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The great dictator, it seems, was quite the interiors wizard:
the Berghof
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One evening in May, my father-in-law proudly took out an old magazine. It was a November 1938 edition of Homes and Gardens, featuring a modernist bungalow built in Wraysbury, on the banks of the Thames, designed by his father, Henry Carr. The 65-year-old magazine was, and still is, one of his proudest family heirlooms, but he had only ever looked at the article on his father's house. I started to flick through it and found something quite remarkable.
As a result of this casual browse through an old magazine, I have struck up a friendship with an amateur historian in Louisiana, been involved in a copyright tussle with the UK's biggest magazine publisher, been branded a Nazi sympathiser, been written about in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and the Jerusalem Post, and become the subject of a petition from 60 Holocaust scholars as well as protests from David Irving.
My discovery was an article headlined "Hitler's Mountain Home" - a breathless, three-page Hello!-style tour around Haus Wachenfeld, Hitler's chalet in the Bavarian Alps. In it, the author, the improbably named Ignatius Phayre, tells us that "it is over 12 years since Herr Hitler fixed on the site of his one and only home. It had to be close to the Austrian border". It was originally little more than a shed, but he was able to develop it "as his famous book Mein Kampf became a bestseller of astonishing power".
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The great dictator, it seems, was quite the interiors wizard:
The colour scheme throughout this bright, airy chalet is light jade green. The Führer is his own decorator, designer and furnisher, as well as architect... [Hitler] has a passion about cut flowers in his home.
And he is seldom alone in his mountain hideaway, as he "delights in the society of brilliant foreigners, especially painters, musicians and singers. As host, he is a droll raconteur... "
Oh, and look who's practising his archery in the garden:
It is strange to watch the burly Field-Marshal Göring, as chief of the most formidable airforce in Europe, taking a turn with the bow-and-arrow at straw targets of 25 yards range.
And on it gushes, all accompanied by various photos of Hitler and friends admiring the view, examining plans for the house, and one delightful shot of Adolf relaxing on a deckchair with "one of his pedigree Alsatians beside him"
Hitler – Vegetarian & Animal Lover.
November 1938 was two years after Hitler had occupied the Rhineland and six months after "union" with Austria. He had just taken Czechoslovakia and Germany was weeks away from the horrors of Kristallnacht. Yet here was a British interiors magazine treating the architect of all this as if he were the Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen of his day.
I scanned the pages of the article, and put them up on my (not frequently visited) weblog. Nothing really happened, and I forgot about it. In August, I revamped my weblog, and wrote about the software I was using in the pages of Guardian Online. I also gave a bit of prominence again on my site to the Hitler scans. Within a week or so, I noticed I was getting about 10,000 page impressions a day on the Hitler pages. Given that I was used to about 300 on a good day on the whole site, this was quite remarkable. I emailed Isobel McKenzie-Price, the editor of Homes and Gardens, which is now published by the Time Warner-owned publishing giant, IPC. I told her about the piece, asked if she or anyone there knew anything about it, and whether they had any other copies.
Two weeks later, I received an email from McKenzie-Price saying:
This piece, text and photographs is still in copyright and any unauthorised reproduction is an infringement of copyright. In the circumstances I must request you to remove this article from your website.
This wasn't quite what I'd expected. But as I am responsible for the commercial side of the Guardian's websites, I am all too aware of copyright issues, and so begrudgingly accepted their stance. I sent a reply saying I was happy to take the pictures down, as I respected their claim for copyright. But a) as I wasn't making any money from it, I thought they were being a bit heavy-handed, b) as this was an important historical document, with much to tell us about both the past and present, they should really try to give it an official home on the internet, making all the copyright information clear, and c) that as it had already been online for several months, it was very likely to have been copied by other sites, so getting me to take it down wouldn't be the end of it. I never received a response.
I posted our correspondence on my site. Suddenly, I was deluged with comments from all sorts of people. Some were supportive, some dismissive. There was one accusing me of being a Nazi sympathiser wanting to promote Hitler as a decent human being, and threatening to report me to the anti-defamation league. (I'm Jewish, so this was mildly insulting.) There were a few bits of shocking anti-semitism from some neo-Nazis; and some very, very detailed debate about copyright. And, as I had predicted, the pages had already been copied and appeared on sites around the world - mainly in Israel and the USA. Unfortunately, one of these belonged to the Holocaust revisionist David Irving.
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Journalists started to take an interest. The New York Times wrote about my copyright struggles, then syndicated it to the International Herald Tribune and the Jerusalem Post. Wired News covered it on the Internet, with a link to my site. And a US talk show host I've never heard of, Jeff Rense, wrote about it on his alternative news site, which sent thousands more people in my direction. Strangely, the story passed most of the UK media by. In all of this coverage, I was rather distressed to find David Irving arguing with me to make the article available. Not my ideal partner.
