The Hotel zum Türken or “Hotel of the Turks” has a rather interesting and quite frequently, sad, history.
The current hotel started to be built in 1911. 1933 it was seized from its owners by the Nazis. It became the the SS (Schutzstaffel) headquarters, known as the SS Wache. It was ideally strategically placed for the protection of Hitler on the Obersalzberg, being right next to the Berghof, and only a short walk to the SS barracks SS Kaserne.
After the war, it was recovered from the Bavarian Government with some slight modifications compared to before the war: firstly it had been bombed by the RAF, and so was ruined. Secondly, it had bunkers underneath. Thankfully after the war it was rebuild, and today, the bunkers are accessible. Unfortunately the bunkers are only accessible within the boundaries of the hotel – the tunnels leading to Hitler’s Berghof and Martin Borrman’s house are bricked up.
If you are visiting the area, I highly recommend that you stay here. It’s a lovely hotel, and the history is fantastic. Today, the house is ran by Frau Ingrid Scharfenberg. Frau Scharfenberg is a lovely lady, who made us feel very welcome when we stayed.
Panorama of Hotel zum Türken, showing the main entrance, car park, SS guard post, and access to the bunkers
The Hotel zum Türken. Note the SS Guard post, roughly in the middle of the picture, which is still there to this day. The Berghof can be seen on the right.
Map of Third Reich sites in Obersalzberg/Berchtesgaden
This map contains the following items
- Hotel zum Türken
- Berghof rear driveway
- Berghof front driveway
- Berghof
- Berchtesgaden Railway Tunnel portal
- Hotel Intercontinental
- Pond on site of former Landhaus Göring
- Coal bunker
- Kehlsteinhaus/Eagle’s Nest/Teehaus
- Kehlsteinhaus/Eagle’s Nest/Teehaus tunnel portal
- Dokumentation Obersalzberg/Gastehaus Höher Goll
- Bormann’s Gutshof
- Teehaus on Mooslahnerkopf/Moslanderkopf
- Albert Speer’s House
- Albert Speer’s Bunker
- Center of map
- map
- Hotel zum Türken
- map
- Berghof rear driveway
- map
- Berghof front driveway
- map
- Berghof
- map
- Berchtesgaden Railway Tunnel portal
- map
- Hotel Intercontinental
- map
- Pond, was the site of Goering’s house
- map
- Coal bunker
- map
- Kehlsteinhaus/Eagle’s Nest/Teehaus
- map
- Kehlsteinhaus/Eagle’s Nest/Teehaus tunnel portal
- map
- SS Kaserne
- map
- Dokumentation Obersalzberg/Gastehaus Höher Goll
- map
- Bormann’s Gutshof
- map
- Teehaus on Mooslahnerkopf/Moslanderkopf
- map
- Albert Speer’s House
- map
- Albert Speer’s Studio
Marvelous photos.
Do you have any of inside the Hotel?
Comment by Ken — May 16, 2009 @ 8:03 am
Thanks so much for all the information! I wish I’d seen it before going there last Friday. The hotel and site of Berghof was just a few more steps past the bathroom at the Kehlsteinhaus bus station! Fascinating stuff. I would love to have seen the hotel and bunker tunnels, and site of Berghof. Would love to stay there next time I visit from California. Amazing and creepy to be so near the heart of the Nazi’s southern hq. Kehlsteinhaus was wonderful, of course. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting that area. The views and energies on the top of that mountain are without equal.
(For Ken: I found pics of the inside of the hotel on their site: http://www.hotel-zum-tuerken.com)
Comment by LindyLin — July 22, 2009 @ 9:09 pm
Sorry, here’s the address again:
http://www.hotel-zum-tuerken.com
Comment by LindyLin — July 22, 2009 @ 9:10 pm