Kampfhäusl

The Kampfhäusl (German for "[My] Struggle House") was a small log cabin on the forest property of the former Gebirgskurhauses Obersalzberg (formerly the Pension Moritz; from 1928: Platterhof)^[1] in Obersalzberg. The cabin was the location where Adolf Hitler wrote the second volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

History

Dietrich Eckart visited Obersalzberg for the first time in May 1923.^[2] The Hitler trial resulted in a minimum sentence of five years in Landsberg Prison, where he dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf to his later deputy Rudolf Hess^[3] (according to Joachim Fest, the first volume was only dictated by Hitler in Obersalzberg after his imprisonment, like the second).^[4] Hitler was released on parole early in December 1924. This volume was then published in a first edition on July 18, 1925.

In the summer of the same year, after his release from prison, he was a guest under the name "Hugo Wolf" in the Gebirgskurhaus Obersalzberg, which was then leased by Bruno Büchner and his wife. In a small log cabin that stood a little above it on the forest property belonging to the guesthouse, as well as in the Deutsches Haus hotel,^[5] he dictated the second part of his manuscript of Mein Kampf to Max Amann,^[1] who was his Vizefeldwebel during the First World War. Because of these writings, the Kampfhäusl was given its name by Hitler's supporters.^[2][3]

The Alpengasthof Steiner below the guesthouse where Hitler lived served as a post office in Obersalzberg. Thekla Rasp, the wife of the inn owner, remembers “Dr. Wolf" as follows:

My husband [Steffl] is there no time with the mail. He [Hitler] was already working on “Mein Kampf”. And then he said: “Steffl, you should get one of the first ones.” And so he got the book, with his own dedication.

— Thekla Rasp^[3]

When Mein Kampf was written, the furnishings in the hut only included a tiled stove, a table, a chair and a bed.^[3] In the summer of 1928, after the Büchners had purchased the guesthouse and renamed it Pension Platterhof, Hitler also wrote down “his thoughts on German foreign policy” in the log cabin.^[1]

According to German author Ulrich Chaussy [de], the log cabin was dismantled after 1945^[3] and, according to historian Rainer Blasius [de], demolished in 1951.^[5] Today only remnants of its foundation remain.

References