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Words can not express my feelings. A tear will remain in my eyes for the rest of my life. http://www.roland-harder.de/obersalzberg/Berchtesgadener-Hof-Der-Abriss.html Please reply with your grief: Jim Long live the Hof..............or the memory, as we all last knew her.
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Trash Can; I mean Bill, Ya, we'll split a bier and a shot of Jagermeister!
Paul S. Lambres
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Lambo; Not too many people know my old nickname from Mammoth. Mountain..! I've almost forgotten that one! Haha...sure beer and tequilla but Jager nein danke, pfui teuffel!
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It's more than with a heavy heart to see the ruins of my beloved childhood home. James, I couldn't watch all of it and always become extremely emotional when I just think about the Hof no longer being there! The way it was done seems so premeditated, first let it sit there and rot and then do away with it. By nature I would describe myself a gentle soul but this entire fiasco has filled my heart with hatred and disbelief. It was absolutely unnecessary to let this happen and the world will never be the same. HOW DARE THEY!!! I am outraged in my pain and suffering and most importantly I feel so helpless that I wasn't able to intervene in any way to stop this crime. I will forever grieve over the loss but feel comforted that there are many fine people out there who feel equally as disgusted by what has happened. Thank all of you for your comments! This is truly a very, very sad time! Jutta (Schuster) Fournier
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When I get to Canada, at the reunion, and if we are all sitting around drinking a beer, I will hold one high for this queen... it brings so many memories? what a shame and I always said the Germans that live in B'garden are just frickin stupid...now I know!! Prost fuer die Dame ist gefallen!! Long live the memories she created! Long live the “Berchtesgadener Hof”!!!
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The days spent sunning on the roof. The nights in the employee housing both before i was an employee and when I was an employee.
The nights spent having a bier with Ted the Crown Prince, a number of nights of drinking Wiessbier with some general named Swartzkopf, bringing my mom and stop dad down there and spending the night watching one of those snowfalls where the flakes are the size of a half dollar and so thick that you can't see the lights just places where the snow seems to glow. Bingo night in the basement. The bands in the bar that become friends and almost felt like family as we all felt about like family back then.
the night that Georgia Grothie came in to watch me at work to decide if she should hire me to work ski issue.
I was the worst waiter of the world at the Hof but I wouldn't trade any of it.
It was where Jonah Sweeney and I shared a room one winter upstairs in employee housing and I will always smile when I think back on her.
The time when Mark Ringer and I were roomates in the General McNair.
Afternoon after I had Surgery and we all sat on the Balcony and the last thing that I wanted to do was laugh. Carolyn came by and told us about the afternoon that she had just spent taking a class on painting eggs for Easter. with out intending she had everyone laughing and me about to split my stitches.
There were so many good times associated with the Hof. I always just took it for granted that other people would be able to enjoy the piano that was supposed to have belonged to Goering. The wonderful woodwork in the rooms. the views of the mountains. Summer by the pool.
Hell I even liked doing my laundry there because I good shoot up to the bar for a drink at the same time.
There was a room i had that had once been the Arms room for visitors when the Third Riech ran the place. A steel door and decorative bars on the windows.
Yeah a lot of good times at the Hof and I don't have one picture of the people or the place as it was at that time.
I often wonder what happen to Jonah Sweeney, I think Brother Al once said that she had passed through Berchtesgaden headed to some place in Florida.
