 1 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 This morning we travel 21 kms to Bad Wiesee on the Tegernsee. Bad Wiesee was the location of a time in history called The night of the long knives and I was very interested to see where these events took place. |
 2 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Bad Wiessee is a town on the Tegernsee, a lake formed by glacial activity about 18,000 years ago. |
 3 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 The lake is owned by the Free State of Bavaria and managed by the Bavarian Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes jurisdiction. In contrast to many other Bavarian lakes, the shores of the Tegernsee are almost completely open to the public. |
 4 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 This run-down looking hotel, the Hotel Lederer (previously called the Hanselbauer), is where on On June 30, 1934, Hitler and the Schutzstaffel (SS) purged the leadership of the Sturmabteilung (SA), most of whom were staying at the resort. |
 5 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 The SA played a key role in Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 30s but the army saw the SA as more powerful than itself. The SA was out of control, had become a threat to Hitler's hold on power and, aided by some dubious evidence of a forthcoming putsch, Hitler decided to kill the SA's leaders. |
 6 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 On June 28 1934, Hitler phoned SA Leader Ernst Röhm. and asked him to gather all the SA leaders at Bad Wiessee on June 30 for a conference. Röhm agreed, apparently not suspicious. That night, the SS arrested eighty five SA officials and Hitler personally arrested Röhm . |
 7 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Except for Röhm, all were killed over the next few days. The names of eighty-five victims are known but estimates place the total number killed at between 150 and 200 persons because Hitler used this as an opportunity to kill old enemies and others who did not support the Nazi regime. |
 8 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Röhm was taken to Stadelheim Prison and, on 2 July 1934, given a gun with one bullet in it and told to kill himself. He had 10 minutes to decide. The SS returned to Röhm's cell and he had not killed himself so they did it for him. |
 9 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 The purge of the SA was legalised with a one-paragraph decree: the Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence. The law was the modern day equivalent of the "Patriot Act" in that it legalised extra-judicial killings and set the head of state above the law. |
 10 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 A few days later, Hitler announced the claim of an SA rebellion, the Röhm-Putsch, and this became the official reason for the arrests and executions. Two weeks later, in a speech on July 13, 1934, Hitler alluded to Röhm's homosexuality and explained the purge as chiefly a defence against treason. |
 11 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Almost unanimously, the army applauded the Night of the Long Knives. The ailing President Hindenburg sent a telegram expressing his "profoundly felt gratitude" and he congratulated Hitler for "nipping treason in the bud". |
 12 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 The Night of the Long Knives was a triumph for Hitler and a turning point for the Nazi government as it established Hitler as "the supreme judge of the German people". |
 13 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 In April 1942, Hitler formally adopted the title "Fuhrer", thus placing himself de jure as well as de facto above the reach of the law. Centuries of jurisprudence proscribing extra-judicial killings were swept aside. |
 14 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 While many in Germany were shocked by the killings, others saw Hitler as the one who restored order to the country because the SA had become a 3,000,000 strong organisation of lawless, bullying thugs. |
 15 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Look at Bad Wiessee now - could a more pleasant place ever exist? |
 16 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Interestingly, there is nothing to remind visitors of the historic role that Bad Wiessee played in establishing a total dictatorship. Modern Germans, understandably, have no desire to erect shrines or memorials to the "Night of the Long Knives". |
 17 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Nowadays, Bad Wiessee is a pleasant tourist spot only 50 kms from Munich. |
 18 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 On the lake you can ride on a tourist boat. We intended to do this some time later. |
 19 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 The Hanselbauer Hotel is hidden by the trees on a glorious promontory. The hotel is in disrepair and a sign on the building said that it was owned by an investment company which, no doubt, intends to build a modern resort in its place. There will be no tears shed with its passing. April 2020: I wondered what had happened to the Hanselbauer so I looked it up on Google maps. Answer: nothing. The hotel is still there and it looks like a deserted building site. |
 20 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 A tourist boat waits at the wharf ready for tourists to soak up the scenic wonders of the Tergernsee. |
 21 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 We have been invited to lunch with Dani Barrett's parents Rolf and Maria Beibl who live in Neufahrn 40 kms away. We got there a little before 12:00 but Rolf arrived a little after and apologised for being late. Very funny. |
 22 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Maria and Rolf greet us warmly and after some pleasantries, serve the first course. During lunch we talk about my predicament: my hospitalisation in Munich next Monday. Rolf gets on the phone to Dani Barrett's sisters, Sabine and Brigitte, to find out what they can do to help. |
 23 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 I spoke with Sabine who helped me get my thoughts in order. During our conversation she apologised for her "poor English" while simultaneously I was thinking how good it was. This modesty turned out to be characteristic of the people we met in Germany. Whenever anyone replied "A little" when asked if they spoke English, it usually meant that they were fluent and spoke it as least as well as we did. |
 24 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Maria is much younger than Rolf, about the same difference as me and my bride. |
 25 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Maria speaks as much English as I speak German - well maybe more than that. |
 26 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 After lunch, Rolf and I went into his workshop in the nearby town of Egling. This is an AJS 350 that he had recently bought in England. It was in perfect condition and even the alloy castings were undamaged. |
 27 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 Rolf built this house with his own hands; he is very clever. As is usual in Germany, the roof space is used. |
 28 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 That night, back at the farm, we spoke with Dani's sister Brigitte who pointed out that should complications arise with the operation, things would get messy. She advised me to see if the operation could be postponed until we returned to Australia. |
 29 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 To find out if I could postpone the operation, I would need to return to the Augenklinik and discuss it with the doctor. Brigitte offered to make the appointment for me and for her husband Martin to meet me at the klinik in case there was a language problem. |
 30 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 I wrote a list of five questions to ask the Doctor at the Augenklinik and Jenni contacted the insurance company expecting the worst (but they were great). Dani Barrett was going to kick down the insurance company's doors down if they gave us any trouble so it was just as well for them. |
 31 Tuesday 22 June, 2010 We changed our trip plan to one based on a worst-case scenario. Jenni then phoned Michele and Claus to tell them what had happened with my eye and of our change of plans. With hope restored, I went to bed in a much better frame of mind. Next stop: Tegelberg and Blomberg mountains |
