Obersalzberg: Secrets of Hitler’s Hidden Stronghold I SLICE HISTORY | FULL DOCUMENTARY DD

Adolf Hitler spent almost a quarter of his time in office at his Alpine retreat. From the mid1 1930s, the Orbazburg had become a restricted area reserved for Nazi notables and guarded by the Reich Security Service and the Vaffan SS. This is where Hitler, the private man, stage managed himself as the leader of the national community.

This footage shows a visit by a group of Austrian girls in the summer of 1938. Day after day, people flocked to the Burkhoff in droves. He mesmerized them all. Everyone wanted to see Hitler. Chartered trains would arrive with hundreds of people and they would all troop up to the Oberazburg to meet Hitler and he would come out, shake people’s hands and kiss the children.

Afterwards, they would collect pebbles on which Hitler had stood. And if he shook their hand, they wouldn’t wash it. Or they would chop off little pieces of wood from the fence and frame them in gold because Hitler had touched it. Hitler frequently received state guests on the oroutsburg.

News rail cameras captured the same scenes over and over again symbolic of his unlimited power. The stairs leading up to the bear, the enormous window, the furer during briefings. Up here in this idyllic setting, the dictator mapped out many of his aggressive plans of war and destruction. [Music] Today, most of the buildings from that era no longer exist.

They were destroyed by the Allied bombs, and the ruins were later blasted and cleared away. Deep inside the mountain, however, the subterranean bunker system has remained untouched. Recently, efforts have been made to ascertain the function of these miles of tunnels. They wanted to construct huge subterranean ammunition depots and build an access road into the mountain so that Hitler when he came from the valley could drive into his mountain underground.

He would have got out of the car there and gone up 100 m in an elevator into his bear bunker which had already been built. People on the orals actually expected Hitler to come back right until the end. Work to expand and line this deep underground tunnel carried on intensely almost until the end of the war. They wanted to be prepared just in case Hitler returned to hold up here with his last [Music] devotees.

Though Hitler decided to await the downfall in Berlin, his mountain never shed the shadows of the past. The dictator has shaped the history of the Orzoutsburg too deeply. For over 100 years, Becka’s garden and the surrounding mountains have been a popular holiday resort for summer and winter guests from all over Europe. The massifs of Vatzman, Hawkeela, Unbe and Ha Girl form an imposing backdrop.

Surrounded by all the summits that characterized the beha’s garden district, the orbazaltsburg at the beginning of the 20th century was a thriving resort with many businesses and country houses of wealthy towns people. One of the popular guest houses of the time was the Orber Verlean belonging to the Hulso family. It used to be a perfect little world up here.

The old burgers were there for each other. They all stuck together. Then they heard that someone called Hitler was coming. The leader of a new nationalistic party and my father said, “That can’t be good. This is bound to mess things up.” Adolf Hitler first came to the Orzburg in 1923 to visit Dietri Heckard, a nationalistic and anti-semitic writer who was one of Hitler’s major promoters.

Using the alias hair vulv he rented a room of the pension morates whose owner was one of Hitler’s early supporters. Later on he was given the use of a log cabin where he dictated parts of the second volume of mine camp. Hitler often retreated to the alpine isolation of Orazoutsburg for weeks to indulge in his delusions and fantasize about the purity of the German race and the creation of Lebanon’s realm in the east.

Eventually in 1928 he rented house vahenfeld for 100 reichs marks a month a cottage belonging to the widow of a businessman from bookster huda. At first Hitler had kept a low profile on the orbsburg. Now he had his personal photographer, Hinrik Hoffman, take pictures of him on his magic mountain that depicted him as a peaceful citizen and good-natured dog lover on holiday, seeking peace and quiet in the seclusion of the mountains.

[Music] Nazi demonstrations and speeches were banned following Hitler’s failed beer hole push, but this could not be sustained in the long term. From his base in Beta’s garden, Hitler traveled across the country giving rabble rousing speeches. The restrictions of the peace treaty of Versailles, the world economic crisis, and mass unemployment drove flocks of voters to the Nazi party.

House Vakenthal was extended and became Hitler’s Alpine base near the Austrian border where he and his closest confidants conspired to take over power. Many Ozsburg citizens regarded their new neighbors with suspicion. He was always afraid that someone might harm him and was heavily guarded. Everything that went on in there was kept secret. No one else knew about it.