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I dont have alot of memories from the Hof, but the ones that I do will remain with me forever. I was TDY at Chiemsee and we got to be extras when they were filming the mini series “The Winds Of War” at the Eagles Nest. My girlfriend, who also worked at Chiemsee came down and we stayed there together. It was fun watching the tourist see us wearing these old WWII german uniforms and wanting to take pictures of us. Some of the locals would give us dirty looks though,especially the older ones.But the nights in the Hof and B,gaden will never fade. Hey Joe, Any idea what happened to Mark Ringer or his sister Amy who used to work at the campground at Chiemsee. Dave(Smitty) Smith Chiemsee 81
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Thanks for the infomation you sent out on the Hof. I was with the 508th MPs in Berchtesgaden in 1962 and 1963 so I dearly remember all the fun we had at the Hof. I see David Oliver commented on some of what I remember as we served there at the same time in 1963. The fun times at the pool with the gals from the Delray Dancers hoisted on our shoulders while we played water polo or just sitting around the pool drinking delights from the gods. I suppose now the Hotel Bellevue is the only AFRC building still standing, or is it gone to? One thing we will always have though is our great memories of a time long ago when we were young and full of life as it was then. Thanks again Jim
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Lambo... I promised Erika that I wouldn't drink that much too... since we really want to ski the next day? But one beer won't hurt right?
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What memories came rushing back as I reember all to well the Fasching celebration in Feb '66 and '67. I still have the Fasching medals that were presented to us by Herr Engler. I was dressed as Joan Biaz, and others “in throw together get up” One as a boy Scout, another Blond gal in an MP uniform, ----- that got some attention from the brass !!!!! Wonder where that came from? (not me---giggle). And that guy? that wore a deer hide as a Cave man. Still trying to remember who got us back to the barracks later that night/morning? What a lively time! The Hof was vacant when I saw it on my return to the Gaden in '99. When I watch the rerun of “The Band of Brothers, I still sit in awe, as my Uncle was with the 101st and was part of that force that first entered B'gaden and the Hof. Nope he didn't get to much stuff. a raised Beer in memory. Dave
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THERE ARE REALLY NO TRUE ICONS LEFT FROM OUR TIME IN B-GADEN ANY MORE. IT WAS TRULLY SAD TO SEE THE DEMISE OF THE WALKER AND NOW THE HOF, AND EVEN WORSE DURING MY LAST FEW VISITS TO WATCH THE STEADY DECLINE OF THE INSTITUTIONS WHERE WE SHARED SO MANY GREAT TIMES. THANK GOD THE HOBEL BUNK SURVIVES, ALBEIT WITHOUT VERNER AND THE BOOT DRINKING JOHN DAVIS
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It is truely a shame that nobody has ever figured out that with the thousands of people that passed through the doors of AFRC Berchtesgaden and Chiemsee there is that built in market of people that would like to return to that place where they had a great week or week-end, for some the visit to AFRC was the high-light of a two or three year tour in Germany.
Nobody ever figured that out. It doesn't look like anybody ever will. Places that were such a part of history and on the world stage and at the same time were very personal for ... I would guess over a 100,000 from 1945 to 1990 were worth saving. There were cases where dad and grand dad as well as son all holidayed at the same place.
The only place left is Chiemsee and I imagine that it is not destined to be there for long.
Even here we have people that were in Berchtesgaden in the mid 1940's. I'm sure that a little use of the internet and some creative marketing could have made any of those places a profitable opperation. I understand there is a negitive side to the locations from the association with the Third Reich but it could have been pointed out how the Reich was gone and the winners were big enough to not condemn a building just because evil people had once stayed there and now the same place was a source of good fun and friendships that bridged the difference on personal levels that politicians talk about but can never reach and in numbers that no government program has ever achieved.
By the time I was 18 i had moved 21 times so I can feel for Jutta who was lucky enough to have had one home her whole childhood because I know it was tough each times we moved.
I think that all of some how believed that we would be able to go back to the General Walker, Skytop, The Berchtesgadner Hof and show our family and friends the places that we often look back on as one or some of the best times of our slightly wild and perhaps miss-spent youth. Here at this sight we all know how special those places were to us. There are a lot who were the visitors that share some of those same memories. if they all made one trip back to the old stomping grounds and stayed a week end with thier families the locations would have been booked for decades.
There are a lot of stories that we all have about friends and loves, guest and bosses. The buildings can be torn down but the stories will still be there in our minds. the stories are some time true and some times a myth that borders on legend. Of course any thing I tell you is the truth, that is exactly the way it all happened, except for a few lies here and there.
