Berchtesgaden

My Girlfriend really puts up with my crap.

This Summer, her and I travelled through a bit of mainland Europe. We were in romantic Salzburg for two days, one of which I wanted to drag her away for the day to a place she has never heard of to feed my interest.

Berchtesgaden.

We took an hours bus ride across the border to the Bavarian City. The first thing I recognised were the impressive Alps which I had seen in the background of home footage shot by Eva Braun, of Hitler & Co. at The Eagles Nest.

Initially, my only intention when visiting Berchetsgaden was to go to Eagles Nest. Travelling on a budget and the trip all the way up the top being significantly more expensive than anticipated I decided against it. As soon as we got there I was looking up to the hills for it. We were there a while before I saw it completely by chance. I was really impressed. It was something I had seen an awful lot of in pictures and newsreels, and there it was in font of me. It felt a lot like my experience at Nuremberg Rally Site. (Nuremberg Rally Site)

Eagles Nest 

Eagles Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) was Hitler's 50th Birthday present paid for by the Nazi Party. Here, Hitler planned his conquest of Europe and entertained heads of state in intimate gatherings. It was the second seat of government outside of Berlin. Eva Braun's sister held her wedding reception here.

I had a small mental list of the things in the town itself that I wanted to see and these took no effort to find at all. The first thing I noticed was the fountain in the main square where members of the SA
gathered for a picture in the 30's.

Fountain, 2015

In 1945 the town was alive with Allied soldiers after the town's surrender was received. There was a feared "National Redoubt" - a last stand of the Nazis where government and armed forces to retreat to the area which was never realised or even properly planned.

Wall painting in Palace Square part of a WW1 Memorial, 1945

Memorial in 2015. Some slight changes to the original, where the dates for WW2 were added. 

Allied soldiers negotiating the surrender of Berchtesgaden with city officials.

Memorial plaques for both World War's

Air raids failed to reach most of the city and only key Nazi buildings were targeted so the city itself is largely how it looked back then. I didn't get the chance to visit the Berghof or anything in Obersalzberg. I plan to do so when I return, along with the Eagles Nest.

My Girlfriend? Well she ended up loving the place. The beauty of it was enough to sway her over and we ended up having a lovely day there. Something that will work in my favour the next time I want her drag her somewhere for war stuff. Brilliant.

Munich - Imperial Lichtspiele Cinema - Look What I Bumped Into

Before I go away to mainland Europe and to places that are significant to World War Two, I do my homework. The results of this normally equates to a list of places and my phone, heavy with screenshots of them taken during the war. I show these screenshots to my travel companion (normally my Girlfriend) and tell her to look out for these things and alert me if she does so.

Travelling with me is a nuisance.

As long as I know the general direction and what i'm looking for, then I can't go wrong.

Sometimes when i'm in a city in relaxed mode, not wide eyed and interested like a cat at a fish market, I spot something completely accidentally that I had no intention of looking for at all. This was one of these occasions.

Munich. We arrive there hours before we could check in to the hotel, lugging our cases with us through the streets and over the cobbles which help us to sound like we are using an out of tune Xylophone to alert the Germans of our presence.

I recognised this building mostly because of it's odd shape. Somewhere i'd seen a picture of this with a knocked out Panther tank in front of it.

 When the Americans captured the city in 1945 they didn't encounter as much resistance as they expected. As well the dwindling numbers of German soldiers were the Volksstrum - the last line of defence, made up of young boys or old men. They put up a fight but many surrendered early on.  

The Americans also liberated nearby Dachau concentration camp.

The tank shown outside was sent to the United States for testing and after that lived its life in various museums around the country and is today at Fort Benning, Georgia. The building that used to be a cinema is now a hotel.