Edelweiss Lodge and Resort

Edelweiss Lodge and Resort is a U.S. Department of Defense owned recreation hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Located in the Bavarian Alps near the Austrian border, the facility opened in September 2004 at a cost of $80 million.

Edelweiss Lodge and Resort was built to replace a series of older Armed Forces Recreation Center (AFRC) hotels (such as the now-demolished General Walker Hotel in Obersalzberg). The hotel and its facilities are open to U.S. military members, including U.S. military retirees, U.S. National Guardsmen, U.S. military reservists, honorably discharged veterans with 100 percent Service-connected disability, Department of Defense civilian employees stationed overseas, and foreign military members stationed at U.S. military installations and their family members. The resort also offers special discounts to troops who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their family members.

History
Following the conclusion of the Second World War in Europe, a number of formerly German military hotels and resort complexes were taken over by the United States Army and put into use as R&R centers for the benefit of the soldiers stationed there. While these older hotels served this purpose well for many years, they also became expensive to continue to maintain. In the spring of 2000, the U.S. Army and members of the United States Congress approved plans to construct a modern resort hotel in the Bavarian resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Upon completion of the new hotel, AFRC-Europe closed AFRC-Chiemsee (Seehotel was a former Reichsautobahn Rest area "Rasthaus am Chiemsee" from Nazi times ) and the General Patton Hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and consolidated the remaining AFRC facilities in Garmisch-Partenkirchen under the new Edelweiss Lodge and Resort.

Facilities
The hotel features 246 rooms and suites, a conference center, three restaurants with a variety of American and German dishes, and a fitness center including sauna and pool. The Edelweiss Lodge and Resort also operates the Hausberg Sport Lodge, a ski rental facility and ski school located next to the cable car station at the base of the Hausberg mountain.

The Edelweiss Lodge also operates the Edelweiss Vacation Village and Campground, located in the western part of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, on the nearby Artillery Kaserne. These facilities feature rustic cabins and a campground in the Loisach River Valley.

On a daily basis the Edelweiss lodge organizes a multitude of excursions, ranging from the Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich to Sterzing, Italy.

Staff
The Edelweiss Lodge and Resort employs US citizen and local national hospitality staff. Positions at the Edelweiss Resort range from housekeeping and custodial jobs to ski instructors and outdoor guides. The staff of Edelweiss Lodge is employed by United States Department of Defense, which operates the lodge. US employees are typically American civilians who are recruited from the United States by the hotel's director of operations. US employees receive free airfare between America and Germany, provided that they fulfill the terms of their contracts, which are valid for a minimum period of thirteen months. They live in dorm-style housing in the main Edelweiss Lodge and Resort building. After employees have worked a contract at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, they can extend their contract or begin a new contract again.