Then, one Friday, I was checking my website for comments, and I saw one from an EJ Brock, which read:
For the record, none of the photos in the article are original to the article. All were published previously in Germany and are in the public domain.
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The next few hours saw a flurry of emails between myself and my new friend: Eric Brock, a Jewish Louisiana-based historian and amateur collector of Nazi memorabilia. It turned out that the photos were actually taken by Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler's official publicity photographer. Homes and Gardens hadn't actually taken any photos, they had just called them in from the Nazi's press office. Some of them were taken years before the article had appeared.
I put them back up on my site and quipped that if only I could find out that the text was written by Josef Göbbels, then I'd be able to publish that as well. Two weeks later, I received an email from Rachel Zuckerman, a journalist on the US Jewish newspaper, Forward. She told me that a group of 60 holocaust scholars organised by the Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies had signed a petition asking for IPC to make the article publicly available.
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In November 1938 the English fashion magazine Homes & Gardens profiled on page 193-195 the home of Adolf Hitler for its readers...... Hitler's Mountain Home
It is over twelve years since Herr Hitler fixed on the site of his one and only home. It had to be close to the Austrian border, hardly ten miles from Mozart's own mediæval Salzburg. At first no more than a hunter's shack, "Haus Wachenfeld" has grown, until it is to-day quite a handsome Bavarian chalet, 2,000 feet up on the Obersalzberg amid pinewoods and cherry orchards. Here, in the early days, Hitler's widowed sister, Frau Angela Raubal, kept house for him on a "peasant" scale. Then, as his famous book, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") became a best-seller of astonishing power (4,500,000 copies of it have been sold), Hitler began to think of replacing that humble shack by a house and garden of suitable scope. In this matter he has throughout been his own architect.
There is nothing pretentious about the Führer's little estate. It is one that any merchant of Munich or Nuremberg might possess in these lovely hills.
The entrance hall is filled with a curious display of cactus plants in majolica pots. Herr Hitler's study is fitted as a modern office, and leading out of this is a telephone exchange. From here it is possible for the Führer to invite his friends or Ministers to fly over to Berchesgarden, landing on his own aerodrome just below the chalet lawns.
The site commands the fairest view in all Europe. This is to say much, I know. But in these Bavarian Alps there is a peculiar softness of greenery, with snow-white cascades and forest-clad pinnacles, like the Schönfeldspitze and Teufelshörner.
Hitler's home looks out upon his native Austria. Meals are often served on the terrace on little tables shaded by big canvas umbrellas. From this view-point a chain of drowsy lakes is seen far below, with ancient shrine-chapels hidden in ferny folds of towering rocks. And since the Reichsführer settled here as "Squire of Wachenfeld," the whole region has been starred with motor speedways, even as far as Oberammergau.
The colour scheme throughout this bright, airy chalet is a light jade green. In outside rooms, like the sun-parlour, chairs and tables are of white plaited cane. Here Hitler will read the home and foreign papers which his own air-pilot, Hansel Baur, brings him every day from Berlin before lunch.
At this altitude the Bavarian sun is at its most genial. Even at Christmastime when deep snows are out, Haus Wachenfield basks in warmth like the Engadine's. The effect of light and air in the house is heightened by the rolling and trilling of many Hartz mountain canaries in gilded cages which hang or stand in most of the rooms.
The curtains are of printed linen, or fine damask in the softer shades. The Führer is his own decorator, designer, and furnisher, as well as architect. He is constantly enlarging the place, building on new guest-annexes, and arranging in these his favourite antiques -- chiefly German furniture of the eighteenth century, for which agents in Munich are on the look out.
It is a mistake to suppose that week-end guests are all, or even mainly, State officials. Hitler delights in the society of brilliant foreigners, especially painters, singers, and musicians. As host he is a droll raconteur; we all know how surprised were Mr. Lloyd George and his party when they accepted an invitation to Haus Wachenfield.
The guest bedrooms are hung with old engravings. But more interesting than any of these to the visitor are the Führer's own water-colour sketches. Time was when a hungry Hitler was glad to raise a few marks by selling these little works; none measure more than about eight inches square, and each is signed "A. Hitler" -- unmistakably, if also illegibly!
The gardens are laid out simply enough. Lawns at different levels are planted with flowering shrubs, as well as roses and other blooms in due season. The Führer, I may add, has a passion for cut flowers in his home, as well as for music.
