Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
Depending on your interests, if you have a car, consider either Dachau or Hitler's Eagles Nest. The latter closes for the season, but I think late September should be OK. I'm not sure whether you would consider these places to be too out of the way or not, but to me they're unique and not really easy to do by public transportation, so my instinct would be to take advantage of the opportunity.
Please allow a direct question: Do several US Americans only think about Nazi history when coming to Germany? The Kehlsteinhaus (what you guys call Eagle's nest) ist 250 km from Augsburg. Dachau is one of the smaller concentration camps and it was a Nazi prison, not a copy of Auschwitz. It is, if one wants to do it, 50 km away from Augsburg.
But honestly, your American fascination for the Nazi area is a bit disturbing for many of us here in Germany. How would the normal middle class US American feel if one would narrow of focus of the United States to slavery crimes, civil war, Guantanamo and the native Indian genocide? The US has so much more and so has Germany: a country with 2000 years of history and culture does not deserve to be limited to 12 years of its 2000 years.
And what fascinates me too: You Americans have a tendency to arrive somewhere with the intention to go on a another day trip traveling 500 km. Why that? There is so much to see in Augsburg and when you want to go somewhere else, Ulm is very close and Munich is very close.