Sven Keller, the director of the Obersalzberg documentation, which has been viewed millions of times, is impatient. The construction site has been going on for what feels like an eternity. It is nine years since the architectural competition for the extension of the place of learning and remembrance. The place is steeped in history. Adolf Hitler once received guests in his holiday home on the Obersalzberg and partly conducted government business. A five-minute walk from today’s documentary, Hitler made far-reaching and deadly decisions in his Berghof.
The state building authority in Traunstein handed over the extension to the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin (IfZ) about a year ago: the building without interior furnishings is considered to be largely complete. “The exhibition is also basically finished,” says director Sven Keller. However, it is not installed yet. Many of the individual parts lie packed in the corners of the large room in which the permanent exhibition, consisting of five chapters, will later inform visitors. Electric cables are still hanging from the ceiling. “We’re waiting for microchips,” says Keller. Since war has raged in Europe and delivery problems have restricted many sectors, many parts have been a long time coming. It was originally supposed to open a year and a half ago. Now it is expected to be autumn 2023.
Since 1999 the Obersalzberg has been coming to terms with the Nazi past. More than three million people visited the center with the documentation about the Nazi tyranny and its consequences before it was closed for the new building. With 170,000 visitors per year, the exhibition had become too small. The decision to expand was made more than ten years ago. Now a building built into the mountain has been created. “An opulent building would have been the wrong approach,” says Sven Keller.
This is what it looks like in the entrance area of the extension of the Obersalzberg Documentation. But the building is still a permanent construction site.
(Photo: Kilian Pfeiffer/dpa)
The exhibition space has more than doubled in the extension building. In the future, the history of National Socialism will be told on 800 square meters. The focus is now even more on the local history of the Obersalzberg. The focus is on the area surrounding the mountain that Hitler used as a holiday home from 1923 – exactly 100 years ago – and which later also served as his second seat of government alongside Berlin.
Selected life stories of everyday Obersalzberg residents can be found in the show. The historians at the IfZ have researched these and classified them based on information, original photos and exemplary things from life during the Nazi era. Finds such as original photo albums, diaries or a cot from this period are to be shown as exhibits, classified and explained using historical events. The bronze bust of Hitler, which was shown in the old documentation for 20 years, is disappearing in the archive. There had always been criticism from exhibition visitors for the prominent head.
The Berghof site could be a missed opportunity. The history of the Berghof, where Hitler resided, will not play a major role in the overall concept of the Institute for Contemporary History. “We would like to do more,” said education officer Mathias Irlinger from the IfZ last year. The documentation has been offering workshops with the motto “What to do with the Berghof site” for a long time. In addition, some time ago there was the idea of creating an audio trail with additional display boards that would bring visitors closer to the history behind Hitler’s Alpine seat of government. However, this is not enough for comprehensive inclusion in educational work.
To this day, the place also attracts unwanted guests. They come every year around Hitler’s birthday in April. “Experience shows that the frequency is then higher,” said Irlinger last April. “There is still a clientele that associates the date with a visit.” The traces around the Berghof have not yet disappeared: swastikas can be seen on some trees.
Since the documentation has been expanded, there has always been bad news from the mountain. A change of architect and planning errors have led to delays. The total costs had to be adjusted several times. The Bavarian state parliament had repeatedly raised the budget: from 14 to 21 and most recently to 30.1 million euros. The plaster lighting has not yet been delivered less than a year after the order was placed. Museum glass that has been ordered for a long time has not yet been delivered. “It’s hard to come by,” says Keller. Prices have shot through the roof for many products. Because trades are interdependent, waiting is the order of the day. The graphic panels, which are intended to vividly convey National Socialism to visitors in the future, remained wrapped up to the last. Wooden substructures hang on some of the walls, to which the exhibition furniture made to order will later be attached. All that remains for Keller is to wait. “We’re trying to get it done as quickly as possible.”