Infamous Eagles Nest - Salzburg
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My latest Europe trip | Posted:
Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:12 am
Also at (near) Salzburg is the infamous Eagles Nest, once occupied by Adolf Hitler.
A mountaintop retreat with a dark past. It is hard to see from ground level. I have circled it below.
To get to it (
and it is only open between June & October) you first go up the mountain by bus. Then you must walk through a 284 metre tunnel and enter a lift to travel a further 284 metres up to the top.
The Eagle's Nest near Berchtesgaden was commissioned by Martin Bormann and the National Socialist German Workers' Party before being presented to Adolf Hitler as a gift on his 50th birthday. Since then, the idyllic setting and remarkable architecture of the Eagle's Nest on the Kehlstein have been overshadowed by its close connection with the Third Reich and the macabre decisions and plans made there.
Given the background, it is not surprising that a plan to demolish the Eagle's Nest was very nearly approved in the 1960s. Just as Hitler's command centre on the Obersalzberg had been destroyed by the bombs of the liberating Allied forces, so, it was hoped, would the Eagle's Nest be wiped forever off the face of the beautiful Austrian landscape. As it turned out, however, history took a different course, and the building has been administered by the Berchtesgaden Regional Tourist Office since 1960. Today, the Eagle's Nest is leased out to private operators who run it as an alpine restaurant.
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