Now there was this time....
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DOCTOR JOHN; UNFORTUNATELY, WERNER SOLD HIS BUSINESS BUT THE NEW OWNER IS PRETTY NICE ABOUT RETURNING GUESTS... I TALKED TO WERNER LAST YEAR AS HE WAS TURNING OVER THE BUSINESS AND HE SAID HE WANTS TO DO SOME TRAVELING....MAYBE HE MIGHT JOIN US IN A REUNION... BUT FROM WHAT I GATHERED FROM ERIKA'S FAMILY AND MY LAST VISIT IN JULY 2005, BERCHTESGADEN HAS CHANGED. GUEST VISIT POPULATIONS ARE NOTHING LIKE WE KNEW THEM. THEY NOW HAVE TO COMPETE WITH SALZBURG, AND THAT ISN'T A COMPETITION SINCE SALZBURG OFFERS SO MUCH MORE. WHAT B'GADEN DOESN'T REALIZE IS WHILE THE AMERICAN'S WERE IN BERCHTESGADEN, WE BROUGHT BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT WITH US, WHEN THEY COMPLAINED ABOUT THOSE “AMIS” WE LAUGHED AT IT. NOW WE ARE GONE AND NOW THE TOWN IS A GHOST TOWN AFTER 9 PM ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. WHAT A SHAME.
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DOCTOR JOHN; UNFORTUNATELY, WERNER SOLD HIS BUSINESS BUT THE NEW OWNER OF THE HOBEL BANK IS PRETTY NICE ABOUT RETURNING GUESTS... I TALKED TO WERNER LAST YEAR AS HE WAS TURNING OVER THE BUSINESS AND HE SAID HE WANTS TO DO SOME TRAVELING....MAYBE HE MIGHT JOIN US IN A REUNION... BUT FROM WHAT I GATHERED FROM ERIKA'S FAMILY AND MY LAST VISIT IN JULY 2005, BERCHTESGADEN HAS CHANGED. GUEST VISIT POPULATIONS ARE NOTHING LIKE WE KNEW THEM. THEY NOW HAVE TO COMPETE WITH SALZBURG, AND THAT ISN'T A COMPETITION SINCE SALZBURG OFFERS SO MUCH MORE. WHAT B'GADEN DOESN'T REALIZE IS WHILE THE AMERICAN'S WERE IN BERCHTESGADEN, WE BROUGHT BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT WITH US, WHEN THEY COMPLAINED ABOUT THOSE “AMIS” WE LAUGHED AT IT. NOW WE ARE GONE AND NOW THE TOWN IS A GHOST TOWN AFTER 9 PM ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. WHAT A SHAME.
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Joe.....so much for the coined phrase: “What happens at the Hof, stays at the Hof!” Sharing the stories even if they border on myths are a fun memory and perhaps with the Hof gone some prior untold stories will surface...I am listening ;o) You made a good point about how many people have fond memories of Berchtesgaden and would have loved to return with their families to show them around.....but near-sighted government officials were too concerned about an ill-perceived notion and did not listen to those in strong support of the preservation of all those buildings. Berchtesgaden is suffering economically as tourism is down and with some common sense planning this could have been avoided and we all could/would have returned and created some new memories!
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That REALLY Sucks. Billy, though I quit drinking in 1989, I will have a bier with you to toast in high regard The Queen of Berchtesgaden. Damn, I guess we all have such great memories of the Hof.
Paul
aka
AFRC Paul
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Thank you Jim for sharing this clip with us all. It is with a heavy heart that I reviewed the destruction. No words can express the sadness that I felt when seeing what had happened to the Hof. Everyone that has been to B'gaden has fantastic memories of the Hof and the great times we had there. I can still see myself and other lifeguards waiting on the front steps of the Hof for the bus to Strub Kaserne over forty years ago. The memories are still vivid and will live on, it hurt to see that the termination of the Hof, but no one can take away our reminiscing of days gone bye. Tschuess. David Oliver
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