Hitler's Alpine Retreat

Hitler's Alpine Retreat by Wilson, James. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781932033458.

The Nazis had no equals at ferociously exploiting new methods of reaching the general population with their political message. The humble postcard became in the 1930s a powerful tool for winning the hearts and minds of the German people. In this unique book James Wilson demonstrates, using 270 original German postcards from his personal collection, how Hitlers obsession with the beautiful and normally peaceful Bavarian mountain area of Berchtesgadener Land was used to project a powerful but totally misleading image of this most evil regime. Haus Wachenfeld, the simple Alpine cottage purchased by Hitler in 1933, evolved to become the Berghof, the Southern headquarters of the Third Reich, and second only to Berlin in terms of importance. Hitlers Alpine Retreat offers an extraordinary atmospheric opportunity to view the landscape, buildings (mostly now long disappeared) and close associates of the Führer. Each of the superb contemporary images records a unique moment of history which would otherwise have been lost forever.