at the beginning of 1931. The offices of Hitler, Hess, Goebbels and the SA were situated on the second floor; Hitler's office on the left side of the building overlooked the Königsplatz.
14. Munich, Brown House.
Another view of the Brown House, this time photographed from a point near the Königsplatz. On visiting the site today there is nothing to suggest that the building ever existed, no trace remains.
15. Munich. Brown House with Führer House and Ehrentempel.
The Königsplatz; on the left stands the Führer House. To the right of the Führer House and on either side of Brienner Strasse (straight ahead) stand the Ehrentempeln, (temples of honour) these housed the remains of the sixteen comrades killed during the 1923 Putsch. The large building observed in the background between the Ehrentempeln is the Brown House. These imposing buildings around the Königsplatz were designed by Prof Paul Ludwig Troost (1878-1934). Troost was Hitler's favourite German architect, following the death of Troost in 1934, this honour passed to Albert Speer.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Hitler's Alpine Retreat"
by .
Copyright © 2005 James Wilson.
Excerpted by permission of Pen and Sword Books Ltd.
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Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Introduction,
Visitors to the Berghof,
Propaganda Postcards,
Section One,
Humble Beginnings,
Creating the Führer,
Munich: City of Struggle & Triumph,
Berchtesgaden: Fount of Inspiration,
Obersalzberg: Spiritual Retreat,
Haus Wachenfeld: A Country Home,
Section Two,
Berghof: Secondary Seat of Government,
The Führer and the Surrounding Area,
The Munich Agreement,
Section Three,
The Platterhof Hotel,
Goering's Obersalzberg Home,
Other Buildings on the Obersalzberg,
The Destruction of the Obersalzberg,
The Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest),
Nazi Buildings Around Berchtesgaden,
Section Four,
Associates of the Obersalzberg,
Acknowledgements,
Bibliography,
Appendix,