Exploring Hitler's Mountain

Author: Michael Kloft

Length: 52'

Adolf Hitler spent more than 1,000 days – almost every fourth day of his dominion over Germany on the Obersalzberg, his mountain holiday refuge near Berchtesgaden. Not only did the “Führer” spend time relaxing in this restricted area close to the Austrian border, cordoned off by a massive phalanx of security forces; this was also where he played host to the mighty of the Third Reich and Europe. In the midst of this picturesque mountain world, he made his decisions about war and destruction. At the end of April 1945, Royal Air Force bombers razed the compound to the ground; after the war, the area was occupied by the U.S. forces and returned in its entirety to the Free State of Bavaria only in 1996. Public authorities today are uncomfortable in light of memories associated with the site. Yet the relics of the dictatorship have not disappeared altogether, even though most buildings were torn down long ago. For fear of attacks by the allied enemies, subterranean bunkers had systematically been built during the war; the extensive, complicated work was only discontinued when the war came to an end. Today, most of the widely diverted, manifold branches of galleries and tunnels have been closed down and are inaccessible to the public. SPIEGEL TV managed to obtain a special permit from the Bavarian state to explore the abandoned concrete tunnels. This documentation is a spectacular search for the relics of history of Hitler’s mountain and tells almost forgotten tales of the people who lived there, high up in the shadow of power.

year of production: 2006