Trip to Germany: Amid great beauty lie the seeds of a horrible ugliness

This is a look back at the restaurant that occupies Eagle's Nest, Adolf Hitler's mountaintop retreat in Bavaria during World War II. Image by Del Stone Jr.

A river runs through the little town of Bertchesgaden, Germany – a clear, blue ribbon of foam, as pretty as a river can be.

The river tumbles down from mountains that ring the village like a crown reaching into the sky. Granite peaks are softened by forest and meadow and wildflower.

Everywhere is a picture postcard vista, so breathtaking your heart aches to look. River, sky, mountain, all done up in pure, unsullied beauty.

Surely this must be heaven.

Unbelievably, this once was hell.

Because atop one of these lovely peaks is a single house, inconspicuous as a single cell of cancer.

The house is called Eagle’s Nest. It is the old mountain redoubt of Adolf Hitler, chancellor of the Third Reich, would-be master of the world, and murderer of millions.

Such monstrous ugliness, juxtaposed with such stark beauty, is hard to conceive. Yet at this very spot, Hitler formulated his plans for genocide. No sane person could resist the charms of Bavaria. Hitler’s apparent immunity makes him all the more horribly alien.

Some day, you must see Eagle’s Nest.

A convoy of tour buses leaves a depot in town, every hour and darn well on the hour, to ferry tourists up the mountain. It is a trip riders are happy to leave to drivers.

The diesel engine strains as the bus labors up the steep grade. A narrow switchback cuts through a forest of evergreen before emerging onto the mountain’s rocky flank.

There, the ride becomes more perilous, almost hair-raising, as the bus negotiates curves that send its riders swinging out over the edge and staring into chasms of rocky spires and spiky trees whittled to nothing by arid wind and soil.

A huge landing has been carved from the mountain, and there you disembark to walk through a dank, freezing tunnel, along the same path taken by Hitler’s Mercedes 60 years ago.

You wait in line for an elevator, which takes you through the mountain to Eagle’s Nest.

It is now a restaurant, with the mandatory patio café. Just off the café is a kiosk that sells film and postcards. You’ll want both.

Because the view is nothing short of spectacular. From Eagle’s Nest, you can see Austria. You can see Australia, for that matter. The entire Earth seems laid out before you, spreading in a gauzy quilt of green plains, pearly rivers, icy-cold lakes and the slate fangs of mountains.

On a rise above the patio, a cross has been erected to memorialize all the victims of World War II. Above that, rocks offer a more adrenaline-inducing perspective on the chasms and cliffs around you.

Below and all around are steeply banks meadows sprinkled with gorgeous flowers that waggle in the cool wind as they suck in all that warm mountain sunshine.

Gazing out over all this, you think of peace, and serenity. Not Stukas and gas chambers.

You appreciate the miracle of creation, not the horror of destruction.

If you come here, you will learn that even within the grasp of fantastic beauty, seeds of unknowable ugliness may sprout and take root.

It is a lesson you must never, ever forget.

This column was published in the Sept. 24, 1997 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.

About the author:

Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”

Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.

As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.

Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .