Comments | zoje_george: Consider that gasket blown...

zoje_george

Consider that gasket blown...

Feb 17, 2005 18:05

Hotel to Open at Hitler's Alpine RetreatThe new hotel, the Intercontinental Resort Berchtesgaden, will open on the Obersalzberg mountaintop to guests on March 1, the Bavarian Finance Ministry said Thursday ( Read more... )

politics, rants, evil corporate bastards

Comments 7

jeejeen February 18 2005, 02:49:22 UTC

AArgh!!!! And I was in such a good mood when I got home, too.

zoje_george February 18 2005, 02:52:16 UTC

Sorry!

Go look at the birdies and the big porcelain pig again!

I can send you an unpublished birdie picture...

ladyxoc February 18 2005, 03:00:10 UTC

So stupid to build a hotel, it could have been a beautiful Wal Mart.

sorenr February 18 2005, 06:37:31 UTC

But what else do you do with Berchtesgarten? Is the place important enough for an actual museum? Probably not. But is it suitable for a hotel? I'd say no to that one too.

Bare ground, with informative signs of some sort might have been my favourite suggestiong for the site.

(The comment has been removed)

zoje_george February 19 2005, 00:48:50 UTC

I don't know, I really don't. See my comment below to eanja for my overnight thoughts on the topic.

My great-gran came over from Germany either just before or just after WWI (I honestly can't remember which), and often she would muse aloud, "I vonder, vhat our family vould be... vhat vould ve haff done if ve had stayed?" And then she'd say, "Ach, it's ofher now. Best not to tink uff it. Come and play ze cards mit me."* So the entire family tradition on Germany became that, which extended into "don't think too much on anything bad." Put it behind you.

*I loved her accent and would spend hours rolling the sounds of her words around in my head -- I think that's probably where my love of language really began.

eanja February 18 2005, 10:21:54 UTC

Weirdly enough, I've stayed at that Hotel. Well, not that actual one, but the Army resort they mentioned where the Nazi officers used to stay while at Berchtesgarden - I'm guessing they've built one at the old house site itself, as well as the existing one down the hill a little ways? The Army gave all the German units who'd been in a Gulf war weekend passes- bus the whole company down, free hotel room and buffet meals, spend a couple days sight-seeing in Salzburg and Berchestesgarden, tour the old bunkers underneath the hotel, etc. A rather gorgeous mini-vacation, actually ( ... )

zoje_george February 18 2005, 23:07:50 UTC

Yeah, see, I really don't know how I feel about it.

On the one hand, I wonder just how long the rest of us will continue to feel entitled to make All of Germany and Germans feel bad about WWII. Must we insist on the entire country as a memorial to its past sins? Just how productive is that? Not at all I'd say, especially since the sanctions placed on Germany after WWI were major contributing factors to the beginning of WWII. Mussolini was a right bastard too, and I don't see us getting all uptight about former sites from Stalin's reign. Should I even mention Pol Pot? It seems like Germany is held to a different standard sometimes. Do you think that might be because we're still dealing with the same anti-semitic issues as we were then? That nothing was really "solved" by WWII ( ... )