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Obersalzberg
Kehlsteinhaus ("Eagle's
Nest")
Without a doubt, the most popular
tourist site on the Obersalzberg now is the Kehlsteinhaus. In English, this building is
called the "Eagle's Nest," even though this is not a translation of the German
name (simply "House on the Kehlstein (Mountain)"), and the Germans did not call
it the "Eagle's Nest" (or Adlerhorst or any other such name). This name seems to have been first applied by the
visiting French ambassador André François Poncet, and was picked up by the Allies.
It was in use by the Americans and British by 1938.
This is also often called
"Hitler's Tea House," but that is a misnomer. Although Reichsleiter Martin
Bormann was inspired to build the Kehlsteinhaus by Hitler's obvious fancy for the
Teehaus on the Mooslahnerkopf, Hitler did not use
the Kehlsteinhaus as an afternoon tea house, nor did he visit it regularly. Hitler used the
Kehlsteinhaus only to show off to visiting dignitaries, and he probably did not visit it
himself more than twenty times, as he did not like the height and the perceived dangers of
lightning and the elevator. Bormann himself and Eva Braun did far more entertaining in the
Kehlsteinhaus than did Hitler.
The Kehlsteinhaus was the pinnacle
of Bormann's building mania on the Obersalzberg, literally and figuratively. It was an
engineering marvel of its day -- the house was built on a rocky spur of the
Hoher Göll mountain, some 2700 feet above the Obersalzberg (6017 feet above sea level).
To reach this spur, a mountain road of some four miles was blasted into the mountainside,
using only one hairpin curve (and another almost so), and five tunnels. The house itself
is reached by a tunnel driven 407 feet into the mountain, at the end of which is a large
brass elevator that rises 407 feet to the building. This is actually a two-story elevator:
an upper car which stops on the main level, and a lower car that stops in the basement for
resupply of the kitchens. The road and house were built in only 13 months, to be presented
to Hitler on his 50th birthday in 1939 (although the house was finished before then, and
most of Hitler's visits were in late 1938).
Although the Kehlsteinhaus was a
designated target for the April 1945 Royal Air Force bombing attack (the Allies thought
there might be underground military facilities there, part of the mythical "Alpine
Redoubt"), it was not hit. Apparently it was too small a target, and too difficult to
pick out of the surrounding area from above. The "Eagle's Nest" became a popular
stop for visiting GIs (for awhile, only officers were allowed to ride the elevator, and
enlisted men had to use the footpath). Due to intense lobbying by the Berchtesgaden
district administrator and the Bavarian government, the Kehlsteinhaus was spared from the
1951-52 destruction of Nazi ruins, and was returned to the State of Bavaria (now
run by the Bavarian Alpine Club). The house was
restored and somewhat modernized, but its basic appearance today is much the
same as during the Third Reich (the southern sun terrace was enclosed by glass, and a
large rear deck area was added). It is now one of the most popular tourist sites in the
area, reached by special bus from the Kehlsteinhaus bus lot on the Obersalzberg, from
May-October. For current information and news see www.kehlsteinhaus.de.
The best published
reference on the Kehlsteinhaus is Florian Beierl's book History
of the Eagle's Nest (Berchtesgaden, Verlag Plenk, 1998, ISBN: 3922590772),
which is highly recommended.
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Tunnel and elevator entrance, with
the Kehlsteinhaus above, in the 1940s and as they appear today. The
buildings on either side of the entrance are post-war. The plaque above
the entrance shows that the project was completed in 1938. |
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| Above,
soldiers from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division guard the entrance in
June 1945. The modern view shows the bus ticket and maintenance
buildings that were erected on either side of the entrance in the 1950s.
My father, U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Delbert R. Walden, took the
photos below in spring 1946 (my father appears on the right in the
left-hand photo). (above left - U.S. National Archives, RG
111SC, 333025; below - collection of G.R. and G.A.Walden) |
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| Above
left, a GI guards the tunnel entrance in 1945. The sign proclaims this
entrance was only for officers ranking Major and above - all other ranks
had to climb the footpath to the Eagles Nest building. The outer set of bronze doors
originally had large pull handles in the shape of lions (the GIs in the
photo below are pulling the doors open with these handles), but these were
taken by souvenir hunters. One is in the hands of the Eisenhower family
today while the other is owned by a private collector in the USA. (U.S.
