Hitler's Alpine Retreat

By James Wilson

A collection of Nazi propaganda shots, including “rare images of Adolf Hitler socializing with children and supporters at his notorious Alpine hideaway” (Daily Mail).
 
Adolf Hitler became “completely captivated” by Berchtesgaden and the Obersalzberg when he first visited the area in 1923. In time, he bought Haus Wachenfeld and made the area his second seat of government. This meant major construction of the Berghof barracks, administrative buildings, airstrips and the famous “Eagle’s Nest.” During the war massive tunnels were dug. Most were destroyed by allied bombing in April 1945.
 
This original book tells the story of the area, and—in contemporary postcards and photographs—how it was transformed by Hitler and his henchmen (Goering, Goebbels and Borman).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 28, 2007
• ISBN: 9781783035007

James Wilson

James Wilson was born in Northern Ireland in 1953. In 1972, he followed family tradition and entered the printing industry. Having moved to London in 1979, he went on to run his own business through the 1980s. Since 1993 he has worked for the Metropolitan Police Service.

Book preview

Section One

Humble Beginnings

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Creating the Führer

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Munich: City of Struggle and Triumph

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Berchtesgaden: Fount of Inspiration

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Obersalzberg: Spiritual Retreat

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Haus Wachenfeld: A Country Home

Humble Beginnings

Postcard numbers 1 to 5 deal with the early life of Adolf Hitler, his family, where he was born and how these things were later used to deliver the idea of Hitler, the man of humble origin who knew hardship and pain, but who, having ultimately triumphed, remained a man of the people.

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1. Mother of the Führer.

Klara Hitler

Klara Hitler, was probably the most important female figure in the life of Adolf Hitler. He was her favourite and she, the mother he adored. This postcard shows the distinct physical resemblance between mother and son; Hitler certainly inherited his mother’s piercing gaze. Klara Pölzl was born in Spital, about seventeen kilometres (eleven miles) south of Gmünd, on 20 August, 1860. The families of both Hitler’s parents had their origins in the Waldviertal region of Lower Austria; this rural wooded landscape inhabited mainly by peasant farmers at that time is located approximately 140 kilometres (88 miles) north-west of Vienna. The Führer’s mother has been described as quiet, polite and hard working; when aged twenty she entered domestic service in Vienna.

On 7 January, 1885, she married Alois Hitler (1837-1903), her second cousin. This was not an uncommon occurrence in the area at that time; however, an Episcopal dispensation had to be obtained before the marriage could take place. Alois Hitler was a difficult man, and the marriage was not a particularly happy one, but Klara did all she could to make a home for herself and her husband who worked as a customs officer along the Austrian-German border. They had five children together, three of whom died in childhood; Gustav 1885-87, Ida 1886-88, Adolf 1889-1945, Edmund 1894-1900 and Paula 1896-1960. Adolf, however, was her favourite. While the boy feared his father, who often put young Adolf in his place via word or belt, or both, Klara indulged her son to an extent.

Alois retired from the customs service in 1895 after which time the family lived in the vicinity of Linz. Hitler’s father, having suffered respiratory problems for some time, died as the result of a lung haemorrhage on 3 January, 1903, whereupon the family moved to Urfhar, a suburb of Linz. Klara, herself not a particularly strong or healthy person, had developed breast cancer. Hitler, who was in Vienna, on learning that his mother was now terminally ill immediately returned home to be by her side. Klara spent the last weeks of her life being lovingly nursed by her devoted son; she died on 21 December,