Kehlsteinhaus, aka The Eagle's Nest

 

As part of our trip to Berchtesgaden, Germany, we visited the Kehlsteinhaus.  Kehlsteinhaus was built by the Nazi party as a 50th birthday gift for Adolf Hitler in 1938.

 

 

Hitler had a mountain house at the bottom of the mountain, and this facility only served as a place to entertain dignitaries.  Supposedly he only visited ten times due to a fear of heights and confined spaces.  The tour guide said that Hitler's girlfriend, Eva Braun, visited the house more frequently.  It was also used to host a wedding reception for her sister.

 

Entrance tunnel leading to the elevator to the top

The building was an intended target to be bombed my the Royal Air Force, but it is believed that it was missed as a result of low cloud cover during the raid.  At that time Hitler's mountain residence was bombed as well as many other targets in the Berchtesgaden/Obersalzburg area. 

The US Army was the first to take the town of Berchtesgaden and the 'Eagle's Nest' in May 1945.  It was used by Allied Forces until 1960, when it was given back to the State of Bavaria. 

 

 
Today the building is used as a restaurant, and is a popular place for tourists to visit.  The building was not very big, and did not have a lot of historical information presented, but the view was amazing!

Cheers to the Allied Forces!

The bird really wanted our left-over cake.

 
Despite the fact that we have smiling faces in the pictures, we did not take visiting the Kehlsteinhaus lightly.  We used the opportunity to talk to the kids about the war, and remember the terrible atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. 

Being a Jewish woman, it is heartbreaking to think how much different my life and the lives of my children here in Germany would have been 70 years ago.  I am so grateful for all that we have, this amazing opportunity to live and travel in Europe, and for the fact that I can raise my kids without fear or suffering. 



Visiting Berchtesgaden, Germany

 

While Dan's Mom, Theresa, was here visiting we did quite a bit of travelling.  We wanted to show her as much as we could since this was her first time travelling abroad, and hopefully entice her to come back and visit again!  Since Berchtesgaden is an area with a lot of history and WWII significance, we thought it would be a great place to explore.

Too bad it rained every day!!!

Berchtesgaden, the town:


Part of the former royal residence.

Berchtesgaden is a small town located in the very southeast of Germany, in the Bavarian Alps, and it took us about three hours to drive there from Ulm.  Many visitors go to Berchtesgaden as a day trip from Salzburg, but after doing my online research, there looked to be enough activities in the area that it warranted more than a day trip.  Of course, adults travelling alone could have covered all the sights in one or two days, but we have the kids with us and therefore move at the pace of a four-year old.



Interior courtyard of the former royal residence.

The area of Berchtesgaden was a historically wealthy area due to high salt content of the ground.  In the 1800's the area was given over to Austria, then given back to the Bavarian rulers.  The area was popular with the Bavarian royal family, the Wittlesbachs, who had a royal hunting lodge there, and also liked to visit the lake, known as the Konigsee (King Lake).





 

Seeing as how the area of Berchtesgaden was so popular with the Bavarian royal family, it should come as no surprise that it also became a popular mountain destination for the Nazi Regime's leaders.  Hitler had a mountain house there, which was demolished after the war, but the Kehlsteinhaus still stands and was known to the Allied Forces as 'The Eagle's Nest'.

Salzbergwerk (The Salt Mine):

We had a great time visiting the Salt Mine in Berchtesgaden.  We had also toured a salt mine near Krakow, Poland, and it was very interesting to see how the two mines differed.  This mine tour was great because it had a lot of fun stuff to do, but it was much less ornate than the mine in Krakow.  We rode a small miner's train to get into and out of the mountain, there were two slides we got to zoom down, and a barge ride across a subterranean saline lake.  They also had informative presentations on how the salt extraction process works.  Not to mention the stylish miner's overalls we got to wear!

Souvenir photo of the slide

Pictures from the Konigsee:

The water color in the Alps is amazing!

We ate indoors at this restaurant, but it would
have been amazing to sit outside!

Too rainy for the lakeside biergarten :-(

We had a great time in Berchtesgaden, and I think that it would have been much better in the sunshine!  I am glad that we took a few days to visit the area before heading on to our next stop, which was Salzburg, Austria.  The area has skiing in the winter, so maybe we will visit on a ski trip!