The very name, InterContinental Resort Berchtesgaden, jars more than just a bit, given that Berchtesgaden, an idyllic town in the Bavarian Alps, is where Hitler had his rural retreat, looking out at the mountains from the picture window of his nearby house and having mystical thoughts about Teutonic blood and soil.
Still, on the principle that the enjoyment of a pristinely beautiful spot should not be prohibited to others simply because the top Nazis once enjoyed it, the InterContinental chain opened a luxurious hotel and spa March 1 in Berchtesgaden.
Built by the Bavarian state government where Herman Gering had his house, just over a rise from Hitler’s, the hotel looks out over the mountains, Berchtesgaden and even Salzburg in the distance. It has 138 rooms and 12 suites, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and a complete fitness center.
The area, near the Austrian border, has skiing in winter, golf in the summer, rafting, hiking, even visits to the mostly unused salt mines that gave the region its name. A couple hundred yards from the hotel itself is a modest two-story Documentation Center, with a permanent exhibit on the history of the area. Adjacent to the museum is the entrance to the vast network of tunnels and shelters (also open to visitors) built to shield the Nazis from Allied air attacks.
And there is the famous Eagle’s Nest, the house high up on a mountain that was given Hitler as a birthday present by his admirers. The place, known in German as the Kehlstein, is now a restaurant with an incredible view, accessible by the very elevator cut into the rock for Hitler.
The hotel itself, , has rates from about $250 for a room to more than $2,000 for the presidential suite, at $1.33 to the euro.