They kept themselves to themselves. They were cut off from the local community and they didn’t want anything to do with them. Hitler’s half sister Angela Rael kept house for him on the Orazoutsburg. Rare photographs show her daughter Gilly with her uncle. Gile’s suicide in 1931 gave rise to speculations about an intimate relationship between her and Hitler.

But even their neighbors in the village were unable to find out any details. We were children and all we knew was that this oddball of a man was now living up there with his dogs. My father had brought back a military telescope after the first world war which was set up on our terrace. And so we were able to watch everything that went on around Hitler’s house and on his terrace.

We had a lot of fun with it as children, but we must have been noticed because his sister, who was the housekeeper up there, told my father that we were to stop it at once. [Music] After coming to power in Berlin, Hitler returned to Bavaria as the chancellor of the Reich on the 12th of March 1933.

The transformation of Germany into a dictatorial despotic state had [Music] begun. Hitler’s takeover of power brought about changes not only for the German Reich, but also for the Orbers Outsburg. The Fura’s private hideway increasingly became a popular destination for Hitler tourists, high-ranking functionaries, and party officials.

In June 1933, Hitler bought House Vakenfeld for 40,000 gold marks. Supporters and curious visitors wishing to be close to the new chancellor of the Reich now troop to the Orzoutsburg crowds. Spontaneous homage was tolerated at first, but later only organized cheering was permitted. Nazi propaganda disseminated hundreds of thousands of photographs depicting pilgrimages to the fura in order to create an image of Hitler as the chancellor of the people.

Thousands of people would gather outside on the road yelling hail and singing. My mother once joined the crowd. She said, “I want to know what kind of people they are.” And when she came back, she said, “I don’t understand what’s going on anymore.” After the Nazis accession to power, the Orzsburg saw some brisk construction activity.

Using taxpayers money, Hitler’s private house was converted into a functioning seat of government. The former house of Akenfeld was remodeled into the Bearov with an enormous reception area in the center featuring the famous grand picture window. The flashy construction was ready for occupation by mid 1936.

Nazi leaders wanted to remain undisturbed on the Orzoutsburg in the Fura’s restricted area which became the new second center of power. All other neighbors had to go. Martin Borman was in charge of the conversion of the Orb Zaltsburg. Being Rudolph Hess’s chief of staff and manager of the Fura’s assets, he began acquiring plots in the area surrounding the Bearov.

The Obanszburg administration department has meticulously recorded their acquisitions of property. This is an original list of all the buyouts. Marked in color here are all the dispossessions. Everything is recorded in detail. One can see how the buildings and properties were bought one by one. How people were forced to leave.

At first, Hitler insisted that Borman buy the properties at the current market prices. As the furer would not allow me to force the owners to sell, I had to pay extortionate prices. The party secretary complained in a letter. Many longtime Orbitalsburg residents decided to sell. Their houses were immediately knocked down. The demolition work was carried out as fast as possible in order to spare the furer the ugly sight of demolished buildings is how Borman justified the haste.

However, some owners remained reluctant despite the fat rewards offered. So, Borman began to put pressure on them. One of the most stubborn neighbors was lung specialist Riad Zites, who ran a children’s sanatorium on the Orbsburg. You don’t have to leave. They said, “Of course, you can stay. It’s just that life might not be as easy for you as it was before.

You see, we already knew what was going on. Word had got around that two people had wound up in the concentration camp in Dao. I knew that we would get the eviction order on the 1st of January and we’d have to leave the sanatorium with the children by the 1st of March. Rose Vick the sanatorium was knocked down.

Martin Borman moved into the house of the Zites family which overlooked the Burkov and most of the Uber Zoutsburg complex. Martin Borman was evidently the figure of power on the Zoutsburg. On this list, the Orzburg administration has recorded a total of 71 property transactions. one can see exactly how many square meters each property was.

The summary at the end shows just three owners. Martin Borman, Adolf Hitler, and Herman Guring. It’s interesting that Martin Borman acquired over 1,000 hectares in the name of the Orbsburg administration. Adolf Hitler in comparison owned only eight hectares and Herman Gurring won.

