The Grand Hotel Auguste Victoria opened for business in 1898. With magnificent mountain views the establishment instantly proved a favourite with visiting members of the royal family and the aristocracy. The Nazi Party bought the hotel in 1936 and immediately set about completely renovating the building. No expense was spared during the costly renovation. Following extensive refurbishment the hotel re-opened having been renamed Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof. The new hotel was under the administration of Reichsamtsleiter (Reich Office Leader) Gotthard Färber, Special Representative for House and Land Affairs of the NSDAP. Färber, who also ran the Hotel Deutscher Hof in Nürnberg, had previously been employed by Martin Bormann as an enforcer; persuading landowners on the Obersalzberg to sell their homes and farms when the Party took the decision to acquire the entire mountainside.
Numerous foreign dignitaries were accommodated in the Grand Hotel/Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof when visiting the area to meet with Hitler at the Berghof on the Obersalzberg. Those who stayed at the hotel include; the Duke (formerly King Edward VIII) and Duchess of Windsor; Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister; David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister and leader of the British Liberal Party. In addition to accommodating numerous foreign dignitaries the hotel accommodated many prominent figures of the Third Reich, these include; Albert Bormann (Martin Bormann’s brother and head of Hitler’s second Reich Chancellery in Berchtesgaden), Eva Braun, prior to moving into the Berghof, Dr Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda; Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS; General Wilhelm Keitel, Commander in Chief of the German Army; Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the German Navy; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s Foreign Minister; General Erwin Rommel, Commander of the Africa Corps, and last but not least, Hitler’s own sister, Paula. Paula Hitler lived there incognito as Paula Wolf. Interestingly, ‘Wolf’ was a name Hitler had used in the early days to keep his whereabouts unknown to the authorities.
The end of the Second World War saw Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof taken over by the US Army. Again the hotel was used to receive visiting dignitaries, later it became one of the US Armed Forces Recreation Facilities. The Berchtesgadener Hof finally closed with the departure of the US Army in 1995. Sadly, this famous hotel then stood empty until 2006 when it was demolished to make way for a new ‘Haus der Berge’. While staying in Hotel zum Türken in 2006 I was fortunate to meet a lady who was in the area to photograph and document Hotel Berchtesgadener Hof prior to its being demolished. This lady invited me to join her in a clandestine visit to the hotel one evening. Despite the security fencing and the presence of security personnel we gained entry to the building. I have to say I don’t believe the guards were actually all that interested in our presence. Had we been observed exiting the building carrying away fixtures and fittings it might have been a different matter! Notwithstanding that the police station overlooked the hotel. The demolition team had finished work for the day and we explored the entire interior unnoticed and unchallenged.
We could see where the teams had begun to rip out the original oak wall-panelling, the coffered ceilings, the floors, etc. Large pieces of beautiful marble lay strewn around the reception area and on the staircase. Most of the internal fixtures and fittings were already gone. It was sad to see what had once been a luxurious building humbled in such a way. As we explored we wondered how and why the decision to demolish the Berchtesgadener Hof could had been taken. It was quite obvious that the building had been in good order prior to the demolition teams moving in. We concluded that the decision had been politically motivated. However I must say that it was a real treat to have been able to see inside this iconic building prior to its destruction. I visited the hotel on at least three occasions during my stay.