Bidspirit auction | Real-Photo Postcard ”Reichskanzler Hitlers Landhaus

Real-Photo Postcard ”Reichskanzler Hitlers Landhaus Wachenfeld am Obersalzberg” - A real-photo postcard depicting the Obersalzberg landscape with the Untersberg, Salzburg, and Gaisberg labelled along the skyline, and the Landhaus Wachenfeld chalet visible in the foreground. The caption identifies the building as ”Reichskanzler Hitlers Landhaus 'Wachenfeld' am Obersalzberg (1000 m) gegen Untersberg u. Salzburg, ” with a photographer credit ”Phot. H. Huber” and negative number 1024 printed in the lower field. The reverse carries a handwritten message dated 18.1.35, addressed to Frau Dr. Ria Froewis in Zuerich, Switzerland, along with a Munich postmark dated 4.1 (partially legible year), a purple cachet reading ”Obersalzberg b. Berchtesgaden / Hausbriefkasten / Kiosk i. Hause Wachenfeld / fuer die Zustellung, ” and a printed ”Deutsche Heimatbilder” heading with the publisher name ”Alpiner Kunstverlag Hans Huber.” The card documents the pre-war appearance of the Berchtesgaden retreat before its later expansion into the Berghof complex. Landhaus Wachenfeld was the modest alpine house Adolf Hitler first rented and later purchased on the Obersalzberg above Berchtesgaden, acquired with proceeds from ”Mein Kampf” in the late 1920s. Following his appointment as Reichskanzler in 1933, the property became a focus of propaganda tourism and postcard production, marketed to visitors and NSDAP sympathisers as the private retreat of the new head of government. Between 1935 and 1936 it was substantially rebuilt and enlarged into the Berghof, the fortified mountain residence that served as one of Hitler's principal seats of power alongside the Reich Chancellery in Berlin until its destruction in 1945. This card, dated January 1935, captures the site in its earlier, pre-expansion form.