Army Signal Corps photos; private collection) |
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| Many
American soldiers scratched their names and other graffiti into the
bronze doors in 1945. Michael Greenstein of "B'klyn NY" left
his mark on August 5, 1945. |
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| Just
inside the outer set of doors, on the right, is a period indicator
showing which direction the elevator was travelling, and its height (the
indicator can be seen between the doors, in the photo on the left). This
lighted indicator still functions - on the right it shows the elevator
is going up, and has reached a height of 80 meters. The elevator was
made by the well-known Otis company. |
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| The entrance portal of
Untersberg marble leads to the tunnel that bores 407 feet into the mountain.
The period photo below was by Nazi photographer Ernst Baumann. (author's
collection) |
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| At the end of
the entrance tunnel is a circular room (left) from which one enters the brass
lined elevator car for the ride
407 feet up to the Kehlsteinhaus. On the right is the elevator exit on the
main floor of the building. The photos below show the original
configuration of the sliding wooden pocket doors that close off the car
from the upper hallway (these doors cannot normally be seen
today). (below right - LIFE photo collection) |
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| Interior
of the brass lined elevator car. According to the staff, the telephone in
the elevator car is original to 1938, and the clock came from a U-boat.
(right - courtesy Jamie Howes) |
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| At the
top, the elevator lets out into a corridor, from which one enters the
dining hall. This is a secondary dining area today, but it was once the
main area. Hitler had an office behind the right-hand door at the far end of the
room (to the right of the bar in the modern view above; used as the Kehlsteinhaus director's office today and not open to
the public), and the kitchen was further down the hall on the left. A small room for
the guards was at the end of this hallway (sometimes used today as an
additional dining area). The ceiling light fixtures seen today are postwar
replacements, as are most in the Kehlsteinhaus. The views below face the
other direction, looking toward the main room. The china cupboard seen
in the photos below is the only original piece of furniture
left in the Kehlsteinhaus today (the glass doors seen today on the top are
replacements for the original wooden doors). (above - U.S.
National Archives, RG 111SC-207256-S; below - U.S. National Archives, RG
242-H) |
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| The main
room, then and now, was the circular great hall, clad in granite
blocks. The period view above shows the costly rugs and Gobelin
tapestry above the fireplace, and the normal circular table for intimate
gatherings. Below left, GIs from the 101st Airborne Division enjoy the
surroundings in May 1945. (above - Ernst Baumann photo) |
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doorway in the right-hand photo below leads down a short flight of steps
to the Scharitzkehl Room (see below). (U.S. Army photos) |
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normal small table was replaced on 3 June 1944 for the reception after the wedding of Eva Braun's younger sister Gretl to SS-Gruppenführer
Hermann Fegelein, of Heinrich Himmler's staff (on the left above). Below is
a colorized and edited version of a photo showing Eva Braun seated at
the fireplace, with Albert Speer standing nearby. The original photo
also showed Speer's wife Margarete seated next to Eva Braun. (U.S.
National Archives) |
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large doorway above is the main entrance to the great hall, and the
smaller doorway on the right led down a short flight of steps to a cozy
room called the Scharitzstübe or Scharitzkehlzimmer, because it
overlooks the Scharitzkehlalm
meadow. It was paneled with
decorative cembra pine (Swiss stone pine), and the windows could be lowered into the casing for a magnificent view of the Hoher
Göll, Watzmann, and Hochkalter mountains. The Gobelin tapestry cost 24,000 Reichsmarks in
1938 (about $103,000 today). Although the paneling and light fixtures appear original in
the modern photos here, much of the room was stripped by souvenir hunters in
1945, and some items had to be replaced.
