Berchtesgaden gave rise to "Malereck" ("painters' corner") on the shore of Königssee in nearby Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden. The most famous author who lived in Berchtesgaden was Ludwig Ganghofer. Adolf Hitler had been vacationing in the Berchtesgaden area since the 1920s. He purchased a home in the Obersalzberg above the town on the flank of the Hoher Goll and began extensive renovations on his "Berghof" in the following years. As other top Third Reich figures such as Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler and Albert Speer began to frequent the area the Party began to purchase and requisition land in
Fortified Sector of the Lower Rhine March 1940, also known as the Strasbourg Division. At this time the Herrlisheim sub-sector passed to the control of the neighboring Fortified Sector of Haguenau. At the midpoint of the Battle of France on 1 June 1940, the fortress troops of the 103rd DIF amounted to two fortress infantry regiments in four battalions plus one regular infantry regiment with three battalions, comprising 485 officers and 15,500 men. The sector includes the following major fortified positions. The casemates were generally about apart, with gaps in areas of marshy ground or old sections of the Rhine. 172nd Fortress Infantry Regiment ("172 Régiment