Hitlers chief architect, Albert Speer kept a design studio in a valley that featured a giant luxury hotel on the overlooking ridge calledthe Platterhof. William Vandivert/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images. Inside Hitler's Bunker: Directed by Gavin Hodge. Exploring the Secret Nazi Tunnels Under a German Vacation Town. War and Conflict, World War 2, Berlin, Germany, pic: July 1945, British and Russian soldiers meet up at the entrance to Adolf Hitler's air raid. Keith is the former Senior Director of Research and History in the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum. Towards the end of World War II, the battles were being fought with massive casualties and destruction in the streets of Berlin. Found during the dig were two hats identified as Hitler's, an undergarment with Braun's initials, and some reports to Hitler from Goebbels. (Photo: Luke Spencer). 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The Allied victory against the Axis was a long journeyone that actually took much longer than the war itself. It would serve as a deft reminder of what happened and would have been made a fantastic museum, similar to Churchills war rooms in London. [52] The last defenders in the area of the bunker complex were mainly made up of Frenchmen of the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne, others being Waffen-SS from the remnants of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, Latvian SS and Spanish SS units. For his 50th birthday, an even more impressive house was built for Hitler, this time soaring 6,000 feet high on the Kehlsteinhaus, above the Berghof. From the edges of the door frame comes a chilling cold breeze. The elaborate complex consisted of two separate shelters, the Vorbunker ("forward bunker"; the upper bunker), completed in 1936, and the Fhrerbunker, located 2.5 metres (8.2ft) lower than the Vorbunker and to the west-southwest, completed in 1944. [50] Goebbels' SS adjutant Gnther Schwgermann testified in 1948 that the couple walked ahead of him up the stairs and out to the Chancellery garden. Watch our video to see what he found down there. Called the Berghof and completed in 1935, Hitlers Alpine home was as imposing as it was luxurious, dominated with giant 25-foot picture window which looked onto the mountains of his native Austria. The Reich Chancellery and the above-ground portions of the bunker (a smokestack, a guardhouse, and a single exit) were demolished in 1947 and never rebuilt. 2023 BBC. He just smiled and turned our conversation to Mommsens History of Rome, which I understood to be his poetic way of implying that everything passes. (Photo: American soldiers at Berchtesgaden toast victory. In typed notes that William Vandivert sent to LIFEs New York offices after getting to Berlin, he described his intense, harried visit to Hitlers bunker: These pix were made in the dark with only candle for illumination Our small party of four beat all rest of mob who came down about forty minutes after we got there. Above: A 16th century painting reportedly stolen from a Milan museum. I knew that one man had been to the site several times before when doing business in Berlin over the years, but was still a little surprised when he decided to stay at the hotel. Take a look inside Hitler's bunker below. Hitler spent around a third of his time in power at the Berghof, entertaining such luminaries as David Lloyd George, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Mussolini and Neville Chamberlain. Before that, he served with courage in WWI. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Rochus Misch, one of the last people living who was in the bunker at the time of Hitler's suicide, was on hand for the ceremony. Martin Bormann, Hitlers private secretary and head of the Party Chancellery, was in charge of the project, which entailed clearing Obersalzberg of the farms, inns and hotels that had catered to generations of holiday makers. Abandoned furniture and debris inside Adolf Hitlers bunker, Berlin, 1945. [18] Afterwards, he would have tea with his secretaries before returning to the bunker complex for the night. G/Geschichte - 2005 Propaganda und Film im "Dritten Reich" - Wolf Donner 1995 Umstrittene Vergangenheit - Wolfgang Wippermann 1998 Wohin treibt die Europische Union? Field Marshal von Greim was ordered to get the Luftwaffe to attack the Soviet forces that had just reached Potsdamer Platz, only a city block from the Fhrerbunker. The book also contains new introduction by Roger Moorhouse. An American soldier, PFC Douglas Page, offered a mocking Nazi salute inside the bombed-out ruins of the Berliner Sportspalast, or Sport Palace. Most historians are now quite certain that Braun committed suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule, rather than by gunshotmeaning the bloodstains on the couch might well be Hitlers, after all. (Photo: Luke Spencer). [24], Hitler