Today we left the hotel enroute to the bunkers of Dokumentation Obersalzberg. This bunker complex was started in 1943. It was an underground Fuehrer Headquarters in case the buildings above ground were destroyed or if the Obersalzberg should be taken over by the enemy. The subsystems were connected by long corridors or staircases. All of the important buildings were reachable. The bunkers contained living, work, office, storage and technical space. When the air raid by the British occurred in April, 1945 over Obersalzberg the bunkers were filled with many workers but no Third Reich officials.
We entered the Bunkers from the office on the side of the Hotel sum Türken. The hotel is in use again. It was taken from the owners in 1933 when Hitler moved in next door! After the war, the owner’s daughter got it back and restored it because it was badly damaged during the bombing raid of 1945.
Hotel sum Türken
The hotel side entrance into the bunkers
As we explored the bunkers there were so many ways to go it would be easy to get lost! Luckily, the tunnels are well marked.
One of the tunnels leads to Hitler’s Bunker but the entrance is bricked up so you are unable to get into the Berghof’s Bunker.
Underground prisoner cells
The Berghof (Hitler’s home) was blown up in 1952 by the Bavarian government.
After our exploration of the bunkers, we went to the bus parking lot to switch to a special bus that took us up to Eagle’s Nest! Before getting in the smaller bus to visit Eagle’s Nest we had lunch in Obersalzberg.
Our restaurant for lunch, Berggasthof Obersalzberg
It was cloudy and foggy during our visit to Eagle’s Nest which to us seemed appropriate. When you talk about Eagle’s Nest it refers just to the mountaintop chalet. We walked through a tunnel to take the elevator up to the building.
The elevator up to Eagle’s Nest is made of polished brass.
Elevator in the waiting room.
Getting on the elevator to take us up to the chalet.
Eagle’s Nest is now a restaurant. In the dining room is a marble fireplace given to Hitler as a gift from Mussolini.
The dining room where the fireplace is located.
The fireplace with the mantle given to Hitler by Mussolini.
Hitler rarely visited here because he lived at the Berghof. He didn’t like the elevator and he was scared of heights. More pictures from inside Eagle’s Nest are below.
Even though is was cloudy when we were visiting Eagle’s Nest the views were still amazing!
looking down on Eagle’s Nest from the top.
Looking up at Eagle’s Nest.
one of the beautiful flowers we saw
After spending the afternoon at Eagle’s Nest, we headed back to Munich for our group’s farewell cocktails and dinner! It was difficult saying goodbye to such a wonderful group of people!
Our last cocktail together
Our last cocktail together
Our tour director, Catelyn, and our driver, Gabe, read the book of thanks that everyone wrote a note of gratitude to each of them!
Tuesday morning began with the first bus ride to the airport! The hotel packed a to-go breakfast for us.
My gluten free breakfast to go!
We had a late morning flight back to the U.S. from Munich to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Columbus. Our flights were close to on time and no issues going through customs. It was definitely a trip to remember and share with others.
Today began with a tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp. It is located about 12 1/2 miles NW of Munich. Dachau became the model for other camps that were built. It is now a memorial site on the grounds of the former concentration camp. This memorial site was established in 1965.
Entrance sign to Daschau
Plaque to Liberators
Entrance gate to Dachau
Roll Call/Meeting area
Barracks are in the background
The original entry gate.
The gate at the main entrance had the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” which translates as “Work Makes You Free”!
Dachau was also the training center for the SS where recruits were indoctrinated into a system that encouraged the torture, humiliation and killing of prisoners.
A model of the layout at Dachua.
Repairing the Dachau memorial sculpture
Daschau Memorial site
Dachau Memorial site
Dachau was built in 1933 as a concentration camp for political prisoners. The camp had 32 barracks, one reserved for clergy and one reserved for the medical experiments. Dachau was designed to hold 6,000 prisoners but by 1944 there were over 30,000 prisoners! In the 12 years of its existence over 200,000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned there. After only imprisoning political prisoners, it then held criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was later that Jews were added. At Dachau some prisoners were used as slave labor to manufacture weapons and other items for Germany’s war effort. Also some prisoners were subjected to brutal medical experiments by the Nazis! Theodor Eicke ran the camp after Sebastian Nefzger. When Eicke took over he enforced a rule that any prisoner deemed guilty of rule breaking would be brutally beaten. And if you tried to escape or shared your political views you were immediately executed! Eicke’s regulations served as a blueprint for all of the other concentration camps.
We saw the cells, barracks and gas chamber. Dachau has rebuilt two of the barracks. The other barracks are indicated by concrete foundations.
A rebuilt barrack.
The beds in one of the barracks.
The only washing area for the entire barrack.
The only toilets for the barrack. (no privacy)
The memorial layout of where the other barracks once stood.
The perimeter defense that was in place at Dachau is shown below. The camp was surrounded by 7 watch towers, an electrified barb-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall.
A picture of the perimeter.
There was a ditch, electrified wire fence and guard towers.
In 1942, construction began on Barrack X, a crematorium that when finished housed 4 sizable ovens used to incinerate corpses.
The “shower” room door locked from the outside!
The fake shower heads that the gas entered through.