Every morning at nine he goes out for a walk with his gardeners about their day's work. These men, like the chaffeur and air-pilot, are not so much servants as local friends. A life-long vegetarian at table, Hitler's kitchen plots are both varied and heavy in produce. Even in his meatless diet Hitler is something of a gourmet -- as Sir John Simon and Mr. Anthony Eden were surprised to note when they dined with him in the Presidial Palace at Berlin. His Bavarian chef, Herr Kannenberg, contrives an imposing array of vegetarian dishes, savoury and rich, pleasing to the eye as well as to the palate, and all conforming to the dietic standards which Hitler exacts. but at Haus Wachenfeld he keeps a generous table for guests of normal tastes. Here bons viveurs like Field Marshals Göring and von Blomberg, and Joachim von Ribbentrop will forgather at dinner. Elaborate dishes like Caneton à la presse and truite saumoné à la Monseigneur will then be served, with fine wines and liqueurs of von Ribbentrop's expert choosing. Cigars and cigarettes are duly lighted at this terrace feast -- though Hitler himself never smokes, nor does he take alcohol in any form.
All visitors are shown their host's model kennels, where he breeds magnificent Alsatians. Some of his pedigree pets are allowed the run of the house, especially on days when Herr Hitler gives a "Fun Fair" to the local children. On such a day, when State affairs are over, the Squire himself, attended by some of his guests, will stroll through the woods into hamlets above and below. There rustics sit at cottage doors carving trinkets and toys in wood, ivory, and bone. It is then the little ones are invited to the house. Coffee, cakes, fruits, and sweets are laid for them on trestle tables in the grassy orchards. Then Frauen Göbbels and Göring, in dainty Bavarian dress, perform dances and folk-songs, while the bolder spirits are given joy-rides in Herr Hitler's private airplane.
Nor must I forget to mention the archery-butts at the back of the chalet. It is strange to watch the burly Field-Marshall Göring, as chief of the most formidable air force in Europe, taking a turn with the bow and arrow at straw targets of twenty-five yards range. There is as much to-do about those scarlet bulls'-eyes as though the fate of nations depended on a full score.
But I have said enough to convey the idea of a sunny sub-alpine home, hundreds of miles from Berlin's uproar, and set amid an unsophisticated peasantry of carvers and hunters. This is a only home in which Hitler can laugh and take his ease -- or even "conduct tours" by means of the tripod telescope which he himself operates on the terrace for his visitors. "This place is mine," he says simply. "I built it with money that I earned." Then he takes you into his library, where you note that quite half the books are on history, painting, architecture, and music.
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Adolf Hitler |
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Obersalzberg model. |
At the Berghof, Hitler had a gigantic window built that could be lowered on warm days to give an unimpeded view of the Untersberg. It was here that British leader Neville Chamberlain and others met with Hitler. A British lifestyle magazine even published a fawning profile of the house and its chief occupant.
Nearby Berchtesgaden became the center for those seeking to be close to Hitler, including journalists who used the town as a synonymous dateline for the Nazi leader's enclave.
The Kehlsteinhaus, atop the 6,017-foot Kehlstein mountain, was built as a Nazi Party present for Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939.
Workers toiled non-stop in 1937 and 1938 to carve a twisting road 3,000 feet up the mountainside, burrow a tunnel into the rock and install an elevator to carry visitors the last 406 feet to the perch.
Hitler, who disliked heights, rarely visited. But it was a powerful symbol, even visible from the nearby tourist mecca of Königsee. It was one guest, a French diplomat, who remarked that the building reminded him of an "eagle's nest." The name stuck.
Obersalzberg would be far removed from the battles of World War II. But like Wannsee, the pretty lake district near Berlin where Nazi leaders drew up "the final solution" to obliterate the Jewish race, the calm surroundings around Berchtesgaden were the scene of planning the madness that would sweep the continent.
It was at the Berghof that Hitler berated the Austrians into concessions that would lead to the 1938 Anschluss ("union"), the forcible merger of Austria into Germany.
At the Berghof, Hitler finalized plans for the 1939 invasion of Poland that set off World War II. He also drew up plans for Operation Barbarossa, the disasterous 1940 invasion of his former ally, the Soviet Union.
As the war turned against Germany in 1942, the Nazis began to burrow furiously into the mountainside, creating huge bunkers and storehouses that could withstand Allied attack from the air or ground. It was at the Berghof that Hitler received news of the Allies D-Day invasion of France.
Obersalzberg almost made it through the war unscathed. Hitler had last visited in 1944. But the Allies worried that the area could be used by Nazi hardliners as an alpine fortress for a protracted siege.