The Orban house too lay in the vicinity of the Bearoth. Yosef Herzel whose family had lived on the Orazaltsburg for centuries was one of those who refused to sell their property. He even remained obstinate after he lost his job. In the end, Borman took on the case personally. [Music] I remember that Borman came to the house to see my father and told him, “If you don’t go to the notary tomorrow, your whole family will end up in DO.

” So my father went to the notary straight away. After the sale, we had three days to vacate the house. And as soon as we’d moved the last load and drove away, they set the house on fire. They’d already pulled out some windows and laid detonation cables. What didn’t burn in the fire was then blown up. And 3 days later, there was nothing left of the house.

The Orver lane was one of the last pre Hitler Orber Zsburg properties to be leveled. The village community that had existed there for generations was gone, scattered all over the place. Everyone had to see where they could find accommodation. There were no neighbors, no houses left. Everything had been burnt down. It had become Hitler’s empire. But I don’t care anymore.

I only need to close my eyes and I’m at home again. And I’ll not let this memory be taken away from me. The transformation of the Uber Zburg into Hitler’s Alpine Center of Power was now complete. [Music] This is where the dictator played to the gallery of his foreign guests. A demonstration of Germany’s reclaimed international standing.

The beov provided the perfect setting for Hitler, the statesman. [Music] Though he often bored his guests with long monologues, Hitler managed to arouse people’s curiosity and win their sympathy. Even critical visitors were dazzled. After his visit to the Beoff, the liberal British politician David Lloyd George professed that the leader of the Germans was a really great man.

[Music] Borman had a tea house built for Hitler on the Moose Lana Cop. People with access into the Orzoutsburg complex could follow the Fura’s daily walk ritual. There were three restricted zones. The first directly surrounding the backoff, the next on the periphery, and the last with an even larger perimeter.

No one was allowed in without showing their ID. The security service always went ahead and checked everything, even though it wasn’t necessary. And if Hitler walked out of the house a quarter of an hour earlier than expected, there was always a commotion if the guards weren’t at their posts.

From the backoff, he would walk to the tea house most of the time, either with guests or alone with his entourage. He went there quite frequently. Sitting at the coffee table, Albert Spear wrote in his memoirs, “Hitler like to lose himself in endless soliloquiz.” As the topics were usually known to his company, they followed them inattentively while pretending to listen.

Occasionally, Hitler fell asleep during one of his monologues. There’s hardly a trace of the tea house today. It was demolished after the war and the remains are now overgrown by the forest. The thoughts that were maturing in Hitler’s mind in the seclusion of Obazaltzburg became apparent in early 1938. On the 12th of February, Hitler received Austrian Chancellor Schustnik at the Bearov for talks on the future of Austria.

After record your welcome, the host led Shnik into his study where he told his guest bluntly, “You don’t seriously believe that you can delay me for even half an hour.” Hitler threatened him openly, “Who knows, maybe I will come to Vienna overnight like a spring [Music] storm?” The Bearov perfectly fulfilled his function as Hitler’s orspiring center of power.

4 weeks after his visit, Shushnik’s government was ousted by the National Socialists. The Austrians welcomed the Fura enthusiastically. On the Oberazburg, an army of up to 8,000 workers labored on further developing the 100 hectare area. They built a farm to ensure a supply of quality food for Hitler.

The platter, which lay outside of the inner restricted zone, was converted into a hotel for party functionaries. A large barracks compound housed the SS guard units along with Martin Borman. Albert Spear and Hammond Guring also took possession of houses near the Bagoff. Despite the outdoor pool, the country house of the second in command in the Nazi hierarchy appears almost modest by comparison.

Here, Guring poses for the news camera with his pet lion. One of the few buildings to survive the remodeling of the Orbazburg and the war unscathed is the country house acquired by Albert Spear. [Music] Hitler’s architect even had his own studio within the restricted area where he drew up increasingly outrageous plans for his furer.

Amateur footage discovered with a member of the SS in Austria in 1946 conveys the illusion of a harmless idol on the Bearov terrace. A small circle of Hitler’s acquaintances and associates frequented the Beoff. Nazi dignitaries including propaganda minister Yosef Gerbles and Foreign Minister Yuim Fon Ribbonrop were happy to be filmed alongside the Furer.

