Salzburg and Eva Braun
I was a little sad to leave Germany, as I had learnt a lot from my German landlady about the country when I was residing in Logan, Utah, for my PhD.
Mrs. Montigel had lived and suffered heavily during the destructive World War triggered by the territorial ambitions of Adolph Hitler. Her husband was a war casualty and her family suffered great deprivation during the global conflict.
As a teenager, I was carefully reading about the ghastly details of the war being fought. My younger uncle and an elder cousin were in active service from the very start of the war. My grandfather was a veteran of World War I and the family was well-aware of the war sufferings and deaths as it raged in Europe and Africa, and later on in Asia when Japan became Germany's partner on the eastern front.
The extra time spent ln border crossing formalities after the long delay resulting from the Police search for the terrorists they were looking for, had left me tired and thirsty. After receiving permission to enter Austria, I was looking for a brief stop to rest before driving further.
There was a fountain tap with running water on a nearby mountain that caught my attention. I parked the car and started walking towards it happily, just as I would have done on seeing such an attractive spot in the Canadian Rockies. There was something written in German language above the tap which I was unable to translate. As soon as I extended my hand to touch the refreshing flow of cool water, a lady shouted from a distance with forbidding gestures to stop me from drinking it.
She was right, it was polluted water and not meant for drinking even when it looked to be so.
I returned to where I had parked car and drank bottled water before resuming drive on the autobahn towards Salzburg, situated about 150 km from Munich. The panoramic beauty of the Alps was soothing and enchanting.
Salzberg is a famous resort, renowned for being the birthplace of Mozart. I had picked up pamphlets that invited tourists to come and enjoy Greater Salzberg in its entirety and to fulfill any dream to live as a part of 'The Sound of Music' phenomenon!
I had seen the musical masterpiece while visiting the Rashtrapati Bhavan estate in New Delhi. Salzburg city and surroundings were used for the film in the 1960s.
There are two Mozart memorial museums, one in the birthplace of the genius and the other in his former living place. The nearby Obersalzberg, with its beautiful and sweeping mountain view, was the favourite spot for Hitler and known as the location of his mountain residence, the Berghof. Göring also had a house nearby.
I remember that as a concerned teenager I had wanted to learn more about why Hitler had precipitated the global war so furiously. I had gone to the local library to read Mein Kampf (My Struggle), the book by him written as autobiography and a political treatise. However, it turned out to be beyond my understanding level at that time. A great part of the book was authored by him in the picturesque mountainous on release from a short prison term earlier.
Many years later, I had read a quote from a November 1938 article published in Homes & Garden that described Hitler as a life-long vegetarian at table, who never smoked, nor took alcohol in any form. Being such an ascetic, and living in peaceful mountains, I wondered how he could so mercilessly engulf the neighbouring countries, and eventually other global communities, in an unprecedented war with more than sixty million casualties.
Hitler and his sweetheart Eva Braun spent much time there in the 1930s. She was born in Munich and 23 years younger. They had never appeared as a couple in public, partly due to Hitler's concern that he would lose popularity among female supporters.
The German people were unaware of Eva Braun and her relationship with Hitler until after the war had ended. In recognition of her loyalty, Hitler had married her at midnight on April 28 - 29, 1945.
On April 30 they jointly committed suicide.
I was a little sad to leave Germany, as I had learnt a lot from my German landlady about the country when I was residing in Logan, Utah, for my PhD.
Mrs. Montigel had lived and suffered heavily during the destructive World War triggered by the territorial ambitions of Adolph Hitler. Her husband was a war casualty and her family suffered great deprivation during the global conflict.
As a teenager, I was carefully reading about the ghastly details of the war being fought. My younger uncle and an elder cousin were in active service from the very start of the war. My grandfather was a veteran of World War I and the family was well-aware of the war sufferings and deaths as it raged in Europe and Africa, and later on in Asia when Japan became Germany's partner on the eastern front.
The extra time spent ln border crossing formalities after the long delay resulting from the Police search for the terrorists they were looking for, had left me tired and thirsty. After receiving permission to enter Austria, I was looking for a brief stop to rest before driving further.
There was a fountain tap with running water on a nearby mountain that caught my attention. I parked the car and started walking towards it happily, just as I would have done on seeing such an attractive spot in the Canadian Rockies. There was something written in German language above the tap which I was unable to translate. As soon as I extended my hand to touch the refreshing flow of cool water, a lady shouted from a distance with forbidding gestures to stop me from drinking it.
She was right, it was polluted water and not meant for drinking even when it looked to be so.
I returned to where I had parked car and drank bottled water before resuming drive on the autobahn towards Salzburg, situated about 150 km from Munich. The panoramic beauty of the Alps was soothing and enchanting.
Salzberg is a famous resort, renowned for being the birthplace of Mozart. I had picked up pamphlets that invited tourists to come and enjoy Greater Salzberg in its entirety and to fulfill any dream to live as a part of 'The Sound of Music' phenomenon!
I had seen the musical masterpiece while visiting the Rashtrapati Bhavan estate in New Delhi. Salzburg city and surroundings were used for the film in the 1960s.
There are two Mozart memorial museums, one in the birthplace of the genius and the other in his former living place. The nearby Obersalzberg, with its beautiful and sweeping mountain view, was the favourite spot for Hitler and known as the location of his mountain residence, the Berghof. Göring also had a house nearby.
I remember that as a concerned teenager I had wanted to learn more about why Hitler had precipitated the global war so furiously. I had gone to the local library to read Mein Kampf (My Struggle), the book by him written as autobiography and a political treatise. However, it turned out to be beyond my understanding level at that time. A great part of the book was authored by him in the picturesque mountainous on release from a short prison term earlier.
Many years later, I had read a quote from a November 1938 article published in Homes & Garden that described Hitler as a life-long vegetarian at table, who never smoked, nor took alcohol in any form. Being such an ascetic, and living in peaceful mountains, I wondered how he could so mercilessly engulf the neighbouring countries, and eventually other global communities, in an unprecedented war with more than sixty million casualties.
Hitler and his sweetheart Eva Braun spent much time there in the 1930s. She was born in Munich and 23 years younger. They had never appeared as a couple in public, partly due to Hitler's concern that he would lose popularity among female supporters.
The German people were unaware of Eva Braun and her relationship with Hitler until after the war had ended. In recognition of her loyalty, Hitler had married her at midnight on April 28 - 29, 1945.
On April 30 they jointly committed suicide.
