The Eagle's Nest - Kehlsteinhaus. One of the most expensive houses in history.

Описание: The Kehlsteinhaus at the top of the Kehlstein mountain can be seen for kilometres around Berchtesgaden. It is a relic of the Third Reich, a folly of Martin Borrman but a place well worth visiting.
Hitler visited Obersalzberg for the first time in 1923 whilst visiting Dietrich Eckart. He liked it so much that he continued to visit in the intervening years before buying the property which was to become the Berghof. .
The structure at the top is usually called the Eagle’s Nest in English but not in German.
The Kehlstein is the name of the mountain so the proper name perhaps should be the German Kehlsteinhaus.
Martin Bormann entrusted the architect Roderich Fick with the planning of the Kehlsteinhaus with the Kehlsteinstrasse and the lift. This became a major engineering challenge. The lift was a concession Bormann granted when explained that a road to the very top was just not realistic. Therefore the road comes to an end at the base of the lift. The Munich branch of Hochtief was commissioned with the structural work for the Kehlsteinhaus whilst the road up the mountain was the responsibility of Fritz Todt . Leopold Müller was also involved as construction manager of the road construction company Polensky & Zöllner.
Mainly German and later also Czech and Italian skilled workers were involved in the construction of the Kehlsteinhaus. There were twelve fatal accidents at work while the elevator shaft was being built inside the mountain. The construction of the road took 13 months, this being achieved through night shifts with the sites being lit up by searchlights.
The project cost around RM30m which is more than EUR150m today.
To get there, the road ascends 800m over 6500m approach which includes five tunnels and one hairpin turn. On arrives at a large car park, and on foot there is a 124 m entry tunnel which you can see in this photograph taken after liberation in 1945. The tunnel leads to an ornate elevator that ascends the final 124 m to the house. The tunnel is lined with marble and was originally heated, with warm air from an adjoining service tunnel. When important guests arrived, they would be driven through the tunnel to the elevator. Their driver would then have to reverse the car for the entire length of the tunnel as there was no space to turn.
The inside of the large elevator is surfaced with polished brass, Venetian mirrors, and green leather. The building's main reception room is dominated by a fireplace of red Italian marble presented by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The building had a completely electric appliance kitchen, which was unusual in 1937, but was never used to cook meals; instead meals were prepared in town and taken to the kitchen in the Kehlsteinhaus to be reheated, which is the same as what you get today at MacDonalds. To get the house warm enough for guests, the heating was turned on two days in advance. A MAN submarine diesel engine and an electrical generator were installed in an underground chamber close to the main entrance, to provide back-up power.
Hitler went up there the first time whilst the project was under construction on 16 September 1938. It is often said that it was meant to be a fiftieth birthday present for Hitler although the exhibition at the house now says that this is a myth. On 20 April 1939, Hitler was in Berlin and so would not have been around to visit it on that day. On his first visit after completion, Hitler said that he did not like it which must have been a major disappointment for Bormann. He claimed that the trip up the mountain would have been too time-consuming and risky for him and that the elevator shaft was not safe against lightning strikes. Once the war began he claimed that one would be defenselessly exposed to a surprise attack by the Allies.
Hitler probably only visited the house 14 times.
However others did not share Hitler’s opinion, above all, Eva Braun who left us a great deal of film from her time there. Others felt the same and her films show a number of the top dogs in the Third Reich up at the Kehlsteinhaus.
On 25 April 1945, the Kehlsteinhaus was one of their main targets in the air raid by heavy British Lancaster bombers on Obersalzberg, but it was not hit, which is not a surprise considering how small it is. In any case, Hitler had left Obersalzberg for the very last time more than ten months earlier and was then holed up in the Berlin bunker which did not offer such wonderful panoramic views. Of course the RAF did not know that and the general feeling was that he would probably go for a last stand in the Alps.
Obersalzberg was liberated by French and US troops on 5 May 1945. The Kehlsteinhaus was confiscated and formally taken under control on 1 April 1946. On 17 February 1949, the Kehlsteinhaus passed to the Free State of Bavaria.

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