Ottenshof – A Restaurant with a Past

This is a postscript to the Wewelsburg walk from earlier in the year. Remember this walk we did through the charming landscape of the Alme valley near the west German city of Paderborn, where we discovered one of the Holy Shrines of the pagan death cult otherwise known as National Socialism?

Ottenshof – A Restaurant with a Nazi Past

Once you are in the area, do not miss a visit to the Ottenshof. This looks like a normal restaurant from the outside …

… although some ornaments are perhaps a little spooky …

… or weirdly reminiscent of something that you may have seen on a bomber jacket worn by a rather scary-looking, bald bloke.

It is only when you look more closely …

… that you  begin to realize that this is, in fact, not a normal restaurant at all.

Hey, I know this guy!

In fact, the Ottenshof was not constructed to serve as a restaurant for ordinary folks but as a community center where the SS men of Heinrich Himmler, the Head of this Nazi gang of storm troopers, were expected to congregate after WWII.

While Wewelsburg may look like an ordinary and somewhat sleepy German village to you, bear in mind that for Himmler, it lay at the centre of the universe and was therefore “pre-destined” to become the capital of his pagan death cult.

This connection explains the taste in interior decoration …

… and detail.

That’s Jonathan Meades by the way, sitting at the table. These photos …

… are screenshots from his excellent TV documentary Jerry Building, available on You Tube to watch.

When we ourselves went to Wewelsburg, we found the gates to the Ottenshof locked – without any explanation, not even a handwritten note attached to the front door, while the signs outside were still advertising that Day’s Special.

Was it because somebody had spontaneously decided to take the day off – or because the ghost of Heinrich Himmler had intervened, determined to guard the secrets of the SS from a couple of sneering Easy Hikers about to enter in a spirit of irreverence and cruel mockery?

That, dear readers, is something I shall leave for you to decide.