was in denial about the dire situation and placed his hopes on the units commanded by Waffen-SS General Felix Steiner, the Armeeabteilung Steiner ("Army Detachment Steiner"). And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: On January 16, 1945, Adolf Hitler took up residence at the Fhrerbunker, making it his final headquarters, and bringing the Nazi regime's command center to the cold, underground structure. Initially, Hitler continued to use the undamaged wing of the Reich Chancellery, where he held afternoon military conferences in his large study. Krebs did not have the authority to surrender, so he returned to the bunker. Hitler never actually spent much time in the German capital during the war, but the bunker would prove to be useful in the war's last few months. The site of the Fuhrerbunker today is an unremarkable area, marked only by a single sign, not installed until 2006 that contains info about the bunker. In his underground offices, Adolf Hitler ate, slept, held military briefings, married Eva Braun, and killed himself. 243K views 1 year ago During the closing stages of the Battle of Berlin, Adolf Hitler would decide to remain in the German capital until his final days. . The Reich Chancellery and the above-ground . The first was a temporary shelter built for Hitler and his staff in 1936 as part of a project that also called for the creation of a large reception hall for the old chancellery. I did not know if the other man had ever visited the Fuhrer bunker before, but at the site I watched as he walked around the parking lot and perimeter of the site, alone in his thoughts. For four months he would hide out there, giving orders and taking meetings in the highly reinforced, entirely self-contained complex. David Crossland. A US soldier inside the burnt-out bunker after Hitler's suicide in 1945. A bullet-riddled sentry pillbox outside Hitlers bunker, Berlin, 1945. A box of papers sits on a table in the bunker. Beginning around 1936, the leading figures in the Nazi party began building similarly grandiose homes near Hitler. Secondly of time intended to attack. Keitel promised to exert the utmost pressure on Generals Walther Wenck, commander of the Twelfth Army, and Theodor Busse, commander of the Ninth Army. Hundreds of thousands perished in the Battle of Berlinincluding untold numbers of civilian men, women and childrenwhile countless more were left homeless amid the ruins. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 Hitler spent the last phase of World War Two stuck inside a bunker, as recreated here in a Nazi-era air raid shelter in Berlin. By the time of his appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler had earned roughly 1.2 million Reichsmarks in royalties from his book (the average annual income of a teacher in 1933 was around 4,000 marks). Despite bombings and secrecy, the bunker remains. Thousands of people were left homeless and every famous building in Berlin was left in shambles. The authoritites obviously decided not to make a big deal of the sites location due to its morbid history and for fears of making the site a memorial spot to the Fuhrer. The Luftwaffe order differs in different sources. The bunker, as seen in this model, had 30 rooms. Deep in the woods of Ktrzyn, Poland, lies the crumbling remains of Adolf Hitler's secret outpost, the Wolf's Lair. Together they have been providing fascinating in depth tours that include not just the Eagles Nest, but the whole incredible secret history of Obersalzberg. [66], Government authorities wanted to destroy the last vestiges of these Nazi landmarks. Other parts of the Chancellery underground complex were uncovered, but these were ignored, filled in, or resealed. Climbing down the steep incline from the ruins of the Berghof, you can find the steel and concrete entrance into Hitlers bunker system. Hilter and wife Eva Braun killed themselves in the bunker on April 30 1945. [51][f], At 01:00, the Soviet forces picked up a radio message from the LVI Panzer Corps requesting a cease-fire. Although part of Germany, Bavaria maintained an independent army. The Fhrerbunker development was built by the Hochtief company as part of an extensive programme of subterranean construction in Berlin begun in 1940. Further down into the heart of the mountain is a room with the tiled remains of a bathtub. [38] Johannes Hentschel, the master electro-mechanic for the bunker complex, stayed after everyone else had either left or committed suicide, as the field hospital in the Reich Chancellery above needed power and water. The tee-totaling, vegetarian Hitler had a quiet last lunch, shook hands with the remaining staff, and that afternoon committed suicide with his wife on a couch in his private sitting room. Getty Images In 1945, Soviet soldiers posed at Hitler's alleged makeshift grave in war-ravaged Berlin. 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