Berghof (Hitler)

The Berghof was Adolf Hitler's home in the mountains of Bavaria. The Eagle's Nest was farther up the mountain but he rarely went there as Hitler was afraid of heights. The Berghof was connected to the Platterhof Hotel by a series of complex bunkers deep in the mountain which exist to this day, some of which can be toured from the new German Document Center as well as the old Zum Turken Hotel which borders the old complex of ruins. The government of Bavaria has plowed under most every trace of the actual house which was the Berghof as well as the Hotel Platterhof where many Nazi officers stayed while visiting Hitler.

The Berghof was set afire by the retreating SS guards when the Allies approached. Hitler was not there when the area fell in 1945; he was under siege in Berlin where he took his own life in a bunker there. The buildings are gone but the tunnel system is and was a masterpiece of underground engineering built at great speed and powered by a subteranean engine like the one that remains at the Eagle's Nest to this day, providing power to run the elevator. The site is itself a scenic as one above the clouds at times and the valley below appears by illusion as a lake almost at one's feet.

Berghof was captured by the Currahees of U.S. Army's 101st Airborne division at the end of the war.