On the night of April 25, more than 359 British Lancaster bombers came over the Alps in what would be the second to last Royal Air Force heavy bomber mission over Europe. For an hour and a half, the RAF pummeled Berchtesgaden and Obersalzberg with more than 1,000 tons of bombs. These included huge Tallboy bunker-buster bombs with 5,200-pound warheads.
Hitler's Berghof took two hits but remained standing. Other buildings were destroyed or damaged. The Eagle's Nest, one of the main targets, was unscathed - too tiny a target to hit on a steep mountain ridge.
On April 30th, Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunkers. On May 4, the Nazis set fire to much of Obersalzberg and retreated into Austria.
Later on May 4, American and Free French forces took the town. Troops ransacked the buildings for trophies, enjoying the tins of caviar and flasks of wine left behind. Soldiers found a train car belonging to Hermann Goring filled with priceless art looted from across Europe.
On May 5, Germany surrendered. The war in Europe was over.
Fearful that Obersalzberg might attract secret Nazi groups, the Americans banned Germans from the area until 1949.
When the ban was lifted, curiousity seekers and a few Hitler hardliners flocked to the area.
Fearful Obersalzberg would become a Hitler shrine, the U.S. Army and Bavarian state government agreed to demolish the ruins of the Berghof and most other major Nazi buildings. Trees were planted to eventually visually cloak the Berghof remains.
A few former Nazi sites, such as the Platterhof, were taken over by the occupiers. The Americans allowed the Bavarian government to save the Kehlsteinhaus if a use was found that would discourage veneration of the Nazis. It was leased as a restaurant; still it's main use.
Then came the Cold War and the Soviet Union switched from ally to enemy. The Americans stayed. And stayed.
Obersalzberg became a recreation center for American troops stationed in Europe. Uncle Sam was parsimonious with its construction budget, happy to use the old rather than build the new.
The Platterhof was renamed the General Walker Hotel. Vacationing soldiers were taken on tours of the old Nazi bunkers. A golf course and ski slope were built.
With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. forces in Europe were scaled back. The U.S. decided to close the Obersalzberg recreation area, along with Chiemsee - where soldiers relaxed in a former Nazi Autobahn resort. Only the center at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, home to the Nazis' 1936 Winter Olympics, remains. The last U.S. troops left Obersalzberg in 1995.
A footnote: Paula Hitler, the dictator's sister, returned to live in the area from 1952 until her death in 1960.
She used the last name her brother asked her to use in the 1930s: Wolf.
Interview with Hitler`s sister on 5th June 1946 Agent: C - 1o Case: Mrs. Paula Wolf (Paula Hitler, sister of the late Adolf Hitler) Report: I was born at the Rauschergut in Hafeld, Gemeinde Fischelham (upper Austria), which belonged to my father, the retired Custom - House - Officer Alois Hitler. It was a small property of approximately 50 Joch [ the word means, "Yoke", a unit of area of about an Acre in size and was derived from the amount of land an Ox could plough in a day]. My parents sold the farm however when I was only 2 - 3 years old since my father could not manage the farm on account of his age of nearly 60 years. I was the youngest child out of the second marriage of my father [there is an error here as she was the youngest child of her father`s third, not second marriage, the first being childless]. We have been 4 brothers and sisters. Of the altogether 8 children of my father out of his first and second marriage [actually the second and third], 4 died young of infant diseases. My step - brother Alois [he was her half - brother, not step – brother], who is living in Hamburg as far as I know, was the eldest, next came my sister Angela [another error, as Angela was Paula`s half - sister, and full - sister to Alois] and at last my brother Adolf, born April 20, 1889 in Braunau. I liked my brother [Adolf] best of all my brothers and sisters [again she does not differentiate between half and full kin] in spite of the difference in age. It was especially my brother Adolf, who challenged my father to extreme harshness and who got his sound thrashing every day. He was a scrubby little rogue, and all attempts of his father to thrash him for his rudeness and to cause him to love the profession of an official of the estate were in vain. How often on the other hand did my mother caress him and try to obtain with her kindness, were the father could not succeed with harshness! Of my other brothers and sisters I especially remember my stepsister Angela as a beautiful girl. Also she was watched by my father very harshly. He was examining every wooer with the strict demand that only a civil servant was allowed to marry her. Really in 1903 she married the Revenue officer Leo Raubal in Linz, who died very young in 1910. After his death my sister with her 3 children went on to live in Linz for a short time. Then she removed to Vienna. Later on she married the university professor Hammitzsch in Dresden. They had no children. I visited my sister in Dresden twice, but until today I have not got any news from her. I guess that she has found a refuge somewhere in Upper Austria. In the beginning of January 1903 my father died of heart failure. He was carried home dead from his morning pint. Four years later on December 21, 1907, far too early for me and my brother Adolf, for we were both sincerely fond of my mother, my mother died too. Both are buried on the churchyard of Leonding near Linz. During this time my mother was severely ill we were most