Elmau Castle, Germany - Group of Seven leaders will gather from Sunday in a quintessentially German venue handpicked by Chancellor Angela Merkel, a luxury hotel with a fairytale setting and a tumultuous past.
Elmau Castle, nestled in the Bavarian Alps, is a five-star resort that will be transformed into a fortress for the two-day meeting of the club of rich nations.
If the forecast for sunny, hot weather holds, the German leader can look forward to an enchanting backdrop for the meeting that will have on the agenda the world's most pressing crises.
US President Barack Obama has agreed to a village walkabout on Sunday among the feather-capped farmers and dirndl-clad women who make Bavaria famous, complete with a stop for a soft pretzel and frothy beer.
G7 presidents typically choose picture-postcard spots when planning their annual summit, ideally in a remote location that is easier for police to secure than an urban centre. Merkel was no exception.
"We want to show our guests a beautiful corner of Germany and we are meeting in such a place -- it is an important aspect for the success of these type of summits," she said recently.
But Merkel has also said that she picked the spot for the way the castle's proprietors have owned up to its Nazi-era history.
Protestant theologian and philosopher Johannes Mueller built the castle during World War I and when Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, Mueller pledged allegiance to the new Fuehrer although he never joined the Nazi party.
But he openly criticised the Nazis' rabid anti-Semitism as a "disgrace for Germany", according to the hotel's website, which it says led to tight surveillance by the Gestapo.
AFP
