Dokumentation Obersalzberg, supervised by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, is a place of learning and remembrance relating to the history of Obersalzberg and the National Socialist dictatorship. In contrast to comparable institutions the permanent exhibition does not limit itself to the history of the immediate area but links the history of Obersalzberg to the central manifestations of the National Socialist regime. It aims to satisfy the highest academic and scientific standards but addresses primarily the layperson interested in history. Its goal is to inform the visitor in an academically sound but generally understandable way about the historic and historical events that happened here and to offer help in processing this history analytically.

The Dokumentation Obersalzberg fulfils its purpose with a permanent exhibition which is accompanied by special exhibitions, lectures and events as well as a comprehensive education programme. It serves to explain and discuss the National Socialist past. In this way it should be possible to counter old and new right-wing extremism which draws its appeal, especially for young people, from the reactivation of ideological fictions and political slogans of National Socialism.

The bringing together of a research-oriented academic institute and an educational establishment under the shared roof of the Institute of Contemporary History offers the unique opportunity to make accessible the findings of historical research to a wide and international public and to discuss the same in a wide political, social and cultural environment.

 The Obersalzberg Documentation was commissioned by the Free State of Bavaria, conceived and set up by the Institute of Contemporary History and opened on October 20, 1999. In 2005, the Documentation received an extension building with seminar rooms and in 2006, the new exhibition room for rotating exhibitions was set up.