Berghof Obersalzberg

Discussions on the propaganda, architecture and culture in the Third Reich.
Post Reply
User avatar
Geoff Walden
Member
Posts: 2616
Joined: 29 Mar 2002, 15:50
Location: South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Contact:

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1831

Post by Geoff Walden » 16 Aug 2011, 06:55

Hi Rob,

Don't give 'em any ideas! :D

Actually, the situation in Nürnberg appears to be different from most other locations with Third Reich ruins. Nürnberg seems committed to preserving these sites and interpreting them for the public. The large info markers they have erected all around the Reichsparteitagsgelände area make it appear that those sites will be preserved into the future. It just takes money to do so.

Geoff

Mannheim
Member
Posts: 841
Joined: 12 Dec 2010, 23:10
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1832

Post by Mannheim » 17 Aug 2011, 02:13

I have been cleaning up recently and found these photographs. I can't remember when I took them but it was probably 1982, possibly but doubtfully 1989. I was up at the ruins of the Berghof. The whole area was fenced off with "Lebensgefahr" signs and "Eintritt Verboten" but my German failed me and I got in and believe it or not got under the house. Unfortunately, I had no means of illumination except for the flash on my camera. Consequently the eleven or twelve photos I took all look like these. I lowered myself into a room through a trapdoor/hole and it was obvious that others recently had been there before me. I had to stumble around flashing the camera like mad and occasionally running into debris which precluded further exploration. I will post the other photos as I find them but really they were just rooms full of debris, service rooms I expect. The third photo is one I took inside the garge when you could still wriggle in. There was so much rubble in there that you could practically touch the roof. Graffiti indicated that there had been more than one midnight party in the ruins. I also have a series of photos I took of the Guest House before it became the Tourist Information Centre. I will post these if anyone's interested.
Attachments
Berghof Garage.JPG
I found last year that this was all gone.
Berghof underneath 2.JPG
Berghof underneath.JPG
Not even sure if these photos are the right way up.
Kein Irrtum ist so groß, der nicht seinen Zuhörer hat.


User avatar
Helly Angel
Member
Posts: 5132
Joined: 11 Mar 2002, 21:00
Location: Florida, USA

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1833

Post by Helly Angel » 17 Aug 2011, 05:10

Friend... great photos!!!! please continue.. more!!.. explain!!!

Mannheim
Member
Posts: 841
Joined: 12 Dec 2010, 23:10
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1834

Post by Mannheim » 17 Aug 2011, 05:46

I have quite a few more but I am badly organised. I will need to trawl through boxes of old photos I took on my travels in Germany. I have a number I took on the Obersalzberg in the days when you could wander all over the place. I went to Germany in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1989 and 2011 (retired now). In the good old days (as late as the 1970s) you could still pick up fragments of Goering's swimming pool tiles and suchlike if you were prepared to grub around a bit. At least I think they were from his pool: they were a light blue colour, and only broken fragments, but they were in the place where I was told the pool had been.
Anyway, Helly, will post some more as soon as I can.I will post a photo I took of a semi-filled in tunnel under Goering's house which I think I have read led to his airraid shelter.
Kein Irrtum ist so groß, der nicht seinen Zuhörer hat.

Mannheim
Member
Posts: 841
Joined: 12 Dec 2010, 23:10
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1835

Post by Mannheim » 17 Aug 2011, 06:06

Here's three more. I have a few more of the Guest House exterior but they'll probably have to wait until Friday. In some of the exterior shots you can still see - as well as the obvious bomb damage - a shell hole above the fourth window from the left on the first floor. Probably from the Sherman. The current Tourist Information Office is excellent, especially the tunnels under it but I can't help wishing they'd left it the way it was.
Attachments
GH3.JPG
I think I took this looking straight up through a skylight or hole in the roof. Ruined staircase in foreground.
GH2.JPG
Interior doorway. I have no upstairs photos as the staircases were destroyed.
GH1.JPG
Exterior Guest House. After the Battle magazine has, I think, a photograph of a Sherman tank standing just before the fire hydrant.
Kein Irrtum ist so groß, der nicht seinen Zuhörer hat.

Artsi77
Member
Posts: 17
Joined: 23 May 2011, 05:32
Location: Finland

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1836

Post by Artsi77 » 17 Aug 2011, 14:53

Hi Mannheim,

Great pics, thanks for sharing! Did the Görings swimming pool tiles look like this?
ScreenShot189.jpg

User avatar
Geoff Walden
Member
Posts: 2616
Joined: 29 Mar 2002, 15:50
Location: South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Contact:

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1837

Post by Geoff Walden » 17 Aug 2011, 17:29

Great photos, Mannheim, keep them coming!

I wish I had visited more myself from 1979-82 (my first tour), and had taken more photos. I remember that the entrance to the garage was almost closed by rubble in 1981, but I don't remember much rubble inside it.

And you could still find pieces of Göring's pool there until about 2002 - until they dug out that pond that is there now, back behind the InterConti hotel. Up until then, there was this large piece imbedded in the ground, along with lots of other pieces. The little pieces you could pick up easily, the big piece I just left it alone - never did take the trouble to dig it out. I like to think that someone on this forum got it. :D

Artsi77, the tile pieces were a shiny light blue ceramic on a pale cream or yellowish base. All the ones I saw were like that anyway. But the pieces that formed the rim of the pool, for example, may have been different.