unhappy. Assisting me, my brother Adolf spoiled my mother during this time of her life with overflowing tenderness. He was indefatigable in his care for her, wanted to comply with any desire she could possible have and did all to demonstrate his great love for her. Her last desire was accomplished; she was buried beside the father. We accompanied her on her last way from Linz to Leonding, where she was buried on December 23, 1907. Of those last years we lived together with my mother I especially remember the cheerfulness of my brother and his extraordinary interest for history, geography, architecture, painting and music. At school he was nothing less than a show boy, came home with bad school reports and admonitions. At home every day he was sitting for hours on the beautiful Heitzmann grand piano, my mother had given him. This extraordinary interest for music, especially for Wagner and Listz, remained with him for all his life. Particularly strong was even at that time already his interest for the theatre and especially for the opera. I can remember that he was visiting the opera house 13 times to hear "Die Gotterdämmerung". His Christmas present for his mother has always been a theatre ticket. He was also pursuing aquarelle - painting (watercolour painting) already during his school years, but more seriously in Vienna and later in Munich. Very often he used to give lectures on themes concerning history and policy to my mother and to me in a rhetorical way. A few days after my mother`s death my brother moved to Vienna. I remained in our flat in Linz, where my mother`s sister was keeping house. In the few letters I got from my brother from Vienna - in the meantime I had become pupil of the Lyzeum - he was recommending certain books to me and gave well-meaning advice. I remember that he once sent me the book "Don Quichote" [Don Quixote] from Vienna, which - as he meant - would particularly enjoy me. Naturally he was the great brother for me, but I submitted to his authority only with inner resistance. In fact we were brother and sister, who did frequently quarrel, but were fond of each other, and yet often spoiled each other’s pleasure of living together. A last attempt of my aunt in 1908 to persuade him to take up the career of an official was in vain. From that time he ceased to write letters to us. I did not hear from him for years, when at last in 1921 I saw him again in Vienna. In the meantime I had moved to Vienna myself. But what occurrences of the time had meanwhile passed over Europe, war and the years after the war with their exorbitant suffering! Only then I was told by my brother, that in 1913 he had moved from Vienna to Munich and that he had taken up aquarelle - painting entirely. I had the impression that he was successful. He told me of his wonderful adventures of war - comradeship, of his injury, and his blindness in the war hospital Pasewalk. At that time he was already leader of the NSDAP. I can I admit that I can remember this meeting with my brother always as a great and happy event. Living alone and in modest conditions in Vienna, I happened to meet my brother I had imagined lost through the war, who was showing his love for me and giving me presents, which meant exorbitant luxury for me! It were few but happy days we spent together in Vienna. He went back to Munich while I stayed in Vienna and earned my living as secretary in an insignificant office. On account of the separation a close living together with my brother was impossible. It was the same with us as with most families. As soon as the parents are dead, the children withdraw from one another. Not I, but my step-sister Angela kept house for my brother in House Wachenfeld, which later on became the "Berghof". When my brother became more and more active and the name "Hitler" was known in Vienna, I had difficulties to such an extent, that I was at last dismissed from my position. At that time I changed my name to "Wolf". I went to Munich and described my difficult position of life to my brother. With full understanding he assured me that he would provide for me in future. He did so until his death and at first transferred the sum of 250 Mk, later on since 1938 - the sum of 500 Mk to me. Moreover I got a present of 3000 Mk every Christmas. Not only with my brother but also with my step-sister Angela I met very seldom, since my sister was living in Dresden. I only came to Berchtesgaden at different times invited by my brother and was rarely spending more to 8 - 14 days in the Berghof. This was one of the rare opportunities for me to see my brother. So I could witness the years of rise and power of my brother only from afar. I was much too fond of Vienna to leave it. My relationship with my brother remained as affectionate as it was unto his death, but I have never been very ambitious for myself and never appeared at official fetes. I was often told in Vienna that I did never show off but always did just the opposite. Already in my youth and also in later years I used to spend my holidays at my aunt in Spital, the home - place of my mother I was so very fond of because of its beauty and its magnificent woods. My Aunt Theres Schmid had always been like a mother to me since my mother dies far too early. I was deeply sorry when I heard that my cousin Marie Koppensteiner has been misplaced with her family by the Russians. I nearly lose courage to go on living after all disaster I experienced since more than a year. In 1941/42 I had bought a little house in Weiten in the Wachau with the assistance of my brother. It was an old villa I had furnished simply and comfortably. I did this without the help of an architect. This house was robbed and expropriated by the Russians. I still possess a small apartment consisting of two rooms in Vienna