“A. Hitler, Architect”

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 10, 13 January 1936, Page 2

“A. Hitler, Architect”

Adolph Hitler wanted in his youth to be an architect and in fact studied as a draftsman in Munich, says an American paper. But the only architecture ho has ever achieved has consisted in the improvements and additions to his chalet high up in the Bavarian Alps abovo Berchtesgadeu. These arc of his own designing, and they give his mountain retreat an interest over aud abovo its interest as the week-end capital of the Reich. Originally a simple wooden chalet perched 200 ft up on the pine-clad slopes of the Obersalzberg, Hitler’s house has attached to itself a new verandah and garage and new wings to accommodate visitors and guards. Haus Wachenfeld, as the Chancell )r calls his place, differs in no way from thousands of other Bavarian chalets except for the enlargements and tho fact that it is furnished move simply and in rather better taste than tho average home of the Bavarian peasant. One does not know how much of its tasteful interior furnishings was. dono by Hitler and how much by his sister, Fraus Angela Raubal, who keeps house for him.

Tho colour scheme throughout is green. The liall is filled with a show Of cactus plants, and throughout the living rooms there arc cushions and knick-knacks presented by anonymous admirers. In Hitler’s bedroom there is a portrait of his mother, who died when lie was 13, along with a jewelled hunting horn presented to him by some unknown follower and a magnificent rug of silver fox skins sent by some friend in the Argentine.

Outside there are cherry trees, the fragrance of the pines, and an immense view of great peaks clothed with dark forests, while at nights the lights twinkle down in Austrian Salzburg, only ten miles away.

It would be difficult to imagine any ruler of a great State using a more unassuming retreat. Hitler in fact has planted his country seat here only because the Nazi leaders did most oi their early plotting in these mountains. Munich, the Mecca of Goman art, where Hitler went in 1912 to study architecture, is only a hundred miles away. The Hitler putsch which gave Munich a day’s excitement in 1923 is supposed to have been planned in the parlour of a mountain inn above Berchtesgadeu.

In the cellar of the same inn the leaders are supposed to liavo hidden after the failure of the putsch.. r ihe inn continued to be a secret headquarters of the Nazi movement until after Hitler's release from gaol. It was then that he bought Haus Wachenfeld, which ever since lias been the real headquarters of “the party.” Time was when Berchtesgaden was an unspoiled alpine village whose principal occupation was the carving of wooden toys. It has more serious matters on hand nowadays, centreing in Hitler’s expanding chalet, the additions to which have all been kept in harmony with its simple wooden lines. Whatever the Chancellor might have done if ho had avoided politics anu stuck to architecture, he has made an admirable job of the Haus Wachenfeld to-day. If there aro blue prints of its additions in existence, they may easily be the only blue prints known which bear the signature “A. Hitler, architect.”