Führerbunker
Template:Foreignchar The Führerbunker (German, literally meaning "shelter for the leader" or "the Führer's shelter") is a common name for a complex of subterranean rooms in Berlin, Germany where Adolf Hitler committed suicide during World War II. The bunker was the 13th and last of Hitler's Führerhauptquartiere or Führer Headquarters (one of the most famous being the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in East Prussia).
There were actually two bunkers that were connected together: the older Vorbunker and the newer Führerbunker. The Führerbunker was located about 8.2 meters beneath the garden of the old Reich Chancellery building at Wilhelmstraße 77, about 120 meters north of the new Chancellery building, which had the address Voßstraße 6. The Vorbunker was located beneath the large hall behind the old Chancellery, which was connected to the new Chancellery. The Führerbunker was located somewhat lower than the Vorbunker and west (or rather west/south-west) of it. The map opposite shows the approximate locations of the two bunkers. The two bunkers were connected via sets of stairs set at right angles (not spiral as some believe).
The complex was protected by approximately four meters of concrete, and about 30 small rooms were distributed over two levels with exits into the main buildings and an emergency exit into the gardens. The complex was built in two distinct phases, one part in 1936 and the other in 1943. The 1943 development was built by the Hochtief company as part of an extensive program of subterranean construction in Berlin begun in 1940. The accommodations for Hitler were in the newer, lower section and by February 1945 had been appointed with high quality furniture taken (or salvaged) from the Chancellery along with several framed oil paintings.
Events in 1945
On 16 January 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker during the Battle for Berlin. He was joined by his senior staff, Martin Bormann, Amie Karkainen, Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels with Magda and their six children who took residence in the upper Vorbunker. Two or three dozen support, medical and administrative staff were also sheltered there. These included Hitler's secretaries (with his favourite, Traudl Junge among them) a nurse named Erna Flegel and telephonist Rochus Misch. Hitler's dog Blondi was also one of the occupants of the underground bunker. Initially, Hitler would often stroll around in the chancellery garden with Blondi until March 1945 when shelling became very common.
The bunker was supplied with large quantities of food and other necessities and by all accounts successfully protected its occupants from the relentless and lethal shelling that went on overhead in the closing days of April 1945. In the final war days, it is said that Hitler still enjoyed several cups of tea per day (10 to 16 cups) even though it was scarcely available. Many witnesses later spoke of the constant droning sound of the underground complex's ventilation system.
Many of the bunker staff left between April 22-23, before Berlin was wholly encircled by Soviet forces. Hitler chose to stay until the end and committed suicide in the bunker by gunshot in his right temple on April 30, 1945 at around 3.30 pm. Joseph and Magda Goebbels poisoned all of their children and committed suicide the next day. Most of the bunker's remaining occupants left within hours thereafter, trying with varying success to break through the lines of the encircling Red Army, which by this time was only a block or two away in any direction. Few people remained in the bunker, and they were subsequently captured by Soviet troops on May 2. Soviet intelligence operatives investigating the complex found more than a dozen bodies (the persons had apparently committed suicide) along with the cinders of many burned papers and documents.
Post-war events
The ruins of both the old and new Chancellery buildings were levelled by the Soviets between 1945-49 but the bunker largely survived, although some areas were partially flooded. In 1947 the Soviets tried to blow up the bunker but only the separation walls were damaged. In 1959 the East German government also tried to blast the bunker, apparently without much effect. Since it was near the Berlin Wall, the site was undeveloped and neglected until after reunification. During the construction of residential housing and other buildings on the site in 1988-89 several underground sections of the old bunker were uncovered by work crews and were for the most part destroyed.
The former Chancellery was situated at the corner of Wilhelmstraße and Voßstraße. Other parts of the Chancellery underground complex were uncovered during extensive construction work in the 1990s, but these were ignored, filled in or quickly resealed. In 1990 the bunker was reopened and photographs were taken of it.
Since 1945 government authorities have been consistently concerned about the site of the bunker evolving into a Neo-Nazi shrine. The strategy for avoiding this has largely been to ensure the surroundings remain anonymous and unremarkable. However, many feel this is simply erasing the past and ignoring the fact that it is essentially the most famous war bunker in history. In 2005 the location of the bunker was not marked in any way. The immediate area was occupied by a small Chinese restaurant and shopping mall while the emergency exit point for the bunker (which had been in the Chancellery gardens) was occupied by a car park.
On June 8, 2006 a small plaque was installed with a schematic of the bunker to mark the location. The telephonist Rochus Misch, apparently one of the last persons living who was in the bunker at the time of Hitler's suicide, was on hand for the ceremony.
On film and television
Dramatizations
- The 2004 German film Der Untergang (The Downfall) is largely set in and around the Führerbunker, with director Oliver Hirschbiegel trying to accurately reconstruct the actual look and atmosphere within as best he could through eyewitness accounts, various survivors' memoirs, and other verified sources.
- Hitler: The Last Ten Days is a 1973 feature film directed by Ennio De Concini and starring Alec Guinness in the title role.
- The Bunker is a 1981 made-for-television film directed by George Schaefer. Anthony Hopkins won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Hitler.
Documentaries
- Adolf Hitler's Last Days, from the BBC series "Secrets of World War II" recounts the story of Hitler's last days.
- The World at War (1974) is a Thames Television series which contains much information about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, including an interview with his secretary, Traudl Junge, about the very end in the bunker.
- Unsolved History: Hitler's Bunker, (2002), from the Discovery Channel's series, Unsolved History, historians digitally reconstruct the entire bunker as it existed more than 50 years ago using authentic period photographs, samples of paint, state-of-the-art mapping techniques and the original schematics.
Sources
- Beevor, Antony, Berlin - The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2004
- Fest, Joachim, Inside Hitler's Bunker : The Last Days of the Third Reich, ISBN 0374135770
- O'Donnell, James, The Bunker, Da Capo Press, reprint 2001, (orig. pub. 1978). ISBN 0306809583
- Redwald Trevor-Roper, Hugh, The Last Days of Hitler, University Of Chicago Press, paperback edition 1992 (orig. pub. 1947). ISBN 0226812243
- Ryan, Cornelius, The Last Battle, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966
- After the Battle, No.61 Special Edition, Battle of Britain International Ltd, 1988, London
- Allied Intelligence Map of Key Buildings in Berlin (Third Edition, 1945)
- Junge, Traudl, Until the final hour, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003
- Boldt, Gerhard, Hitler: The Last Ten Days, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973
- Fest, Joachim, Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich, Picador, 2005
- Guido, Pietro, " Fuehrerbunker- Discovered its mysteries", Editions ISEM (Fourth Edition, 2006), Milan. ISBN 8887077037
External links
- [1] Führerbunker-Discovered its mysteries-Fourth Edition, 2006
- Washington Post: The Death of Hitler (book excerpt)
- The Führerbunker 3D
- The Fuehrerbunker: Info and Plans
- The Who-Is-Who of the Bunker The Bunker Personnel
- Scott Shuger, Donald Berger (June 21, 2006). "Hitler Slept Here. The too-secret history of the Third Reich's most famous place". Slate.