A couple of summers ago, I took a bus trip from Salzburg to re-encounter Berchtesgaden, high in the Bavarian Alps, and in memories from when it was a vacation center for U.S. military families in Germany. Spoiler: Almost nothing seemed the same.
Perhaps that’s not really surprising, both because the General Walker Hotel (once the Platterhof) and the rest of the Army’s recreation facilities disappeared after major reductions of U.S. forces in Europe, and because Berchtesgaden, despite its simple appearance, has never stopped changing.
Surrounded by the Bavarian Alps and alpine meadows, its first fame and fortune came from huge salt deposits in its most famous mountain, the Obersalzberg, or Upper Salt Mountain, where salt mining began around 1500 years ago.
A near-independent microstate ruled by the abbot of the local Augustinian monastery until Napoleonic times, it changed hands between Austria and Bavaria several times between 1803 and 1810, when it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Bavaria. That was Berchtesgaden’s next fortune; the Bavarian royal family made the former Augustinian monastery a summer residence and vacationed by the clear waters of the Königssee, literally The King’s Lake.
Painters followed them, producing endless views of the lake and mountains, eventually attracting the next wave of visitors: tourists and skiers. As a vacation and sports spot, it also attracted the attention of prominent Nazis, including Hitler, who bought or built vacation retreats in the area—including the so-called Eagle’s Nest—and eventually filled the streets and hotels with security forces and prominent visitors who wanted to cozy up to the powerful.
From 1945 into the 1990s and the end of the Cold War it continued as a tourist destination, but mainly for American military families. The various facilities were turned over to Bavarian authorities after 1995, and the town has since filled with summer visitors to the lake and winter visitors to the slopes. While most of the town’s activity focuses on the heavily-touristed area along the lake shore, there’s more to it, including the wonderful Franciscan church up the road.
So, while I found nothing of the Berchtesgaden I remembered, I found glimpses of one I never knew…
Excellent photos and narrative!