Hitler & Mussolini by Santi Corvaja

Author:Santi Corvaja [Corvaja, Santi; Miller, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780982491164
Publisher: Enigma Books

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The Italian Crisis

Berchtesgaden: January 19–20, 1941

The last thing on Mussolini’s wish list was to spend a weekend in the middle of winter with Adolf Hitler, in the dramatic landscape of the snow-covered mountains around Berchtesgaden. Mussolini was frustrated by the rout of Graziani’s army in Cirenaica and ashamed of his boastful behavior on October 28, 1940, in Florence, when he told Hitler the Italian army would liquidate Greece in a fortnight.

The special train left Rome for Germany late Saturday afternoon, January 18, 1941. Mussolini was in a dark mood, worried about the bad news coming from Albania as Ciano noted: “Nothing tragic happened, but once again, we fell back, losing many prisoners.” The worst part was that a special unit with a long tradition of military success was the hardest hit: the Lupi di Toscana (wolves of Tuscany), a crack paratrooper division that had just reached the front, carrying the hopes of the Italian high command. The Duce could not understand why all this was happening and kept repeating: “If anyone on October 15 had prophesied what actually took place, I would have had him shot.”

Officially the train was directed to Salzburg, but the next morning it stopped at a secondary railroad station near Berchtesgaden. The small village had become the capital of the “Adolf Hitler district” since 1925, when he first rented, then purchased, a chalet called Haus Wachenfeld, built on the great salt mountain, the Obersalzberg, that dominated the valley. In 1935, Haus Wachenfeld became known as the “Berghof,” or the “Berg,” after Hitler expanded the structure into a residence worthy of the Führer of Greater Germany.

Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, wrote: “Hitler wanted to pay for the new construction out of his own pocket; but it would be a futile gesture, since Martin Bormann used other, much larger funds than Hitler had planned to lay out to construct the additional buildings. The Führer did more than just produce a drawing of what he wanted for the Berghof. He asked me for a drawing board, a ruler, a drafting triangle, and other such instruments, and he personally set the plans, the exposures, and the sections of the new house, rejecting any kind of help. The old house was not destroyed but simply built into the new one. The new living room was joined to that of the old house through a wide opening.”

Hitler was very proud of the large sliding picture window on the lower floor living room: an enormous window with a magnificent vista of the Untersberg, Berchtesgaden, and Salzburg. Facing the Berghof, on a hill called the Mosslahnerkopf, was the site of the Teehaus, a small structure with three rooms and a verandah, where Hitler usually took his afternoon stroll. The Berghof quickly became a symbolic fixture of Third Reich iconography. Since the Nazi “Sun King” spent much of his time on the Obersalzberg, his entourage, Göring, Speer, Hess, Bormann, and Goebbels quickly proceeded to build their own more or less luxurious residences in the vicinity, each one a reflection of their personalities.

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