[Music] Chief of SS Henry Himmler visited the Burkoff in 1944 to consult with Hitler on the Partisan problem and the annihilation of the Jews. These benile amateur films were shot by Hitler’s lover Eva Brown. She had lived at the Bearov hidden from the public eye since 1936. Only few had an insight into Hitler’s strictly shielded private life.

A flock of servants, cooks, and housemaids looked after the dictator and his guests. In May 1941, a 20-year-old girl from Lustf in Lower Austria started work as a chambermaid on the Orbsburg. The supervisors told me right from the start, “Anything you see or hear and anything that happens here doesn’t leave the house.

You are not to mention anything in your letters home. You must understand that this is not possible. Officially, Eva Brown’s function at the Bearov was that of the Fura’s private secretary. Only the inner circle knew her to be the lady of the house, who accepted the staff’s best wishes by Hitler’s side on New Year’s Day.

Newcomers were instructed by the head housekeeper. [Music] Middlestasa explained to me how things were at the back. When she showed me the layout of the rooms, she said, “You know, this room is Hitler’s. This one is Fra Brown’s and there’s a private passage between them. I’m sure you can imagine the rest. for you. After the war began, the Bearov set got to see less and less of the dictator.

The days were spent organizing uninspired parties or watching [Music] films. The daily routine of the service staff was a lot stricter whenever Hitler was on the orouts. When the Fura found out about his deputy party leader Rudolfph Hess’s flight to Great Britain, the atmosphere in the Boff grew extremely tense.

It was awful at the beginning because we had to keep completely quiet. There was a notice in front of Hitler’s study that read absolute quiet. In fact, I wrote home that Hitler was always working and that he needed complete peace and quiet. It was the time when he was preparing for the war against Russia. the Reland Greek for [Music] Hitler used his retreat in the Alps to plan the war of aggression against the Soviet Union.

He would often return to the Bearov from his headquarters to confer with his allies and representatives of friendly countries. [Music] As the beoff was too small for grand state receptions, Hitler had Klesheim Castle near Saltsburg converted for this purpose after the annexation of Austria. This barack gem had formerly been a hunting lodge for Saltsburg’s [Music] archbishops in Zsburg.

[Music] Many key decisions concerning the war plans of the Axis powers were made during the regular consultations in Klesheim Castle. Hitler demanded allegiance from his partners not only in military matters but also regarding his annihilation plans. [Music] On the 18th of March 1944, he accused Hungary’s head of state, Miklosh Horty, during his visit to Klesheim of having secret negotiations with the Allies and of permitting nearly 1 million Jews to live freely in his country.

Horty was to invite the Vermach into Hungary immediately, a country that had not yet been occupied. In the end, Horty yielded to the pressure and returned to Budapest in the company of senior SS officials. One month later, the deportations of Hungarian Jews to Ashvitz began. Over 400,000 were murdered there in the space of just 2 months.

A new railway track was built especially for this purpose in Ashvitz. This image shows Jews from the Carpathians at the ramp during the selection process. The idyllic world of the old Bazaltsburg and the seeming tranquility of the Bearov and its inhabitants were maintained even during the war. Up here, the dictator seemed inviable.

Hitler’s security was provided by his personal bodyguard, members of the SS Lib Standard, who had their own shooting range on the complex. As of 1943, the SS security forces were mainly worried about potential Allied parachute operations aiming to assassinate the [Music] [Applause] dictator. In his Hollywood produced spy thriller, Manhunt from 1941, German expatriate director Fritz Lang demonstrated how such an assassination attempt could be accomplished.

The film was set in pre-war Germany. A British secret agent who has made his way to the Orzburg unnoticed has Hitler in his sights, takes aim with his hunting rifle, only to falter in the end. [Music] The film scenario became a serious consideration when the British government commissioned plans to assassinate Hitler on the Orzoutsburg.

Under the code name Operation Foxley, the British Secret Service compiled a 120page dossier with all available information on the target’s daily routine and walk routes on the Uber Zoutsburg and drew up detailed maps. A member of Hitler’s SS Guard detail, possessing extensive and classified knowledge of the inner restricted area, had been arrested during the battle in Normandy.

The configuration of Operation Foxley was completed by the summer of 1944. Churchill, however, wanted the Germans to be defeated on the battlefield. At the beginning of 1945, when victory over Nazi Germany had become a matter of weeks, Operation Foxley was suspended. The plans of the British Secret Service have made provisions not only for the SS guards and ammunition depots, but also for the existence of secret bunker systems.