which is occupied by Americans. My intention to go back to Vienna can scarcely be realised at present. I was in my house in Lower - Austria when in the middle of April 1945 I was fetched by two SS - Men in a motor car. Both SS - Men declared that they had an order to call for me. I had made preparations for my departure, had packed up all in trunks, chests, and boxes, which were fetched off by a truck on the next day, and went with some small luggage to Berchtesgaden. All my big luggage was brought to the hotel Berchtesgadener Hof. When the Americans were about to enter Berchtesgaden I was brought to the Dietrich - Eckardhütte, where I was permitted to remain until December 1945. Christmas 1945 I spent already in my present lodgings Alpenwirtschaft Worderbrand. The family of the lessee Franz Beer, living there already since 1921 is treating me very kindly. I like to be here and try to help by working in the kitchen. At present I have no troubles in pecuniary respect, since I could take with me about 10,000 Mk of my savings. I deposited this money at the Bayerische Hypothoken und Wechselbank at Berchtesgaden. But at present I do not earn money nor am I in possession of a fortune. I intend to live as long as possible from my savings. For my small room and board I pay 6 Mk per day to the family Beer. Unfortunately I lost all my luggage secured at the Berchtesgadener Hof. All I possess of clothing and linen was in the small suitcase I could bring here. I can dispose of my bank account sine I was not a member of the Party or any Party organisation. The policy of my brother, his ideas and terms were no reason for me to enter the Party. It has never been the wish of my brother. But if it had been his wish I would have entered the Party to please him. I do not believe that my brother ordered the crime committed to innumerable human beings in the concentration - camps or that he even knew of these crimes. It may be possible however, that the hard years during his youth in Vienna caused his anti-Jewish attitude. He was starving severely in Vienna and he believed that his failure in painting was only due to the fact that trade in works of art was in Jewish hands. Closing remarks of the Agent: If further investigations prove that the declarations of Mrs. Paula Wolf are true there can be no doubt in her sincerity, at least as far as she is describing her own life and her relationship to her brother. Unworthy of belief, however, is her declaration that she did never know anything about the innumerable crimes which were committed during the government of her brother and under his immediate responsibility, and that she was never told of these crimes. She also insisted on the fact that she never noticed his threat to destroy the Jews in Europe and to crush all his enemies in his speeches which were transferred by radio over the whole world and also to Vienna! And what a contrast of this Adolf Hitler who according to her own declarations was radiant with kindness with the brutal man he really was! The tactics to have been unaware of all what happened during 12 years of Nazi terror are only too well known and unable to convince even an unprejudiced man. This woman is not in the least denying the fact that she was extremely fond of her brother whose death, by the way she does not doubt. The likeness to her brother in appearance, look and physiognomy is striking and intensifies the longer one is in her presence. I could bring her a typewriter ribbon she needed for her small Erika typewriter. After answering my questions dilatorily in the beginning she was later on talking freely and with increasing confidence. There was a certain charm in her modesty and her simple manner of speaking. The surroundings, the terrace of the Alpenwirtschaft with its unique view over the land of Berchtesgaden made a strong impression on the agent. But this woman must not be allowed to become the protectress of the mountain in which the soul of her brother is only lying dormant to rise again to new life and to new crimes against human nature. Reporters desiring for sensational news are not to work their way up the mountain to cable into the world with charming stories the Hitler - Myth which will inevitable arise. Too many German authors would greedily snatch at such news to offer an immortal hero of the type of Barbarrosa to youth always longing for romanticism. What enrichment for the gallery of heroes of German history, for the academical youth for spur and emulation! No, it must not come to that! The suffering of innumerable human beings in concentration camps and penitentiaries the sacrifice of life of comrades of the European and last not least of the German underground - movements, all what was done by Allies Forces to suppress Nazism, all would be in vain! No vindictiveness against a lonely, at least with regard to her actions guiltless woman. But get her away from publicity. She could become a germ cell for a new disaster, maybe against her own wishes. One thing is certain: the American, who visited her and declared that the question who is to blame for all what happened since 12 years war and crimes, destruction and death, can only be answered by future generations, will not remain the only one. Many people, Americans and other, will come and bear a share to show Hitler as what he has never been: a kind man and a great Leader. "Here, my Führer, is my grandchild"
The nature of the relationship between Adolf (he was christened, `Adolfus` and was known in the family as, `Adi`) and his younger sister Paula, is one that history has, up to the present time largely ignored. It cannot be just be co-incidence that Paula took the surname `Wolf` and Adolf used the name, `Wolf` to denote his various headquarters during the war, e.g. `The Wolf`s Lair`.