Geoff
Attachments
Goeringtile1.jpg
Goeringtile1.jpg (94.46 KiB) Viewed 1481 times

Mannheim
Member
Posts: 841
Joined: 12 Dec 2010, 23:10
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1838

Post by Mannheim » 17 Aug 2011, 23:20

Sounds like the pieces of tile I found were the real thing. I didn't "souvenir" any tile pieces although had I known what would happen to the site I would've. As for the rubble in the garage, you may be right Geoff but I seem to remember the roof being surprisingly low. I also have a photo somewhere of the "entrance" to the garage: a hole which someone had clawed out and through which this determined researcher had to wriggle. This explains the lack of light in the garage too - once again only the flash from my camera to illuminate the place. The Guest House really surprised me as it was left pretty much as it was but was half-heartedly boarded up. I also have photos of the Platterhof and SS garage somewhere and will post them eventually.
Attachments
GH9.JPG
The red and white tape was all that detered entrance.
GH8.JPG
Gh7.JPG
Exterior Guest House. Notice the shell damage as opposed the the bomb damage (roof).
Kein Irrtum ist so groß, der nicht seinen Zuhörer hat.

Mannheim
Member
Posts: 841
Joined: 12 Dec 2010, 23:10
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1839

Post by Mannheim » 18 Aug 2011, 00:01

I just found these. They are closer shots of the Guest House. If you look at the first of the exterior shots I posted you will see the fire hydrant where the Sherman stood (I think). The following two photos were taken as I walked closer. I walked around the building and photographed all four sides.
BTW, Geoff, you wish you had visited more? I wish I'd had a digital camera back then. I was constantly worried about running out of film so was selective in my shots. In 1979 (I think) I managed to score an unofficial and I suspect unauthorised tour of the Leibstandarte barracks in Berlin (now, as then, the Andrews Barracks) and took far too few photographs. I will post the ones I did take in a separate thread when I find them.
Attachments
GH4.JPG
Interior shot.
Berghof Guesthouse2.JPG
Berghof Guesthouse.JPG
Kein Irrtum ist so groß, der nicht seinen Zuhörer hat.

User avatar
Geoff Walden
Member
Posts: 2616
Joined: 29 Mar 2002, 15:50
Location: South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Contact:

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1840

Post by Geoff Walden » 18 Aug 2011, 07:03

Mannheim wrote:BTW, Geoff, you wish you had visited more? I wish I'd had a digital camera back then. I was constantly worried about running out of film so was selective in my shots.
Ain't it the truth??? Always worried about running out of that 35mm film, and never knowing if your shots were any good until you got the film processed. And I even started out on 110 cameras (not in Germany, thankfully, but my first shots of tanks at Aberdeen and Fort Knox were with a 110 camera). My first tour in Germany, I was into Seattle FilmWorks film, which could be processed as either prints or slides. You could get it cheap through the mail, but while it would do either-or, it didn't do either all that well. Well, those days are long gone. I can't remember the last time I touched a roll of film. :)

User avatar
Johnnyrocket
Member
Posts: 1746
Joined: 25 Jul 2005, 20:14
Location: New York/Florida/Cleveland

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1841

Post by Johnnyrocket » 18 Aug 2011, 16:36

Can't get enough of these images.

Johnny R. :D
Attachments
Berghof window.jpg
Berghof window.jpg (158.9 KiB) Viewed 1396 times

User avatar
Cor
Member
Posts: 522
Joined: 08 Sep 2004, 15:59
Location: Netherlands

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1842

Post by Cor » 18 Aug 2011, 21:59

i can't get enough of it too :) , i can spend hours at Geoff site and always see something that i didnt see before.

here is a then and now shot from the Gastehaus Hoher Goll that i shot couple of weeks ago. Even the pic from a couple of posts before of the Hoher Goll in the 80' is almost similar with this.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/57564298

ps how do post a picture in the post itself without being to big for the screen?

Mannheim
Member
Posts: 841
Joined: 12 Dec 2010, 23:10
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1843

Post by Mannheim » 19 Aug 2011, 00:37

Amazing photo, Cor. I was at the Tourist Centre last year and (as above) in the late 1970s and I never saw any evidence of that security gate in the upper right-hand picture. I'll check it out for remnants of foundations when I next go to the Obersalzberg.
I open my pictures in Paint and then resize them to 30% and they seem to fit.
Kein Irrtum ist so groß, der nicht seinen Zuhörer hat.

User avatar
Johnnyrocket
Member
Posts: 1746
Joined: 25 Jul 2005, 20:14
Location: New York/Florida/Cleveland

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1844

Post by Johnnyrocket » 19 Aug 2011, 03:59

Came across this interesting article on the capture (WWII history) of the Obersalzberg. It's like your almost there. :D

http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii- ... sgaden.htm

Johnny R. :D

British Sapper
Member
Posts: 235
Joined: 31 Aug 2005, 00:43
Location: North West, England

Re: Berghof Obersalzberg

#1845

Post by British Sapper » 19 Aug 2011, 12:59

Johnnyrocket wrote:Came across this interesting article on the capture (WWII history) of the Obersalzberg. It's like your almost there. :D

http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii- ... sgaden.htm

Johnny R. :D
That article makes it sound like they were more interested in thieving than fighting a war. 8O

Post Reply

Return to “Propaganda, Culture & Architecture”