A meeting of the Southampton Medical Society was held on the 6th March 2024 at the Ampfield Golf Club. The President was in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
The President introduced our speaker Dr John Glasspool. He spoke to the title : Hitler’s Playground - The story of the Obersalzberg.
Dr Glasspool said he first visited the Obersalzberg 40 years ago and has returned every year since. He described the mountainous area with its wonderful green grazing in summer where cattle drovers take their cows and make cheese from the milk. In the autumn they return to lower levels and keep the cattle inside for the winter as the area is snowed in.
Berchtesgaden, the main town, sits on a peninsula virtually surrounded by Austria. Down the valley is the Königsee. For 20,000 years salt mining has been its main source of wealth - white gold.
Dr Glasspool said the Nazis ruined the area. On the 9th November 1923 at the Beerhall Putsch Hitler was attempting a coup d’état but this failed and Hitler was consigned to Landsberg Prison. It was a long trial and it gave Hitler an opportunity to put forward his National Socialist beliefs. After his release Hitler fell in love with the Obersalzberg and bought a little hut there where he could have “complete peace”. In 1935 Hitler’s personal assistant Martin Bormann began to transform the area. A farmhouse was built for Hitler and a hotel converted for the party faithful with the original owner being sent to Dachau. SS guards were stationed at the entrance to the Hotel. A cult of Hitler began to develop and queues to see Hitler’s house were regularly occurring. Then for Hitler’s 50th birthday a fortified house was built as a present which became known as the Eagle’s Nest. He only visited it a few times as he developed claustrophobia in the lift. It soon became surrounded by houses built by close allies in the Party.
In 1945 the area was destroyed by repeated bombing. No sign of it remains and the area has returned to natural forest. It is now a National Park.
The President thanked Dr Glasspool for his most interesting talk