Kalhammer, Elisabeth “Lisbeth” “Lizzie”,then still Elisabeth Marchtrenkerin, born 17-12-1924 in Vienna 
to Martin Kalhammer (1895-1960) and his wife Maria Kalhammer (1894-1980), Elisabeth had one brother Andreas (1921-1993). Elisabeth became part of Hitler’s inner circle when she started working for him at the Berghof in Bavaria, Germany.
At the beginning of the 1940s, Elisabeth Kalhammer read a job advertisement in a newspaper looking for a housemaid for the Berghof on the Obersalzberg. The Austrian applied for the job without knowing that she would be working for Adolf Hitler personally. Although her mother begged her not to take the job, Elisabeth Kalhammer decided to go into Hitler’s service. The employment office also strongly advised the young woman to accept the job. Her experiences during this tumultuous period provide a unique perspective on one of history’s most notorious figures.
Kalhammer’s life changed dramatically with the onset of World War II and her subsequent employment in the Führer’s residence. She witnessed firsthand the daily routines and the atmosphere surrounding Hitler, from mundane tasks to the chilling realities of life within the Nazi regime. 
In interviews after the war, she described both her fear of Hitler and her efforts to maintain a semblance of normalcy amidst the chaos of wartime. She did not know that her employer would be Hitler. Her mother had asked her not to take the job but the teenage Elisabeth felt she could not turn it down and the Reich’s employment office told her she should be grateful for the work. He loved sweet things. And Eva Braun
was our best friend. ‘I felt queasy when I arrived,’ Mrs Kalhammer told the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper. On her first day she passed through three SS guard posts.
She now has broken her silence after 71 years to reveal what life was like at the Berghof when the Nazi dictator was in residence. Mrs Kalhammer, 89, says that Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun whom staff greeted with a ‘Heil M’lady’ – ran the house. All the maids knew Hitler had trouble with his spleen and kept to a strict diet devised by a personal cook.
‘The house was often full of guests and the Fuhrer was just suddenly there,’ she said. She soon realised that ‘I was allowed to think but not to speak’ while in his presence, nor was she or the others to gossip about him – although naturally they did. From the beginning, Elisabeth was warned that anyone revealing details about the Berghof would face strict punishment. She was one of 22 girls in service and was often in Hitler’s presence although she never talked to him – he allowed only long-serving staff to approach him and to enter his private rooms. She worked in the laundry and sewing rooms, did the cleaning and made the tea which Hitler liked to drink from a Nymphenburg porcelain cup. 
Once she broke a cup and was punished by losing several of her days off. Conditions at the Berghof were in stark contrast to those faced by ordinary Germans and Austrians.
While Elisabeth’s family had little to eat, the maids enjoyed freshly pressed apple juice and had plenty of food. Eva Braun ‘was always good to me. She behaved like the lady of the house, even though she was not married. She designed our uniforms. For Christmas she presented me with wool, to knit socks for the men on the front.’
As far as his closest aides were aware, Hitler kept to a strict healthy diet and drank only lukewarm water. But Adolf Hitler would regularly stave off attacks of midnight munchies by tucking into specially made ‘Fuhrer Cake’ and other gooey treats. A ‘Fuhrer Cake’ – an apple cake strewn with nuts and raisins – had to be baked each day and left out every night for him to raid like a naughty schoolboy as the rest of the household slept. 
He would raid the kitchen after staying up late talking to guests and rarely get up before 2pm, according to a maid who worked at his mountain retreat in Bavaria. She recalls the luxurious dinners at the mansion which were attended by the officials of the Nazi regime, including Air Force Commander, Hermann Göring, 
and minister of armaments, Albert Speer. 
“We were sitting in the kitchen and ate their leftovers. I never tasted food so delicious”.
Hitler was obsessed with movies and had a private cinema at the Berghof. The maids were allowed to use the cinema when a propaganda film starring actress Marika Rökk
was shown. Braun was ‘spellbound’ by Rökk, she said.
Elisabeth’s family is modest and proud of their lives, living in the Upper Salzberg and living in the Upper Fluss. For all Eva Braun, Hitler’s Love, they are prepared for their organization in their personal home: These services are designed to be fresh and safe. I always remember Elisabeth Kalhammer, who was born in Upper Salzburg when Lisbeth was born, and she was positive about Eva Braun: An elegant lady who lived there, after the new fashion clothes and always friendly, so that the seniors lived in Salzburger Nachrichten. From the Housemädchen ließ ich Eva Braun with “Heil, grnädiges Fräulein” ansprechen.
Lisbeth Kalhammer is not ashamed to admit that at the time she was proud to be in Hitler’s service. “When we went for coffee people would look at us and say: “look! The Berghof girls are sitting there”, we were admired”. If she had the chance she would probably do it all over again. “This was the time and I was young. I was privileged to be there and to see all these people. I felt proud. But that doesn’t mean that I was proud about the other things. I didn’t understand it at all at the time”.
But the mood changed in July 1944, following a failed assassination attempt 
against Hitler by the army officer, Oberst Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg 
Elisabeth worked on at the Berghof until almost to the end of the war, when it was evacuated and bombed in an Allied air raid. 
Lisbeth told us how she fled the place in the middle of the night.
Death and burial ground of Kalhammer, Elisabeth “Lisbeth” “Lizzie”
Lisbeth Kalhammer is not ashamed to admit that at the time she was proud to be in Hitler’s service 
. She died 24-03-2022, age 97 in Maxglan Salzburg Austria and is buried at Friedhof Salzburg Maxglan, Salzburg Stadt, Salzburg, Austria, Siezenheimer Str. 9, 5020 Salzburg. Section Group 330, Row 4, Ord 4, No. 12.
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