Berchtesgaden Opens For Guests

The picturesque mountain resort of Berchtesgaden is better known for its association with Hitler than its kebab shop.

Just by Berchtesgaden railway station, however, is a small cafeteria owned by Ludwig Selzer. Like most locals in this Bavarian town on the edge of the German Alps, Selzer is a big fan of the new five-star luxury hotel just up the road.

"We don't just want yodellers and thigh-slappers wearing lederhosen coming to Berchtesgaden," he told me, as I waited for the bus to arrive and take me up the mountain. "We want international tourists from all over the world. We want to be back on the map."

About 60 years after the end of World War II, the area is indeed back on the map, thanks to the new InterContinental Resort hotel in Berchtesgaden -- a 10-minute drive away from the village of Obersalzberg -- that opened two months ago.

Obersalzberg is famous for all the wrong reasons. Enchanted by the Alpine scenery, Hitler first came here in 1925. In 1933, shortly after the Nazis took power, he bought a villa -- the Berghof -- in the resort. By the late 1930s, Obersalzberg had become an exclusive retreat for the führer and his circle.

The new hotel has provoked bitter debate in Germany. Critics have wondered whether there isn't something, well, obscene about rich holidaymakers frolicking in a luxury spa close to where Hitler dictated part of Mein Kampf and on the site where Hermann Göring once had a villa.

However, its supporters -- including Selzer -- argue passionately that it is time for Germany to move on. After 60 years, the country should bid farewell to its dark past, he believes.

"Adolf has gone. We badly need a luxury resort," he told me over a cup of coffee.

There is a lot of snow in Berchtesgaden, and trudging through it from the bus stop, I was immediately struck by how un-Hitler like the new hotel is. Its two curving wings are built of stone, and offer panoramic views across snow-encrusted mountains.

Inside, the lobby is chic and minimal. An open fire surrounded by comfy sofas burns next to a library and the bar. There are 180 rooms and suites, but the hotel's main attraction is "wellness".

Downstairs, there is a luxury spa with an indoor and outdoor pool, beauty treatment rooms and a variety of saunas. And because this is Germany, that means taking your clothes off -- all of them. Venturing into the sauna area, I was temporarily startled by a smiling and naked middle-aged woman wandering towards me. Soon, though, I got into the swing of things, and even fell asleep briefly in the Finnish sauna.

The outside pool is heated to a delightful 35 degrees Celsius. I bobbed around in it, watching the sun set, and wondered whether it was immoral of me not to find the experience spooky.

These days, there are few obvious Third Reich relics left in Obersalzberg. The Berghof, and other Nazi houses, have disappeared, blown up in the 1950s. The Bavarian government also recently flattened the Platterhof, originally built for high-ranking Nazis but occupied by United States soldiers after the war.

From my hotel bedroom, the view stretches across a landscape of mountains and peaks. About 500m away is the Documentation Centre, a museum of the Nazi era created by the state of Bavaria in 1999. It is housed in a shed-like building, and gives a harrowing insight into the Nazis' crimes.

Intriguingly, it also includes photos of the many British dignitaries who flocked to Hitler's mountain retreat during the late 1930s -- Neville Chamberlain, Lord Rothermere and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Visitors can also wander through a gloomy surviving section of the underground tunnels, which were built during the war to connect the Berghof complex. On the walls, you can see graffiti written by US soldiers who arrived here on May 4 1945, shortly after Allied bombers had destroyed much of the Nazi HQ.

The most imposing surviving monument from the Hitler era is the famous mountaintop Eagle's Nest, given to the führer by a grateful Nazi party in 1939. It is only open in summer, and is reachable by special bus and lift.

Even if you are not interested in Berchtesgaden's spooky history, there is still plenty to do here. The resort is only 20km away from the Austrian town of Salzburg, on the edge of an Alpine national park.

The hotel has its own ski lift, leading to a family-friendly slope that doubles as a nine-hole golf course in summer. More experienced skiers can head off to the nearby Jenner mountain, or take off on one of the many cross-country skiing routes. In the summer months, the surrounding peaks offer hiking and mountain biking.

Nearby, there is also Germany's highest lake, Lake Königsee, offering boat trips across to the bizarre, red-domed St Bartholomew's church (the tour guides insist on blowing a bugle on the way to produce an echo).

Since the hotel opened, it has received extensive coverage in the German press, and most of this has been negative. Locals, however, point out that, despite the Hitler legacy, Berchtesgaden remains one of the most beautiful parts of Germany.

The area has been popular with tourists since the 19th century, and during the 1920s -- the doomed years of the Weimar Republic -- Sigmund Freud used to come here with his family.

"Imagine if the Nazis took over the Lake District. That's more or less what happened here," Jörg Böckeler, the hotel's British-educated manager, told me at the bar.

"Intellectuals, poets, writers all used to come here. This all stopped in 1933 with the Nazis," he said.

"We are not trying to shy away from the region's history," he added. "The point is to return the mountain to what it always was."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

See also;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4295285.stm

http://travel.independent.co.uk/europe/wes...sp?story=618042

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/hd/zceha

 

I have visited here and can only agree that it is a truly beautiful place indeed. and why shouldnt they move on? It's not that the past is being ignored but its allowing people to progress and stop living in the shadow of the 3rd Reich. I say "Well Done"

 

I'll try and talk to my bruvver about this one mate, he used to live in the area. He may know of one. you going down there perchance???

 

Pat Reid's The Latter Days At Colditz briefly describes the journey of the 'prominenten' prisoners through this area in 1945 - the group included Churchill's nephew, to be used as hostages at the end of the war. They passed through Laufen and stayed at a POW camp in Tittmoning, where there was an attempted escape.
Richard Pape 'Boldness Be My Friend' describes working on the Berchtesgaden for a month whilst a POW, as part of a spying mission. He repaired Goering's swimming pool, and in 1973 returned to Hitler's air raid tunnel for which he had helped to carve stone. There are maps in the back.