The Eagles Nest which sits high in the Bavarian alps was completed in 1938 and presented to Adolf Hitler for his 50th Birthday by Martin Bormann and the National Socialist Party in April 1939.

The building stands high in the Alps and has been altered to a degree but for the most part remains intact. The homes of other prominent party members were situated in the nearby hills and properties were taken or seized from their former owners to accommodate these high ranking party members including Bormann and Goering. Overlooking Berchtesgaden from these heights is quite a site and worth the ride up for that alone.

While the Eagles Nest was a target for bombing it was deemed to difficult and the lower hills were hit with allied bombing raids. Many remains lay below if you like and Hitler's famous tea house is intact as well.

Period films and home movies taken from this site make it rather easy to navigate and spot area's where people were situated and make just about everything easily recognizable when visiting this remote hideaway.

The cost of this project was huge, the roads alone to access the nest were in excess of 140 million of today's Euro. The gold plated elevator is actually a polished brass and quite large, and the marble for the fireplace was supplied by Benito Mussolini. While Hitler did not spend a lot of time at this building, it is one of the most significant attributions to his reign during the Third Reich.

The significance of the Eagles Nest was bought to the attention of many when Band of Brothers was released and depictions of the men of Easy Company traveling up the road to secure the building and scenes depicting them on the balcony relaxing are certainly accurate and at the end of the war it was utilized as an allied command center before it was handed back over to the Bavarian state in 1960.

While I most often shy away from tourist attractions, this is something to see and certainly worth the trip. If you like you can walk it or bus it to the top, and when you get there you will find food and beer and some kind of native German liquor that has a taste similar to kerosene or embalming fluid, but after a couple of those you wont care much anyway.

In Berchtesgaden there are a multitude of places to eat and drink and people are quite friendly and most dress in traditional Bavarian garb. A beautiful place to visit and grab a little history.

(Berchtesgaden)