Cult leaders and Child Soldiers

Landsberg am Lech is known for its prison where Adolf Hitler was incarcerated in 1924. During this incarceration, Hitler wrote (dictated) his book 'Mein Kampf' together with Rudolf Hess. His cell, number 7, became part of the Nazi cult and many followers came to visit it during the German Nazi-period. Landsberg am Lech was also known as the town of the Hitler Youth. In the outskirts of this town was a concentration camp where over 30,000 victims were imprisoned under inhuman conditions, resulting in the death of around 14,500 of them. After World War II it was the location for one of the largest displaced person (DP) camps for Jewish refugees and the place of execution for more than 150 war criminals after 1945. On a happier note, Landsberg is also the birthplace of the Nobel laureate Erwin Neher.

Altstadt Schongau

Whether you choose to follow the River Lech or stay on the main road, this stage contains a high concentration of interesting towns, villages and great places to stop and visit. Altstadt Schongau is another one of these places, and you can spendi some time at Schloss Schongau, or take a walk along historisches Münzgebäude, or get lunch and take a break with a cool beverage in the Old Town market square.

Schloss Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau Castle is a 19th-century palace built by King Maximilian II of Bavaria, and was the childhood residence of his son, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The fortress Schwangau was first mentioned in historical records dating from the 12th Century, when it stood high up on a rock on the site of the present 19th-century Neuschwanstein castle. The knights, later counts of Schwangau, were ministerialis of the Welfs.

In 1743 Hohenschwangau was plundered by Austrian troops. King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria sold the castle in 1820, but in 1832 his grandson crown prince Maximilian II of Bavaria, bought it back. In April 1829, he had discovered the historic site during a walking tour and became enthralled with the natural beauty of the surrounding area. Reconstruction of the castle began in February 1833, continuing until 1837, with additions to the structure right up to 1855. Richard Wagner later based his operas Lohengrin of 1848 and Parsifal of 1882, sponsored by Ludwig II who had grown up with these stories at Hohenschwangau.

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and in honour of composer Richard Wagner, Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century historicist palace built on a rugged hill, rising above the village of Hohenschwangau, near Füssen Altstadt. The castle was intended as a private residence for the King until he died in 1886, after which, it was opened to the public. Since then more than 65 million people have visited Neuschwanstein, and it hosts over 1.5 million visitors per year, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

Due to its secluded and strategically unimportant location, the palace survived the destruction of two World Wars. Until 1944, it served as a depot for Nazi plunder that was taken from France by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Institute for the Occupied Territories, a suborganisation of the Nazi Party. The castle was used to catalogue the works of arts. In April 1945, the SS considered blowing up the palace to prevent the building itself and the artwork it contained from falling to the enemy. However, the plan was not executed by the SS-Gruppenführer assigned the task, and at the end of the war the palace was surrendered undamaged to representatives of the Allied occupation forces, who eventually returned the palace to the reconstituted Bavarian state government. Later, the Bavarian Archives used some of the rooms as a provisional store for salvaged archival material, after the premises in Munich had been bombed.

Park the motorcycle and get out into the nature

Jägerhaus is part of the AMERON Neuschwanstein Alpsee Resort & Spa, a group of buildings steeped in tradition which include three Hohenschwangau houses - Alpenrose, Jägerhaus and Lisl - whose history goes back to the time of the royal court. An interesting symbiosis arises with the two new buildings, Galeria and Seehaus, where tradition meets modernity, history meets zeitgeist. If you have some extra 'zeit' and enough 'geist' you could spend a day or two hiking, cycling and/or relaxing in the spa, as there is something for everyone here. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to Neuschwanstein Castle. You could also rent a boat just a stone's throw away from Jägerhaus, and float on the lake for a while, as you take it all in.