Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. I was thinking of some of the gifts I have received over the years which triggered off a memory of Haus Kehlstein - a building given to Adolf Hitler as a present from the Nazi Party for his 50th birthday.

Perched high above the small town of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps at an altitude of approximately 1800 metres, the house was an incredible feat of engineering - constructed in 1937/8 - in time for Hitlers' birthday in 1939.

The building cost roughly 200 million euros (2016) to build with the loss of 12 construction workers. It was only visited on 10 or so occasions by Hitler who was uncomfortable with the altitude. It shows the insane nature of the Nazi dictatorship - the sycophantic secretary Martin Bormann commissioned the building based on an off the cuff comment by Hitler about the Kehlstein mountain being a nice place to have seating accomodations to take in the view below. Based on that small comment - Professor Roderich Fick was asked to design the building and work began shortly after. It must go down in history as one of the most expensive and extravagant birthday gifts in history.