The crematorium
The ovens!
Just before the camp was liberated the SS ordered about 7,000 prisoners to embark on a 6 day long death march to Tegernsee, Germany to the south.
This sculpture symbolizes the Death March.
On April 29th, 1945 the American military entered the camp where they found 1,000s of emaciated prisoners. They also found several dozen train cars filled with rotting corpses. It was horrific and beyond words.
Plaque to Liberators
There are 4 chapels on the Dachau memorial site. One is the Catholic Church of the Mortal Agony of Christ Chapel which was the first to be built.The second is the Protestant Church of Reconciliation and is set into the ground.The third was the Jewish Memorial.
The fourth and the newest is the Russian Orthodox Chapel.
After the war and the camp had been liberated, it was used from 1945-1948 as a prison for accused war criminals and SS members. Then in 1948 Daschau was used as a refugee camp until the mid-sixties.
Our lunch was in the Dachau Visitor’s Center and when we were finished we took our bus into Munich for our afternoon walking tour of the Third Reich. Our tour started at the Hofbrahaus.
It is a very famous pub and has been at its current location since 1607. In 1920 the German Nationalist Party was founded in the Hofbrahaus. Most famously Hitler delivered his 25-point program.
The room where Hitler gave his speech at the Hofbrahaus.
He threatened to strip the Jews of their civic rights and to set up a dictatorship. Thirteen years later these plans became a sad reality.
Medieval clock tower in Munich.
Our walking tour continued on with our guide Kurt who also was our guide at Dachau.
Our guide Kurt.
He was covering the history of Munich in relation to the birthplace of Nazism!
Equestrian statue of Maximilian Churfuerst Von Bayern in Wittelsbacherplatz Square.
The square below is dedicated to those that died at the hands of the Nazis. The eternal flame is in a block-like cage atop four T’s.
Königsplatz square was used for the Nazi party’s mass rallies. Below is the Propyläen, which is the city gate on the west side of the Königsplatz.
Propyläen, Munich’s city gateA newer museum in Munich that is about the history of Nazism.
There are still signs of Nazism on some buildings. The eagle is one of them. We also saw some swastikas in ceiling patterns.
Below, the captions tell you about these photos from our walking tour.
View of the Führerbau, “the Führer’s building”
Palace of Justice
If you look closely there is still damage from the bombing of Munich.
Neptune Fountain by Nazi Sculptor Josef Wackerle in 1937.
View from the Odeonsplatz
Bavarian State Opera
The Feldherrnhalle was commissioned in 1841 by King Ludwig I of Bavaria and was modeled after the loggia in Florence, Italy. In 1923 it was the site of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch which was a very brief battle. When the Nazi’s were in power in Munich it was also a monument commemorating 16 Nazi party members that died because of this battle.
Just remember beer drinkers, Munich is the beer city of the world! We had dinner at the Weisses Brauhaus in the heart of Munich. Many of our group enjoyed trying the different beers!
A few more photos from our time in Munich!
It was another day of different emotions. Spending the morning at Dachau and then the afternoon seeing Hitler’s haunts and the power the Nazi party held in Munich was entirely different set of emotions.
We returned to our hotel and several of us discussed the day and our experiences.
We were on the bus by 7:30 because we were heading to Munich, Germany. Our first stop today was the Luxembourg American Cemetery located in the country of Luxembourg.
Over 5,000 are buried here and about 100 of these are unknown soldiers. The only woman buried here is Nancy Leo, a nurse, her sister also served as a nurse during WWII. Nancy was killed when her jeep overturned on her way to Paris to visit her sister!
Below are some pictures of the cemetery.
Also buried here is General Patton. In the spring of 1947 his grave marker was moved from Plot EE to the front so to save the ground and those buried around him.
Before we left the cemetery the veterans in our group and another tour group did a wreath laying ceremony outside the memorial chapel. Below are pictures from the chapel inside and out.
Today’s weather is much cooler and rainy. The first precipitation that we’ve had! We certainly welcomed the cooler temperatures.
On to Munich we go! Our tour director played an anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon made by Disney and was about Hitler!
Our arrival to the hotel, H4 Hotel Munich Messe, was around 6:30 PM and our dinner was at the hotel. We were glad to have a room with air conditioning after three days of oppressive heat and no air at our hotel.
After dinner we had a great time at the bar with others from our group! After riding on the bus all day it was nice to relax. The bar had these 4 projector screens that had 4 different band and/or singers playing music. It entertained us all!
This bunker complex was started in 1943. It was an underground Fuehrer Headquarters in case the buildings above ground were destroyed or if the Obersalzberg should be taken over by the enemy. The subsystems were connected by long corridors or staircases. All of the important buildings were reachable. The bunkers contained living, work, office, storage and technical space. When the air raid by the British occurred in April, 1945 over Obersalzberg the bunkers were filled with many workers but no Third Reich officials.
Before getting in the smaller bus to visit Eagle’s Nest we had lunch in Obersalzberg.
In the dining room is a marble fireplace given to Hitler as a gift from Mussolini.
The second is the Protestant Church of Reconciliation and is set into the ground.
The third was the Jewish Memorial.
