A Visit to the Nazi Documentation Center Museum and Adolf Hitler's Bunkers

A Wonderful Baker's Breakfast

As predicted, our breakfast was great.  There were many types of bread rolls and several cakes, cheesecake and a loaf cake, along with the usual meats, cheese and soft-boiled egg. We are still fogged in this morning.  




On our way through this village, I see the youth hostel I visited last night.  Just for future info, this hostel has family rooms and is set next to a meadow.  Their rates are 24.50 euros each with other additional fees. 

On the autobahn, we decide to take a detour from Salzburg and drive to the Eagle’s Nest (Hitler’s 50^th birthday present from his staff and featured in “Band of Brothers”)  located in the Berchtesgaden area.  In Konigsee, we stop at McD’s and send an e-mail with pics to the kids.

In Rick Steves’ tour book, we read that the Eagle’s Nest is located in Obersalzberg—Beatrice (our GPS) directs us there.  Because of snow on the mountain, the Eagle’s Nest is closed, however, the Documentation Center Museum and Bunker is open.  The tour, with the audio guide, takes 2 hours.  We only have 1 ½.  Running out of time, we decide to go to the bunkers.  I’ll turn this over to Steve.

We listened to the first 45 minutes (30 out of 80 panels) of the “why and how” of the Nazi “government” which was presented in a rather sterile, matter of fact kind of way (though very complete and I think accurately with “no punches pulled”; so to speak.  The meager resistance and the involvement of the church were just starting, but I wanted to see the physical bunkers.  It was “old news” to me anyway, but the artifacts on display were fascinating.  I listened selectively (and briefly) to the last few panels as I was being hustled out of the tunnels/bunkers about how the personal cost to the German families was huge, and that all the dead German soldiers died thinking they were fighting for the good of their country.

The bunkers were very sophisticated – though pointless (in my opinion).  As a defense against aerial bombing they would have been reasonably effective, but against infantry attack (which was highlighted referring to “triple machine gun port emplacements”) I think they would have been quite futile though not due to a lack of engineering design effort.

The displays are all in German (with audio guides for English) – I had the impression that the display was more for German consumption than “allied” consumption.  All in all, an interesting place. 

For myself, the museum and bunkers were extremely interesting.  The bunkers were enormous.  They were much larger (height and width) than I would ever imagine.  This visit was definitely worthwhile.  

Upon leaving the museum, we start our search for accommodations.  It’s after 5 pm and it will be dark soon.  We opt for a Gasthof.  It wasn’t what we were looking for; however, there weren’t many options.