Berghof Obersalzberg

[Journeyman916]

I have to admit to a fascination with the Berghof and so I’ve really enjoyed this thread. I collated quite a few photos from around the internet and posted them on my Pinterest board:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... -lBB3yKgt7

The photos cover many aspects of the Berghof from its time as Haus Wachenfeld, through its transformation to the Berghof, it’s furniture, it’s occupants, it’s destruction and even its use as a film location. There are site plans and magazine articles too. Doubtless you will have seen many of the photos before but I think it’s interesting to see them alongside others as a sort of timeline (although they’re not in any order).

If the link doesn’t work, try a Google search of David Lewin/Pinterest/Berghof.

[CPB]

Some excellent and rare images on there – thanks for sharing!

Chris

[TheNewt]

Welcome to AHF, AdolfJesus!


I can't say whether or not that photo was taken in the Berghof, but that's definitely either Eva or her sister Gretl ... I lean toward Gretl, but those two can sometimes be hard to tell apart if they aren't both in the photo.

Yes... This is Greti Braun. But as with many photo, it is tough to identify between the two sisters.

[Hans1906]

Btw. Her nickname was "Gretl" Braun, a "Greti" was not known at the residence.

Margarete Berta „Gretl“ Braun https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretl_Braun

If so, please do it correctly, is that too much ?

Gretel /Gretl https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretel
The abbreviation for her first name Margarete, that's all it was.

In the german language a so-called "pet name" (Kosename)
Kosename https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosename

One should know, what one is letting oneself out on...


Hans

[JustiNa]

Hello,
I have noticed that people often confuse Eva Braun with her sister Gretl Braun in pictures.

[Mannheim]

I was up on the mountain yesterday and had a look at the Kampfhäusl. If you want to have a look, you'd better get a wriggle on: vandals are stealing rocks from the foundations.

[Fraulein E.]

Btw. Her nickname was "Gretl" Braun, a "Greti" was not known at the residence.

Margarete Berta „Gretl“ Braun https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretl_Braun

If so, please do it correctly, is that too much ?

Gretel /Gretl https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretel
The abbreviation for her first name Margarete, that's all it was.

In the german language a so-called "pet name" (Kosename)
Kosename https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosename

One should know, what one is letting oneself out on...


Hans

To put my two cents in, Gretl was also nicknamed 'mogerl' by her sister Eva because she often sulked.
And if my memory serves me well I think A.H. also had a nickname for her but I don't remember which one, I think it was a bird's name, because she was bubbly and lively.

Best regards,

E.L.

[TheNewt]

Well Döring was a natural raconteur really and would happily chat about that time. Not so many know about his frontline service later in which he partook.
He told me England and Germany should never have gone to war with each other, and that this was the fervent view of AH. He showed me some small items that he kept from the Berghof. In his home he had some small furnishings that also came from the suppliers of the Berghof.

Good thing AH didn't sit down with him. He spoke, in the interview about how AH, being tied up elsewhere, invaded the Soviet Union way too late in the year. He was aware of what the area's weather would be in just a matter of weeks.

[Ecam]

I apologize in advance for the long post.

I recently finished “The Hangman and His Wife” by Nancy Dougherty. An interesting read here and there, but most interesting to me was her quoting some of the individuals that knew Reinhard and Lina Heydrich, both on a personal and professional level. One individual who spent years working for Heydrich and the RSHA was a man named Walter Korodi, someone I had never heard of before. He defected from Germany to Switzerland in 1940. Under the pseudonym Hans-Jürgen Koehler, he wrote “Inside the Gestapo”. He chronicles much, including the RSHA’s involvement in causing the Spanish Civil War and most fascinating, he highlights the leverage that Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg had over Hitler, how he lost it, and why he capitulated to Hitler at the Berghof. It is available as a paperback on abebooks.com and I highly recommend it.

Now to the Berghof. He is very vague on dates, but claims he was posted to Hitler’s personal security detail. This would appear to be just before he defected and was therefore probably in 1939 or 1940. He mentions the following:

1/ On the approaches to the Berghof he states:
“A concrete guards hut was hidden on every tenth jutting rock; the guard huddles there beside an electric fire and a machine gun; every ten minutes he has to report to the central guard in the Berghof by telephone”.
I am aware of the one guard post just below the Berghof, but have never heard of numerous guard huts on the approaches to the Berghof.

2/ He states:
“But if someone should succeed in outwitting the guard and the bloodhounds, he could hardly avoid the high-tension wire stretched between the trees which surround the domain of Adolf Hitler like a spider’s web”.
I can imagine fences with barbed-wire, but have never heard of high-tension wire in the trees.

3/ Lastly, he claims that there was an assassination attempt at the Berghof, attempted by an SA group leader named Krause. Krause, according to Korodi, was at the Berghof to petition Hitler to release an SA comrade who had been sentenced to three years in prison for homosexuality.
“Krause (sic) was at the Berghof waiting to be received by Hitler.He fired at him when the Führer came down the stairs and passed through the hall to enter his study. And he missed. The unlucky SA leader was killed in half a minute. Five guns fired at the same time”.
I can find no reference anywhere to an assassination attempt at the Berghof. Possibly hushed up? Or was Korodi a fantasist or a self-aggrandizer?

There is much about his time at the Berghof for which there is no corroborating evidence. Any information on Korodi and his assertions most welcome.

[Max]

Walter Korodi on German Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Korodi.

Also - Inside_the_Gestapo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Gestapo

Also Heinrich_Pfeifer
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Pfeifer

[Ecam]

Thanks Max. I have already searched for more information on him and have seen those links. I’m still left wondering how much of what he says about the Berghof is true.

[Max]

Thanks Max. I have already searched for more information on him and have seen those links.

That would have been good to know.

Cheers

[Geoff Walden]

I have read before of the supposed machine gun nests hidden on the road and all around the Berghof. A very similar claim (and other outlandish nonsense) was made in “Pauline Kohler’s” book “I Was Hitlers Maid,” which has been thoroughly debunked.

[Max]

Geoff
Maybe the Moll Bunkers were thought to be/confused with machine gun nests
What would the guards have been armed with?
Submachine guns?
Cheers

[Geoff Walden]

Hi Max,
I think the Moll Bunkers were not installed until 1944, or perhaps late 1943, as part of the overall air raid protection measures, most of which were done in 1944.
I have seen several photos of the OSB guards with rifles. I don’t recall seeing them carrying any submachine guns. They did have machine guns that they practiced with on the underground range, but I’ve not seen anything that indicated these were part of the general guard scheme.