We’re entering the netherworld beneath the Orzoutsburg. For years, a specialist team has been exploring and surveying the underground shelters. A shaft underneath the former SS barracks leads 30 m into the earth. No one knew what they would find there as the wooden staircase had collapsed decades ago. The researchers discovered 350 m of unfinished tunnels.

The first cabins have been lined with bricks, but the cable ducts have been partly concreted. There had already been almost 6 km of tunnels and bunkers when Martin Borman evidently decided to extend the system. Construction crews worked feverishly doing three shifts a day until the Allied air raid on the 25th of April 1945. This is a bunker for the SS which was dug at an enormous depth and was therefore not easily accessible due to this long shaft that was built under here.

Digital surveying now enables us for the first time to form a complete and accurate picture of the entire Ortsburg underground constructions. If we combine the information from the records of the Ober administration regarding the tunnel constructions and the testimonies of witnesses, we come to the conclusion that this whole shelter area was laid out for the protection of approximately 400 SS men as well as storage for large ammunition depots that will be used to defend this alleged Alpine fortress.

Calculations show that the end of the Bearov bunker is just 10 m away. The plan was probably to connect the two bunkers for quick access from the SS barracks to Hitler. Construction work on the underground tunnels had begun in the summer of 1943. After the liberation of North Africa by the Allied forces, Hitler’s Alpine residence was now within range of their bomber squadrons.

The frenzid activity did not go unnoticed by the other Uber Zsburg inhabitants. Everyone knew they were building bunkers. They couldn’t possibly have kept it secret. There were so many workers. There were Italian and Czech laborers. There was the army tunnel construction company. There was the Reich Labor Service. Bulman was omnipresent.

You could count on him turning up all over the place. He supervised the whole project and put the pressure on. They used to call him the Lord of the Oberals. He’s a Martin Borman, Hitler’s governor of the Oberdsburg, had a bunker constructed for the dictator and his household directly under the Bearov. The first section was completed by Christmas 1943.

Of course, Borman also provided for his sizable family. An underground tunnel system branching out in all directions was opened up under his villa. Today, it can only be entered with special authorization. 77 stairs led directly from Borman’s house into the underworld. The private rooms were accessible through a 60 m long passage. For their defense, protected machine gun positions have been installed along the corridor.

[Music] The entire Obsburg bunker complex was absolutely self-sufficient as regards supplies. There was enough fresh water, an anti- gas ventilating system. There were ample stocks of food supplies, so it would have been possible to hold out for a long time. The problem was that one could not have protected the entrances from the outside, but only from the inside.

There were no fortifications outside the tunnels, which means that the enemy could besiege the area and penetrate into the shelters up to the machine gun positions without resistance. This is the area the Bormans used. Three ventilated rooms with bunk beds for the children. It’s interesting that one deliberately chose a relatively warm color to paint the walls so that the surroundings would not appear quite so bleak.

The light switches in the children’s rooms were also lower than usual. They were installed about 50 cm lower than elsewhere in the bunker. The floors were made of wood. You can imagine the bunk bed standing here. The Borman spent weeks at a time down here. Of course, they didn’t live exclusively in the bunker.

They were up in the house, too. But the danger of an Allied air raid onto the Orbizburg was imminent by the end of 1943. So the Bormans have made themselves comfortable down here. Borman’s safe was removed by the Americans after the end of the war. Its outlines are still evident. A communication center outfitted with the most up-to-date equipment of the time received the latest radio messages and news from the fronts.

[Music] When danger from the air was imminent, smoke cannons would enshroud the Uber Zoutsburg in fog. In early 1944, Hitler watched a demonstration of this defensive measure. He had transferred his headquarters to Becker’s garden and was planning to spend the next few months at the Bearov where he felt safe from Allied bombing raids.

The strategic unsuitability of the area was quickly apparent to the new SS commander on the [Music] Ortsburg. To think of Ortsburg as a military object in any way would be a total misconception. In fact, from a military point of view, the Orzburg was quite simply a mouse trap. The troops that I found here at that time were all sent to the front during the following weeks and months.

