As of: March 27, 2024, 6:33 p.m
By: Marcel Sowa
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Right-wing visitors and Nazis and their “legacies” are a constant concern for the Obersalzberg documentation staff.
© Documentation Obersalzberg / Marcel Sowa
The employees repeatedly have to deal with real Nazis and right-wing visitors at the checkout or in the exhibition.
While sometimes the attitude is clearly visible, there are always borderline cases where Mathias Irlinger and his team have to look very closely.
But: How exactly are such people recognized?
What are the “classics” in the documentation and around the Obersalzberg?
And what can be done about it?
Berchtesgaden -
Classic “legacies” include
stickers
on signs or lanterns.
There were already
scratched swastikas on the toilet walls in the old building or on the walls in the bunker.
If “Shit Jews”
is secretly written on a poster
during participatory activities , that is of course clear.
The same applies when someone with an Imperial Eagle pendant walks through the documentation and heads towards the
bunker or Berghof site
- both
popular attractions for right-wing visitors
, reports bgland24.de.
Grave candles in particular
, some even with a swastika
, are discovered again and again.
Since Irlinger started documenting Obersalzberg seven years ago,
more than 200 specimens
have been discovered.
The speaker believes that if people had started keeping these candles locally since the end of the Second World War, a whole house would already be full of them.
“We know from newspaper articles from the 70s or 80s that grave candles already existed back then.
This is
nothing new.
“
Grave candles, swastikas, stickers, entries in the guest book: the employees discover a lot themselves, and sometimes there are also clues from other visitors.
© Marcel Sowa
Grave candles wrapped in plastic bags and placed in front of the front door
The exciting thing is that the documentation does not actively monitor the area and travels there rather irregularly.
And yet there are so many candles - also because
walkers
keep discovering them and putting them in plastic bags in front of the front door.
“It
’s good to know that we’re not the only ones who are bothered by it
,” says Irlinger.
“Most of the time, the obvious right-wing milieu tends to avoid the exhibition and instead passes us by.
Of course we can’t prevent
that
,” reveals Mathias Irlinger, education officer since March 2017.
Domestic rights can only be exercised on your own property; this does not apply to external areas.
Not always clearly recognizable as rights
And yet it still happens again and again that rights dare to document.
He estimates that
around 200 people are discovered every year
.
Many remain unidentified because
employees cannot monitor
and control everything.
“In the summer we welcome around half a million visitors here.
As such, many rights are
difficult to quantify
,” says the education officer.
Education officer Mathias Irlinger shows one of the many places in the bunker where a swastika was painted over.
© Marcel Sowa
The
classic image of the Nazi
- bald head, bomber jacket and combat boots - can
hardly be observed anymore
.
Instead, it is a combination of symbols on clothing, pendants and tattoos combined with conspicuous behavior that makes employees take notice.
“We are already making a certain effort to train our staff and
update their
knowledge of symbols from the scene .”
Serious or a bad joke?
A clear example is the use of the
number combination 88
.
It is considered a well-known right-wing extremist code.
“But if someone draws a swastika the wrong way around, it might just be a stupid joke by a young person,” Irlinger explains the problem.
There are also
clothes
from the brands “Lonsdale” or “Alpha Industries”, which are not automatically associated with the right-wing extremist milieu.
“But here in this place in conjunction with suspicious behavior, these are warning signs for us.”
By
conspicuous behavior
he means, for example, if someone keeps wandering around the Berghof grounds and seems to be waiting for an opportunity to be alone.
“Nobody here is ever observed actively
setting up and lighting
grave candles , for example.
These people
are waiting for the opening hours to end when dusk sets in
,” says Melanie Diehm, who is responsible for public relations.
Always the Berghof site
It is also noticeable to the employees if someone runs all over the entire exhibition, does not read any information boards and goes straight to certain exhibits or the bunker.
It turned out to be helpful
to really annoy the right-wing visitors
.
There are
several options
for this : For example, having a long chat with colleagues on the Berghof site and staying there while one person keeps coming and going because they obviously want to be undisturbed there.
Irlinger: “You have to show them that they are seen.
Our hope and perception:
They don’t like it when it gets uncomfortable
.”
The more publicity, the better
, is the credo.
According to Irlinger, the
boss of a nearby hotel drove up and down the Berghof grounds in a golf cart in order to disturb right-wing visitors
.