This room is often erroneously called the Eva Braun Room today. |
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| Left - two GIs
give a playful "Hitler salute" in the Scharitzkehlzimmer in
the summer of 1945; right - French officers visit in May 1945. (left - courtesy Chris Munz) |
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| Two of
the Kehlsteinhaus bronze light fixtures. On the left, the type seen in
the Great Room; on the right, those in the Scharitzkehlzimmer. Some of
those seen today are not original, but replacements for fixtures that
were plundered in 1945 (as are some of the cembra pine panels in the
Scharitzkehlzimmer) |
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| This
doorway leads from the Scharitzkehl Room to the sun terrace. The arched
terrace windows were glassed-in in the 1950s, and the terrace today is used
to display a photo exhibit on the history of the Kehlsteinhaus. Below, Hitler rests on the
sun terrace during a private visit to the Kehlsteinhaus (probably in 1939). |
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Period photo showing a partial view of
the mountains from the sun terrace. (author's collection)
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This
photo, which probably dates from the early 1950s following the re-opening
of the Kehlsteinhaus to the public, shows the sun
terrace and Scharitzstübe on the west side. (author's collection) |
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Photos taken shortly
after U.S. occupation, along with similar views today. ( above
left - postcard in author's collection; below left - U.S. National
Archives, RG 111SC 207108, courtesy Marc Romanych) |
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| Two 1945
views showing the house from opposite sides of the mountain, showing the
steep drop-off on either side. (author's collection) |
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| A rare period color
photo of the Kehlsteinhaus from the rear, and the corresponding view today. |
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| In the
summer of 1945 there seemed to be some confusion about Martin Bormann,
who was still not well known. The rectangular doorway (left-hand
doorway) seen in the modern photo above is a post-1950 modification of a
window - originally, there was only the arched doorway here (see below). (U.S. Army
photos) |
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| Two
exterior views of the octagonal part of the building (housing the great
hall). The doorway seen in the right-hand photo leads to a basement area
beneath the great hall. |
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From mid-1944, it was deemed
necessary to guard the Kehlsteinhaus from air attack. Although Martin Bormann did not want any
anti-aircraft positions at the Kehlsteinhaus, four 3.7cm guns were emplaced on the slopes
behind. These remains appear to be the base for one of the guns, similar to the bases for
the small caliber guns mounted on the Berlin flak towers.
(see the page on Obersalzberg
Flak Batteries) |
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| Running
beside the main tunnel that leads to the elevator going up to the
Kehlsteinhaus is a smaller service tunnel. The entrance to this tunnel
can be seen today just to the right of the postwar ticket building. In
one of the rooms off this side tunnel was located a U-Boat engine to
serve as an auxiliary generator. Then as now, the Kehlsteinhaus was
powered by electricity from the Obersalzberg below, but the U-Boat
engine generator was provided for emergencies, so that visitors would
not be caught in the elevator. The original engine (seen below in stills from a period film) is still in its original location, and can
still act as an emergency generator. The exhaust stack for the engine is
cleverly disguised as a rock formation (seen on the right above). |
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| There
are five tunnels along the Kehlsteinstraße. The views above show the
Zigeuner Tunnel (Gypsy Tunnel), Südwand Tunnel, and Martinswand Tunnel.
(left - courtesy Jacqueline Wilson) |
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Two
1945 views of a tunnel on the Kehlsteinstraße, taken by visiting American
soldiers. (courtesy Chris Munz) |
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period photos above show the construction of the Kehlsteinstraße in the
winter of 1937, and a view looking from the completed road up at the
Kehlsteinhaus. (author's collection) |
Tour Guide service is available
to the Third Reich and WW2 sites in the Obersalzberg area - see the Tour
Guide page.
For further information, including Internet links, check
the Bibliography page.
Continue to other Obersalzberg sites - Hitler's
Berghof, Bormann's and Göring's houses, Platterhof, Gästehaus and Kampfhäusl,
Hotel zum Türken,
Gutshof and Teehaus,
SS barracks, bunker system, miscellaneous buildings, other miscellaneous
area buildings, Berchtesgaden /
Obersalzberg Flak Batteries.
 Return to the Third Reich in Ruins homepage
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