In an obviously distressed state she told me that Hitler had gone off on a car trip with the gentlemen of his staff and some ladies, and were overdue. Greatly worried that some accident had befallen them, she was apparently glad to see me as it would help to take her mind off the matter. She volunteered to show me the ground-floor rooms of the Bavarian shingle-roofed house. A wooden balcony decorated with bright geraniums encircled the structure. The living room was typically Bavarian. A green dresser with farming scenes, a commode and rustic chairs, a grandfather clock and, on a corner table, statuettes of a farmer with canary and a Moorish dancer. Not very Bavarian on the other hand were the many cushions and rugs embroidered with the swastika and mountain blooms in all colours which lay everywhere in abundance, all presents from Hitler’s female admirers. Frau Raubal had apparently not had the heart to throw out all this evidence of the love and affection which these handicrafts manifested, and only after the conversion work to the house and the departure of Frau Raubal in 1936 did they disappear.
She took me to the glass veranda annexed to the employee’s rooms. It was built by Munich architect Neumayer together with the garage and terrace in April 1933. Meals were taken in the glass veranda, she told me. During my stay I was able to confirm what a careful housekeeper and outstanding cook Frau Raubal was. A real delicacy were the little apple pies she made, which were something new for me. Then she led me to the terrace and showed me the view over Berchtesgaden which stretched out below in the valley to the north. To the right of it was the Salzburg region. Opposite the house was the very impressive sight of the Watzmann (2,715 metres) and Untersberg (today Ettenberg, this latter mountain being the seat of legend, the place where Barbarossa is said to be entombed awaiting the day of his return, rather like King Arthur), the Hohe Göll and the Steinernes Meer. Well-maintained paths led from the terrace to the lawn at the side of the house: there used to be a rock garden on the southern slope with a number of paths crisscrossing it.
At the foot of the northern rock wall was a weathered, elongated, low, wooden annexe fronted by a wooden gallery decorated with a mass of red geraniums. The balustrade had supporting columns to the roof. It formed an enchanting, living contrast to the brooding, gloomy mountains to the south of the house. This single-storey structure adjoining Haus Wachenfeld had five rooms: a simple office, three guest rooms and a large dormitory for the SS-Begleitkommando . Later two of the guest rooms were converted into a medical surgery and the surgery of Dr Blaschke, Hitler’s dentist. In the summer of 1933 all guests booked into the nearby pensions on the Obersalzberg. At the end of the elongated annexe was the so-called ‘adjutants’ shack’. A narrow wooden stairway on the outside at the front led up to two small rooms: a bedroom with bath and an office for the duty adjutant. A telephone switchboard was located on the ground floor.
At sunset that day Frau Raubal and I stood on the terrace overlooking the road leading upwards, awaiting the return of the overdue excursionists. I could hear one of the maids, dressed in Tyrolean costume, setting the table for dinner in the glass veranda. Finally some cars came up the mountain, the small house filled with the voices of the arrivals and a short time later Hitler’s guests assembled in the veranda. Hitler and Frau Raubal occupied the table ends while the guests sat where they fancied. On that occasion I remember Hitler’s photographer Heinrich Hoffmann with his wife Erna, Hitler’s long term chauffeur SS-Staffelführer Julius Schreck and female friend, Reich press chief Dr Otto Dietrich with his wife, Julius Schaub, Eva Braun and Anni Rehborn.
Of the last, ‘Rehlein’, I would like to say something. In 1923 and 1924 she won the German swimming championships in the hundred-metres crawl and backstroke. When the Berliner Illustrierte published her photograph on the title page◦– it was seen by Hitler’s followers sharing his imprisonment at Landsberg◦– Hitler’s chauffeur Emil Maurice was inspired to send Anni Rehborn his congratulations. After their release a meeting took place at which Hitler was present, and at Christmas 1925 he sent her a copy of Mein Kampf bound in red leather with the inscription ‘To Fräulein Anni Rehborn in sincere admiration’, and encouraged her to visit whenever she was in Bavaria. She took him up on this offer frequently. In July 1933 while touring Germany in her small red DIXI car with her fiancé Dr Karl Brandt, Hitler invited them both to stay for a few days on the Berg, where they were booked into one of the pensions as his guests, and came up to Haus Wachenfeld for lunch and dinner.
One afternoon a telephone message brought the news that chief adjutant Wilhelm Brückner and his friend Sophie Stork had been badly injured in a road accident at Reit im Winkel and had been taken to the hospital at Traunstein. Brückner had fallen asleep at the wheel and collided with a stack of wood. How lucky he was to have had Dr Brandt along as a passenger. Calmly and carefully he took the initiative, did everything necessary to make the casualties comfortable and carried out the operation himself at Traunstein hospital. While Sophie Stork escaped with a broken arm, Brückner was seriously hurt, sustaining a skull fracture and losing an eye. Göring, who was also a passenger, was so impressed by the skill of the young doctor that he exclaimed: ‘If ever I have to be operated on, then only by Dr Brandt!’ Until then Hitler had never had a medical aide on his various trips, but now he saw the necessity. It was therefore not surprising that he should ask the pleasant young Brandt if he would like to join his staff as doctor (Begleitarzt) and he agreed. A short while later Brandt married Anni Rehborn. Both Hitler and Göring were guests at the wedding.
The ability of Dr Brandt was proverbial, as was his joviality: a doctor with the soul of a Paracelsus: to the last his life was devoted to his calling. In the true sense of the term he embraced the higher life and let it embrace him too. He matured to a greatness in which he overshadowed the death sentence which awaited him at the end of the road. Brandt was the Führer’s ‘emergencies-only doctor’ but his role was actually only as a surgeon while Hitler was travelling: otherwise he worked at the Surgical University Clinic in Berlin’s Ziegel-Strasse where Dr Werner Haase and Dr von Hasselbach also worked as surgeons and occasionally deputised for Brandt on journeys and when Hitler was at the Berg.
At this time Hitler and his guests used to go on short rambles. A favourite destination was the Hochlenzer, where they would sit in front of the small house on wooden benches in the sun and enjoy the glorious view to Königssee, which glittered in the distance. At Hochlenzer a very refreshing curds and whey was scooped up and served in brown earthenware bowls. It was a rare delicacy. The milk was never moved until it curdled to prevent bubbles forming in the curd. Other walks went to Scharitzkehl and the Vorderbrand. They were glorious little treks. Hitler would wear a bright blue corduroy jacket. In later years the walks were dropped, and after lunch he would venture no further than the small tea-house on the Mooslahner Kopf.