HITLER’S HOME

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 298, 28 September 1938, Page 9

HITLER’S HOME

SCENE OF RECENT VITAL TALK. MODEST ALPINE CHALET. It has been said that the whole German Empire is ruled from the simple mountain chalet called Hans Wachenfeld, in the Southern Bavarian village of Borchtesgaden, where Mr Neville Chamberlain is meeting Herr Hitler. Personally selected by him in 1924, it has since then been the Fuhrer’s common retreat and only real home. Disliking Berlin, he leaves the capital at any opportunity- and generally seeks the solitude of the modest house set among the peaks of the AustroBavarian Alps. There he has been accustomed not only to find relaxation but also to transact the most important affairs of state, among his most frequent visitors being Field-Marshal Goering and I>r. Goebbels. “ Haven of Rest.” “The Austro-Bavarian peaks are gentle and green,” said the writer, Ignatius Phnyre, after a visit to the chalet. “Hero is an endless haven of silence and rest, of orchards and drowsy hamlets on the lower slopes. Far below these lie a chain of jade-green lakes, often with an antique shrine on the shore, or a maze of caverns starred with flowers and screened with delicate ferns.” ,

Haus Wachenfeld is perched on the shoulder of the Obersalzburg, 2000 ft. above the little town from which it gets its more usual namo of The Berchtesgaden. The chalet when HenHitler first knew it was only a peasant’s hut, within easy reach of Austria and here his sister Angela kept house for him at a time when he was still only moulding his dreams. Presents from Admirers. He had the chalet extended later, but it still remains a very unpretentious dwelling, filled with undistinguished 18th century German furniture and partly decorated with paintings from his own brush. It was in the chalet that he dictated the second part of his book, “My Struggle.” There is little unusual about HenHitler’s home, save the odd profusion of cactus-plants, in pots, the many gilded cages containing canaries, the singing of whicK gives him considerable delight, and the large assortment of presents —furniture, china, silver and rugs—sent by German admirers from far and near . There are several bedrooms in guest-wings. Untidy books line the green walls of the study, where Herr Hitler has been accustomed to write all his important speeches. Discussions on the Terrace. Outside the chalet is a terrace where under big canvas umbrellas, the Fuhrer takes breakfast and carries on discussions with his guests. A cherry garden, upland meadows, and forest knolls in which Herr Hitler has said he loves to walk and think, complete the setting of the chalet, which is just across the former Austrian border from Leonding village, where he passed his boyhood, and some distance below the tiny hamlet where the German leader, with Field-Marshal Goering and Herr Rudolf Hess, planned the luckless putsch of November 9, 1923.