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Over the years the Berchtesgadener Hof in Berchtesgaden, Germany provided first class shelter for the well-to-do from royalty, to top Nazis and American Generals. It began life as the Grand Hotel in 1898 and because of its superb location was popular for decades with the wealthy.  It was as close as one could get to the Berghof, the alpine home of Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, in a first-class hotel.

In 1939 the NSDAP purchased the Grand Hotel in Berchtesgaden and the Deutscher Hof Hotel in Nürnberg and established a corporation, the Hotelbetriebsgesellschaft (Gotthard Färber, General Manager) to operate them. The name of the Grand Hotel was changed to the Berchtesgadener Hof and it underwent extensive and expensive renovations to prepare it for use by high Nazi Party officials and diplomatic guests.

German Chancellor and Nazi Party Führer Adolf Hitler was there for the grand re-opening of the Berchtesgadener Hof in 1941 with Reichsleiter Martin Bormann and Party Treasurer F.X. Schwarz. The list of guests who stayed in the beautifully furnished rooms at the Berchtesgadner Hof includes notables and history-makers such as Hitler's future wife Eva Braun, SS Cavalry General Hermann Fegelein, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Dr. Josepg Goebbels, Kriegsmarine Admiral Raeder, etc., etc.

What we offer on this USMBOOKS web page is a very nice but obscure English language book called History of the Berchtesgadener Hof that chronicles its history through the Third Reich, to the end of World War II, and until the 1980s.

Pictures show the interior and exterior of the hotel in the late 1800, 1920s and during the Third Reich when the guestbook included David Lloyd George and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Adolf Hitler frequently received government officials and his military leaders there (Himmler, Keitel, Rommel, Fegelein, Goebbels, Raeder and many others) and Eva Braun lived at the Berchtesgadener Hof before moving to the Berghof. Other famous visitors are listed and pictured, from German Empress Augusta Victoria and Ex-Empress Hermine to Betty Crocker, Tyrone Power, German actor Emil Jannings, Michael of Kent, and many American Generals. There are photos of the gas-resistant bunker and decontamination showers installed in 1943 and Field Marshal Albert Kesselring’s surrender in May 1945, even a Russian delegation visiting the hotel. There are reproductions of menus and photos of civilian managers after the war. Sadly, the hotel was torn down by the Germans after American forces left the area in the late 1990s.

The 8-¼ x 11-¾ inch, 58-page softcover book was written by Florian M. Beierl and was published in Berchtesgaden by Century-Verlag in 1991. This is a Second Edition of History of the Berchtesgadener Hof from July 1992 with 68 previously unpublished photographs. It is complete and in very nice, little-used condition, with a tight spine and no offensive odor. Hard to find!