[Records of the Army Staff (G2), Record Group 319 IRR XE575580]
Personality Report Berchtesgaden June 5, 1946
Address: Alpenwirtschaft Vorderbrand, Gemeinde Königsee (Kreis Berchtesgaden)
Particulars: Investigation ordered by Lt. Bronfen
1. Born Rauschergut, Gemeinde Fischelham, Kreis Lambach (Oberösterreich) on November 21, 1896
2. Education: Volksschule and Lyzeum Linz
3. Party - membership before 1933: none
4. Party - membership during the Nazi regime: none
5. Party - membership today: none
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Yesterday the undersigned was visiting Mrs. Paula Wolf in the Alpenwirtschaft Vorderbrand and got the following information from Mrs. Wolf concerning her life:
"I adopted my name Paula Wolf many years ago to avoid the interest of the public which was unwelcome to me. I am in possession of a passport with the name of Paula Wolf with the erroneously registered date of birth November 21, 1896. In fact I was born 8 months earlier. Until today I was not interested in a correction of the date of my birth, moreover it has never been necessary.
Our father was Waldviertler (a name given to a poor area and those living there) from Lower Austria. He was frequently transferred as Custom - House - Officer, at last he was employed in Passau, Braunau and Linz and he retired in Linz, 58 years old. Probably my father married for the second time in Braunau. My mother was 23 years his junior. Also she came from Waldviertel. Her parents have been the farmers Polzl in Spital near Veitra, where my mother was born on August 12, 1860. She had six brothers and sisters. I cannot remember anything of my father`s first wife.
The married life of my parents was a very happy one, in spite of their very unlike characters. My father, who was of great harshness in the education of his children and who only spoiled me as the pet of the family, was the absolute type of the old Austrian official, conservative and loyal to his emperor to the skin. My mother, however, was a very soft and tender person, the compensatory element between the almost too harsh father and the very lively children who perhaps were somewhat difficult to train. If there were ever quarrel or difference of opinion between my parents it was always on account of the children.
And what a chance for skilfully camouflaged militarists like Doctor Lenz Laufen who is president of the district of the OSU is making provoking speeches with the theme: Germany as a bastion against communism in east and west, or translated into good German: "Get strong for a revenge - war against Russia and against the communistic France!"
A 1930s cigarette card from the Security Service archives
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When the air war over the Reich became a reality in 1943, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann was forced to order the construction of a series of air raid shelters and command posts for the residents and military staff of the Obersalzberg. These tunnels are usually called "bunkers," but they are not technically so, since they were not meant as defensive positions from which to fight (even though their entrances were protected by machineguns), but simply shelters in case of air attacks. They were used successfully for this purpose during the Royal Air Force bombing on 25 April 1945.
Elaborate shelter systems were built beneath the hill behind the Berghof, with tastefully furnished rooms for Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun; beneath the RSD headquarters at Haus Türken; and into the high hill near Göring's house (sometimes called the Göring Hill or Adolf Hitler Hill). The latter included Bormann's private bunker, another private bunker for Göring and his adjutant (which Bormann would not allow to be connected to the rest of the bunker system), and a command and communications center for the Obersalzberg anti-aircraft defense. There was also a bunker complex behind the Platterhof, linking to Hitler's bunker, for Army headquarters, and other smaller complexes in the periphery of the area (Antenberg, Klaushöhe, Buchenhöhe). It should be noted than in addition to the traditional air-raid bunker systems, there were several systems of access tunnels linking nearly every building on the Obersalzberg.
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Whether that is true or not, in 1221, Koch erected his first Komturei at the foot of Ettenberg near Markt Schellenberg. A second, larger structure followed. It is believed that over the next few years, underground galleries were excavated into various areas of the Untersberg, and in one of them a temple to Isais was built.
It is the German tradition that the Templars were ordered to form a secret scientific sect in southern Germany, Austria and northern Italy to be known as "Die Herren vom Schwarzen Stein" - The Lords of the Black Stone - or DHvSS for short, and this is said to be the true, hidden meaning of SS. The Holy Grail ("Ghral" is holy stone, Persian-Arabic) was said to be a black-violet crystal, half quartz, half amethyst, through which Higher Powers communicated with humanity. It was given into the safe-keeping of the Cathars, and smuggled out of the last stronghold at Montsegur, France, and hidden, by four Cathar women on the night of 14 March 1244. There is a Cathar legend that 700 years after the destruction of the Cathar religion the Holy Grail would be returned to its rightful holders, DHvSS, or the SS?