Some visitors are also expelled from the building at the checkout if the signs are too clear.
But sometimes the right-wingers also send someone to the checkout who looks less conspicuous and thereby include it in the exhibition.
“The pulse goes up”
According to Irlinger, a direct approach
works best
.
Doesn't that make you uneasy?
“It’s definitely not something you enjoy doing.
“That’s when the pulse goes up,” assures the education officer.
“Ideally, the two of you try to talk to these visitors and choose a place with a
surveillance camera
.
If we just point out that everything is recorded, it works quite well.”
The Berghof area always attracts visitors who are just waiting to be undisturbed and, for example, to put up a grave candle there.
© Marcel Sowa
The guest book
is of course difficult to monitor
: there have been questionable and criminal entries here too.
Melanie Diehm from public relations explains: “We often notice that the
swastikas are quickly crossed out by other visitors
.
The public usually reacts itself.”
Swastikas in the guest book, in trees or on walls
This also applies to the terrain: swastikas carved into trees or on the walls of the bunker are usually crossed out or scratched out.
They are then only visible as white, faded areas.
Diehm: “We draw a rather positive conclusion: of course there are right-wing extremists here, but there are also
many more people who have something against them
.
We attract them much more.”
However, things are more difficult on
social media
: According to Diehm, there are more right-wing comments there.
On the one hand,
anonymity
benefits the right, but on the other hand, the documentation cannot monitor the comment columns around the clock.
“If, for example, a Facebook post from us over a holiday ends up in a right-wing milieu thanks to the algorithm, you no longer have a chance to argue against it with 20 questionable and hateful comments.”
Forbidden or allowed?
Here, too, she and the employees often struggle with the question: Is the
comment really clearly right-wing or in a gray area?
Because sometimes they say “It was all so long ago, let bygones be bygones” or “The Kehlsteinhaus is such a beautiful building, but you just want to tear it down anyway” - the direction is recognizable, but those are clearly on the right Not opinions.
According to Diehm, the accusation is sometimes made
that “we don’t have a neutral view
. ”
This statement can be interpreted in many ways, but if, for example, AfD likes appear when you click on the profile, it quickly becomes clear in which context such sentences are used.
Visitors help diligently and report rights
Of course, there have been cases in which someone has been wrongly accused.
“But the misunderstanding usually clears up quickly,” says Mathias Irlinger.
The documentary staff also repeatedly receives
tips from guests
.
Of course that helps, but sometimes the documentation is also addressed when it comes to
passengers on the bus route to Kehlstein
.
Or when right-wing groups are in the Obersalzberg area and lay wreaths, for example on Hitler's birthday (April 20th).
“We are not responsible for that.
We can only forward this to the appropriate authorities.”
The documentation staff are still trying to take action against it as best they can.
According to Irlinger, there are two main reasons: “On the one hand
, we don’t want our location, our buildings and our exhibition to be misused for right-wing extremist propaganda
.” And on the other hand, we also have a
right to protection from the guests
.
“We know that there are also descendants of victim groups among them.
And of course we don’t want them to be confronted with people like that during their visit to the exhibition.”
“A social problem”
Irlinger thinks: “Of course you can ask yourself what you have to do about it.
But of course we also know that all of this doesn't just show up and accumulate here.
This is a
social problem
: There are also similar problems in football stadiums, schoolyards and other places.” Here at Obersalzberg, we are trying to show these groups of people that they are not wanted here.
“We are not ignoring this,
as it may have been done in Berchtesgaden for many decades
.
It was then said that people only come because of the beautiful view and that there are no Nazis here at all.
We document these incidents, we also communicate them and talk about them openly.
And with a variety of campaigns - whether on social media or campaigns such as the Obersalzberg film discussion about “An Iron Cassette” - those responsible are
actively conducting educational work
.
“Of course the Obersalzberg has its history.
But the accusation that we are covering up and hiding history is complete nonsense.
With the exhibition we are doing the exact opposite.”
“For us, the victims are in the foreground”
As people interested in history, the documentation staff are
always in favor of preserving such historic buildings and places
.
That's why it's interesting if you're accused of removing Nazi traces.
“We are putting a lot of effort into making these traces visible.
But
for us, the focus is on the victims, their biographies and whereabouts
.”