From the over 2,000 men stationed here initially, only a few were left behind at the end. All the others were sent to the front and were replaced by female SS troops who worked the smoke guns and by 16 to 18year-old Reich Labour service youngsters who man the flag [Music] anti-aircraft guns were installed around the so-called Eagle’s Nest on Kilstein Mountain.

This second tea house was commissioned by Borman in 1939 as a present for Hitler’s 50th birthday. But it seemed the dictator was afraid of heights, so he only rarely visited the Kelstein house. On the 3rd of June 1944, the Bearov set celebrated its last party up [Music] there. It was the day Eva Brown’s sister, Gretle, married SS squadron leader Herman Figelerine, a man whose SS cavalry division was responsible for the death of tens of thousands of civilians at the Eastern Front.

During the final days of the war, Fageline was arrested for desertion and executed on Hitler’s orders in the Reich Chancellory in Berlin. The last known footage of Hitler on the Orzoutsburg shows him with the bride and groom. He left the Burkoff in mid July. Herman Guring, Hitler’s designated successor and head of the Luftvafa, spends a lot of time on the Orzoutsburg with his family.

Since British and American bombers were now destroying more and more German cities without much resistance, his prestige among the population had suffered greatly. The tranquil alpine setting helped him to forget his defeats. Guring too had a tunnel system running underneath his country house, but his was not connected with the other Ubersburg bunkers.

All air raid shelters were stocked with food at the beginning of April 1945, and items of value and furniture were also moved underground. The Nazi leaders could have held out for weeks in their subterranean hideouts. Yet the commander at Orazoutsburg did not think that Hitler would come back here. The bunkers and underground facilities were really phenomenal.

However, should an enemy unit managed to advance to the Orazburg, all they needed to do was to block the entrances to the bunkers and whoever was in them would be trapped. The question of whether Hitler should have come to the Orbizburg was idiotic and didn’t even arise. This is probably why Hitler rejected Borman’s urgent requests that he retreat to Oroutsburg.

Guring finally decided to leave Berlin with his underlings and flee to the Oroutsburg. Evidently, the Reichs Marshall was still hoping he could negotiate a separate peace deal with the Western Allies. [Music] On the 23rd of April 1945, he sent Hitler a wire from Orazoutsburg, setting him an ultimatum.

Borman succeeded in convincing Hitler that Guring, the Furer’s old companion, had betrayed him. On the same night, Guring was stripped of all his offices. He was sitting at a desk. I announced myself and said, “Herm Marshall, I received a telegram from the furer.” “Yes, let me see,” he said. I handed it to him.

And after a rather long pause, he told me, “I suppose you have to arrest me now.” On the following day, Allied aircraft in England were loaded with bunker buster bombs. The British Secret Service had apparently intercepted information that the dictator would be on the Orbizburg the day [Music] after. RAF bombers flew for 4 and a half hours. Just before 9:00 a.m.

, the first of nearly 400 aircraft reached their target without encountering any resistance. We were going up the slope when the anti-aircraft guns started firing. We could hear the airplanes. The noise was terrible. Then we knew that this was serious. We ran back in through the kitchen and bombs exploded all around us.

Or maybe it was the flat guns. We saw the window panes shake and then shatter. We quickly ran straight to the tunnel entrance, leaving everything behind. And there were the men from the air raid rescue team. We waited for a while and then the first wave came. The power went out with the first bombs and we sat in the dark. In panic, people fled to the air raid shelters.

Herman Guring, who was under arrest, was escorted to his bunker by SSmen down the narrow stairs with his wife and daughter at the last moment. [Music] From a height of 6 km, an automatic camera filmed the air raid on the Orbizburg on the 25th of April, 1945. The last bombs were dropped at 2 minutes to 11. It took quite some time before we could get out. Then we saw the inferno.

Bomb crater after bomb crater. Not one blade of grass. No bushes left. The buildings were destroyed. Borman’s house was severely damaged. Guring’s house was damaged. The Boff was damaged. The barracks were ruined. It was a wasteland. A few days later, Allied aerial footage documented the destruction.

The ruins were a big attraction for the population as the overflowing bunkers had remained [Music] intact. We went back up and there was no one there. The local authorities had permitted pillaging. So we went searching for provisions. There was enough food to last a thousand years in the bunkers. Sugar, flour, rice.