It may be of interest to note in this connection that the Tea House designed by Hitler and built atop the Mooslahnerkopf at Obersalzberg, the stone pavillion still standing today, bears a striking resemblance to Montsegur when viewed at certain angles from the foot of the great rocky outcrop. Whether this was a coincidence remains in the mind of the beholder.
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 Obersalzberg, a pen-and-ink drawing on vellum paper by Franz Weiss, 1941
Obersalzberg
In the second half of the 19th century the humble mountain village of Obersalzberg was transformed into one of the most important health resorts in Germany. The opening of a guesthouse called Pension Moritz by Mauritia Mayer in 1877 led to the rise of tourism at Obersalzberg. Bruno Büchner, a later owner, changed the name of the guesthouse to Platterhof in the Nineteen Twenties. Adolf Hitler visited Obersalzberg for the first time in May 1923. After his premature release from imprisonment in the prison of Landsberg/Lech he repeatedly returned to Obersalzberg, where he also dictated the second part of "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle). After the "Seizure of Power" Obersalzberg became a place of pilgrimage for enthusiastic Hitler supporters from throughout the Reich. Soon the only people to be admitted were organized groups and guests of the Party and the government. Obersalzberg thus evolved into a major element in NS propaganda and the Hitler myth. In 1933 Hitler acquired ownership of the Wachenfeld House, which he had been renting since 1928. In the following years the modest country house was converted into the pompous Berghof. Other leading NS figures settled there as well: Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann, Albert Speer (Hitler's favorite architect after the death of Paul Ludwig Troost). After the former inhabitants had been driven out, the erstwhile health resort was turned into the "Führersperrgebiet" (the "Führer’s off-limits area") with an infrastructure allowing the execution of government. The old village and its inhabitants, some of whom were families who had lived here for hundreds of years, had to yield to these new circumstances. Within a few short years the entire region of Berchtesgaden evolved into a second seat of government, a "Branch Office of Berlin".
As a second seat of power for the German Reich after Berlin, Obersalzberg is classified amongst the so-called "Täterorte" (sites of the perpetrators), which can be distinguished in the spectrum of National Socialist historical sites from the so-called "Opferorte" (sites of the victims). Whereas "Opferorte" – former concentration camps and other sites of murder and imprisonment, settings of massacres, etc. – are characterized by having had a concrete relationship to the victims, a site indelibly bound up with the suffering and death of people, "Täterorte" are those sites in which political crimes of violence were planned and organized. These include those sites, in which the perpetrators desired to be alone amongst themselves – sites such as Obersalzberg, but also assembly and cult sites such as the Nazi Party Rally grounds in Nuremberg or educational and training sites such as the so-called Ordensburgen. Although this distinction is not absolute, because "Opferorte" cannot exist without perpetrators, it does help to distinguish between the various National Socialist historical sites and prepare the ground for dealing with each of them in an appropriate manner. Obersalzberg was a "Täterort" in two senses of the word: This is where a small number of people devised, discussed and planned crimes of the greatest magnitude, crimes that were to be committed elsewhere. Obersalzberg was not only a center from which power was exercised, it was also a political arena for the Cult of Hitler, through which the "Führer" Myth – legitimizing Hitler's personal dictatorship - was continually nurtured. After the Berghof was completed in 1936, the "Führer" liked to receive guests of state and other high-ranking personalities here in order to present himself as a major, highly respected statesman of the world. Against the majestic mountain backdrop Hitler could be portrayed as a visionary far removed from the banalities of everyday life. Above all, Obersalzberg added to the image of the brilliant "Führer" as a man with feelings and sensibilities. The cult ostensibly lifted the veil surrounding Hitler's private life and showed him here as a simple man of the people, as a friend of children, animals and Nature, as a good neighbor, in short, as a normal, warm-hearted person whom one could trust blindly. The calculated and orchestrated scenario of ordinariness and normality, which even today is mistaken by many for historical reality, was to be exposed for what it really was: subtle propaganda that aided in consolidating Hitler's personal power and his regime.
On April 25, 1945 British and American long-range bombers bombed the compound and destroyed a large number of buildings. The ruins of the Berghof, the houses of Göring and Bormann and the SS barracks were demolished in 1952. Only a few buildings survived, including the Kehlstein House - the "Eagle's Nest" - and the bunker complex. From 1953 on sections of Obersalzberg were used by the American forces as a recreational area and were thus accessible only for those affiliated with the American military.
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