The Low-Life and His Lofty Digs

Recently (okay, on and off for months in between others reads), I have been reading a book about a woman who struggles with how little or how much she wants or needs to be a part of her Jewish heritage.  On and off through the book, which is based a lot on the experiences of her mother-in-law, Miriam, there are flashbacks to her family's experience in Poland during World War II.  The horrific descriptions of what happened as Hitler and his people tried to eradicate the Jews has reminded me how much I really dislike (okay, despise) Hitler---really don't even like thinking about the guy.

Well, go back 37 years when we were newlyweds, and DJ, who was a fairly recently returned missionary from Germany, would talk to me for hours about his mission and Germany.  It was then that he told me about Hitler's Tea House, as he called it.  He told me that he really wanted to go back some day and go up to the top.  Well, when we knew we would be so close, Salzburg is just a few miles away over the Austrian/German border, a visit to HTH or Eagle's Nest, as it is more commonly called, became a possible item on the travel schedule.  When we finished TSOM tour with most of the afternoon to spare, and a bus that left for Berchtesgaden across the street from where our tour ended, we went for it.  We took one bus ride to Berchtesgaden, another to a midway point up the mountain (Nazi Documentation Center), and then a third bus up to the elevator shaft.  That's right, you go straight up the mountain in an elevator which opens into a foyer in Hitler's Eagle's Nest.  But, first you have to go through a cave-like corridor to get to the elevator. 

Hitler loved this part of Bavaria/Austria.  He had spent some time here in an alpine hotel finishing up his memoir and Nazi primer, Mein Kampf.  Some people call Obersalzburg the "cradle of the Third Reich because he claimed that it was here that he had his inspiration.  In the 1930's when Hitler was the German Fuhrer, he chose this place for his mountain retreat.  In the area of the Documentation Center, he designed a compound of  80 buildings which were part of "an incredibly engineered underground town with meeting rooms, offices, archives for the governments, and lavish living quarters for Hitler---all connected by four miles of tunnels cut by slave labor through solid rock."  It was here that a lot of major decisions leading up to World War II were formulated.  Because we had to meet three different bus schedules, we didn't get to tour the exhibit at the Documentation Center before it closed.  There's not a lot of original artifacts left because the allies went in and destroyed the place not wanting "a magnet for future neo-Nazi pilgrims."

I have to tell you, I had the heeby jeebies just walking in a place where I knew Hitler had walked so many years ago---through the dimly lit tunnel into the polished brass elevator (it's the original), I knew he had been there.  The retreat at the top of the mountain was given to Hitler on his 50th anniversary in 1939.  Even though a fortune was spent to construct this sturdy stone chalet, Hitler was only able to make14 official visits. It doesn't look like much in this picture, but the inside has gorgeous wood paneled walls and ceilings, a marble fireplace in his dining room, etc.  It is solidly built, and I can't imagine the work involved just to get the building supplies up there!  Most of the space is now taken up by a restaurant, and we couldn't see anywhere that we were allowed to go on our own. 



This doesn't look like much, but the building itself is well-done and has beautiful features on the inside.  The outside view is hampered by the ever present souvenir stand on the right and some construction equipment wrapped in plastic to be protected from the rain.  The terrace is part of the restaurant.  They were closing up while we were there.


I was all for getting out of the place onto the mountain peak which offered spectacular views----when you could see.  That's right, the Morgans (and the A-team) were in a place where we needed to see, so, of course, the clouds were moving in like a freight train.  With 360 degrees of nature's beauty surrounding us (clouds or not---they're a beautiful part of nature, too), there was a lot to take in.  As we climbed to the summit, another 100 yards up and beyond the building, all sorts of God's handiwork opened up to us.  Here's a sample of what we got to see (a lot of these shots are from Sarah and Iz---did I tell you I love their new camera with it's multiple lenses,a great wide-angle, and its zoom features:



Someone was excited that he made it to the top!



Someone didn't care where she went!!

Of course, I had to snap a few shots of some wildflowers:

And I risk my life for this one...  Okay, not really, but I was climbing out on some rocks kind of near the edge of the mountain because I thought I had found Edelweiss!  Just that morning, our TSOM tour guide talked about the song and the flower.  Did you know that the song is NOT a cherished Austrian folk song, but just a creation of Rodgers and Hammerstein (actually the last work they created together before Hammerstein died).  The flower itself is the unoffical flower of Switzerland!  Lovestruck young men would brave the rocky crags of the the "High Alpine" of Europe to obtain these blooms for their beloved.  Because so many of them fell to their deaths or were taken by exposure to the harsh and sudden changes in the weather, people recognized a successful suitor as one who was brave, strong, and serious about his intentions! 

Well, after comparing my flower to these pictures, I'm not so sure what I found was Edelweiss after all!

We got down off the summit just in time.  It had turned colder (did you notice Katelyn's sweats up under her skirt?), and then it started to rain.  It let up while we we waiting for the first bus and on our way down to the Documentation Center.  When we got to Berchtesgaden, I snapped a few pictures while we waited for our last bus:

What a fun day so far, and we weren't done yet!  We still had 3-4 hours of daylight, so....more pictures of Salzburg, next post.