People were carrying away barrels of French cognac. There was everything you can imagine. Other people took crystal, silver cut, china or mice and porcelain. All sorts of porcelain. But we only took food. Miraculously, Bera’s garden was not damaged by the bombs. At the beginning of May 1945, the population awaited the arrival of the victors. On the 4th of May, US and French troops entered the town almost simultaneously.

Up until the very end, US commander-in-chief Eisenhower was concerned about rumors that Nazi leaders and fanatic SS units had barricaded themselves in a so-called Alpine Fortress and would offer fierce resistance. However, these rumors proved to be false. As a final signal of their reign of terror, departing SS troops set fire to the ruin of the [Music] Bearov.

American war correspondent Lee Miller witnessed the bizarre scene. It was like a funeral p of the Third Reich, she wrote in her report. We were standing outside in the garden watching the Bhoff burn and my father said to my mother, “You see, now they’re getting exactly what they did to us. Now their property is being burnt down, too.” A few days later, US Commander Omar Bradley inspected the last prize of the war.

followed by the camera. Bradley walked up the stairs to Hitler’s Bearov and took possession of the dead dictator’s center of power in the name of the USA. Curious Becka’s garden citizens also ventured into the ruins. Considering that this was once the Furious residence with lots of fine furniture and valuable carpets and so on, the picture was devastating.

The carpets had disappeared. A lot of the wood was battered and splintered. The table wear shattered. The cutlery bent and soiled and useless. It actually looked as if the place had been vandalized. as a vantalish [Music] English. The victors also inspected the underground bunkers. An area of 1,800 m had been prepared to house Hitler and his entourage.

The Americans confiscated the dictator’s collection of paintings and library which were stored in the shelter. Hitler’s private archives had been burned by his aid Julius Sha before capitulation. Eva Brown’s bedroom had evidently been the site of riotist parties celebrated by people who had gained unauthorized access after the end of the war.

The shelter had been ready for occupancy by April 1945 and was filled with a substantial collection of clothes and porcelain. Acting on Hitler’s orders, police detectives had later tried unsuccessfully to destroy everything that pointed to Eva Brown’s existence. On Brown’s special request, a bathroom with a tub had been fitted into the air protection shelter.

Little of this remains today. The rooms are deserted. Still, illicit treasure hunters on the search for valuables often break into the bunker system. Hitler’s room was right next to Eva Browns. It’s said to have been rather austerely furnished. The Americans removed the fixtures and the rest was taken by tourists.

Even the tiles from the bathroom became dubious souvenirs. Interestingly, Hitler had only been down here [Music] once. The troops also discovered parts of Herman Guring’s art collection in the bunkers. The Reichkes Marshall had been snatching treasures of immense value from Nazi occupied territories.

After the air raid, Guring was helped to escape to neighboring Austria, where he was arrested by US soldiers in early May 1945. [Music] After the end of the war, the ruin of the bear with a gigantic picture window became one of the most popular attractions for American GIs in Europe. [Music] The soldiers named the tea house on the Kelstein Eagle’s Nest.

It was the only place left intact where they could visualize how the dictator once lived. [Music] Further down on the Uber Zsburg, Hitler’s soldiers cleared the rubble and German prisoners of war disposed of the remnants of the furer’s restricted zone. The ruins of the Bearov, however, were left untouched and soon became a place of pilgrimage for dieards.

[Music] I went up there again in 1951 or 52 and was able to enter the ruin without a problem. It looked tidier this time. The partly collapsed roof had been removed. What I found appalling was the graffiti on the inside of the walls. All the remaining walls were covered with Hitler slogans. Some were so high up you’d need a ladder to reach them.

The inside of the entire Burkoff was full of fascist slogans like Hitler and H to Alura or if only we had you back again and so on and so forth. I assume that was actually the reason they blew up the ruins of the Bearov shortly after. In 1952, the American occupying power and the local government of Bavaria decided to dispose of the remains of the Burkoff.

On the 30th of April, exactly 7 years after Hitler’s suicide, demolition charges blew up the ruins. The foundations of Hitler’s second seat of government in the Alps were finally removed in 1995. [Music] Today, it’s hard to imagine that Hitler’s house once stood here. And yet the Oberazburg will probably never again revert to being just an ordinary health resort.