Berchtesgaden · around 1,000 mObersalzberg

What Obersalzberg was

Obersalzberg lies at an altitude of around 1,000 metres above Berchtesgaden. Until the 1930s it was a village of mountain farmers with guesthouses and holiday homes, and from 1921 a recognised high-altitude climatic health resort. Adolf Hitler came here for the first time in 1923, rented Haus Wachenfeld in 1928 and bought it in 1933.

After that the mountainside was rebuilt. By 1936 Haus Wachenfeld had been extended into the Berghof, and around it a sealed-off “Führersperrgebiet” (the Führer's restricted zone) was created, with SS barracks, a farm estate and housing estates for staff. Martin Bormann bought up the plots of land for the NSDAP; those who did not want to sell were put under pressure, up to and including the threat of imprisonment in a concentration camp. In 1937 the village of Obersalzberg ceased to exist.

Between 1933 and 1944 Hitler spent more than 1,000 days here – around a quarter of his time in power. After Berlin, the Berghof was the most important centre of rule of the Nazi state. Decisions on persecution, war and genocide were prepared and taken here. That is why historians speak of a site of the perpetrators, not of a holiday residence.

From July 1943 the party leadership had an extensive system of bunkers driven into the mountain. It was built by several thousand forced labourers from many countries, housed in camps on and around Obersalzberg. On 25 April 1945 the British Royal Air Force bombed the site; on 4 May Allied troops reached the Berghof.

Obersalzberg today: what still stands and what does not

Little. The American occupying power had the ruin of the Berghof blown up on 30 April 1952; the remaining ruins were cleared away, the bunker entrances bricked up and the site reforested. Until 1996 the US Army used parts of the area as a recreation centre. Where the Berghof stood, forest grows today; a text panel gives brief information about the place.

Anyone travelling to Obersalzberg today will therefore find three things above all:

• The Dokumentation Obersalzberg – a place of learning and remembrance run by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute of Contemporary History), opened in 1999, with a new building and the new permanent exhibition “Idyll und Verbrechen” (“Idyll and Atrocity”) since September 2023.
• The bunker complex – the largest exhibit of the exhibition, accessible via the documentation centre.
• The bus departure point for the Eagle's Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) – right next to the documentation centre. The Eagle's Nest, built in 1937/38 as a representational building, survived the air raid undamaged and has been a mountain restaurant since 1952.

Next to it, a hotel has stood since 2005, today the Kempinski Hotel Berchtesgaden. It is the second half of the “two-pillar concept” which the Bavarian state government developed after the withdrawal of the US Army: the documentation centre on one side, a hotel on the other.

Documentation centre and bunker complex: the key facts

Open

09:00 – 17:00 daily

Last admission

16:00

Admission

€4.50

With guest card

€3.50

Up to 18

free

During opening hours the bunker complex is part of the permanent exhibition and costs nothing extra. For the exhibition and bunkers the centre recommends one and a half to two hours. Everything else – guided tours, closing days, accessibility – is on the page about the Dokumentation Obersalzberg. The guest card is the card issued by your accommodation in the region.

Honestly: If you only visit the Eagle's Nest, you will learn almost nothing about this place. At the top there is a restaurant with a view. If you only have time for one of the two and the history interests you, the documentation centre is the better choice – and it costs €4.50 instead of €34.70.