Hotel planned for Hitler site

The site became a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis

A hotel and golf course are to be built in the Bavarian mountains of southern Germany, on the site where Adolf Hitler had his wartime command centre.

Most of the buildings of the centre, near the town of Berchtesgaden, were razed to the ground after the war.

Hitler planned his invasion of the Soviet Union from the retreat

But in recent years the site has become a place of pilgrimage where neo-Nazis gather to celebrate Hitler's birthday.

The American company behind the project, Interconti, is reported to have pledged that it will no longer allow what it calls Nazi tourism there.

Hitler is said to have planned Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union from the retreat.

But allied bombers destroyed Hitler's chalet, the Berghof, in the final days of World War II.

US forces used the grounds as a leisure complex until their withdrawal in 1995.

Bunker site

Earlier in the week, the French news agency AFP reported that the vacant lot over Hitler's former bunker in Berlin could be acquired by a Jewish organisation.

The Claims Conference, which represents Jewish victims of Nazi Germany, was awarded the land by a Berlin court in April on behalf of the Wertheim family, owners of department stores in Berlin whose assets were seized by the Nazis.

But the German Government launched an appeal against the decision in May. The KarstadtQuelle AG firm, which acquired some Wertheim assets in 1950, has also made a claim to the land.

Though the appeal was described by a spokesman as a formality in restitution cases, the Claims Conference is still waiting for a final decision on the property.

The Claims Conference and Karstadt both asked for the land, which was in communist East Berlin until 1989, after the reunification of Germany.