Leadership bunker

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Division of the driver's bunker (computer model)

The Führerbunker is the name given to two of the underground air raid shelters in Berlin that Adolf Hitler used as the Führer headquarters during the last weeks of the National Socialist regime in Germany . Hitler committed suicide in Hitler's bunker suicide .

history

Before and during World War II

Location of the Führerbunker (red) in the garden of the Reich Chancellery
1947: Emergency exit (left) and round one-man bunker for the guard, right the garden front of the New Reich Chancellery
Blasted driver's bunker, 1947

From August 1935 to January 1936, a ballroom with an attached winter garden was built in the garden of the (old) Reich Chancellery . The air raid shelter underneath was intended to serve as a private bunker for Hitler. On January 18, 1943, Hitler ordered the construction of a much stronger bunker attached to the air raid shelter. The air raid shelter thus became the pre-bunker of the new main bunker, the work on which began in April 1944.

On January 16, 1945, Hitler returned to Berlin and moved into his living quarters in the Reich Chancellery. These were destroyed in the heavy US air raid on February 3, 1945 . Hitler then moved into the Führerbunker, which until then he had only used to sleep and during the air raids . In the course of the next few weeks, Hitler moved all of his activities to the bunker, which is why his close staff, his adjutants , the Führer Accompanying Command and Martin Bormann were mainly staying there. From March 7, 1945 Eva Braun also lived permanently in the bunker and moved into a room with a dressing room in addition to Hitler's room. One week after the start of the Battle of Berlin , Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his family followed on April 22nd . The minister was given his own room in the main bunker; his wife Magda lived in the front bunker with her six children.

On April 29, 1945, Hitler wrote his political and personal will in the bunker . He then married Eva Braun. On April 30, 1945 both committed suicide in Hitler's living and working space in the bunker. Their corpses were doused with gasoline in front of the emergency exit of the bunker in the garden of the New Reich Chancellery and burned. The next day, on May 1st, Joseph and Magda Goebbels also committed suicide at the emergency exit of the bunker. Before that, the six Goebbels children in their bedroom in the bunker, presumably by their own mother, were first anesthetized and then killed with hydrogen cyanide. The Army Chief of Staff Hans Krebs and the chief adjutant of the OKW Wilhelm Burgdorf poisoned themselves in the map room of the bunker. The head of the Führer's escort command, Franz Schädle , also killed himself in the bunker. In the night from May 1st to May 2nd, the remaining inmates left the bunker, including Martin Bormann. In the morning hours of May 2nd , General Helmuth Weidling , the combat commander of the Wehrmacht for Berlin,  stationed in the Schulenburgring house in Tempelhof , gave the order to cease all combat operations. Thereupon units of the Red Army occupied the abandoned bunker.

After the Second World War

After the Second World War , the Red Army tried to blow up the bunker. The aboveground structures (ventilation towers and emergency exit) and the inner walls of the bunker were badly damaged. In June 1959, the GDR government initiated another attempt at blasting, which was unsuccessful, whereupon the above-ground ruins were covered by a mound of earth. In the course of the new construction of large - slab apartment blocks on the west side of what was then Otto-Grotewohl-Straße (today: Wilhelmstraße ) in 1988/1989, the reinforced concrete ceiling of the main bunker including around half of its outer walls were removed when the site was cleared of rubble and the remaining cavities were filled . The pre-bunker was completely removed. Because of the high dismantling costs, the base plate and parts of the outer walls remained in the ground.

The place where the remains of the bunker are in the ground today is marked with an information board on the corner of Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße and In den Ministergärten , which was set up by the Berliner Unterwelten association shortly before the soccer World Cup on June 8, 2006 prevent the formation of myths . A plaque from the Topography of Terror Foundation commemorates the Reich Chancellery and the bunker on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Vossstrasse . There is now a parking lot in the area of ​​the bunker.

Construction

The floors of the rooms in the bunkers, which are up to eight meters underground, were covered with white stoneware tiles, as is common in bathrooms.

Pre-bunker

The front bunker had a bottom depth of 6.40 meters, a ceiling height of 3.05 meters and internal dimensions of 15.50 meters × 18.50 meters. The floor slab was 2.50 meters thick, the ceiling slab was initially 1.60 meters thick and was reinforced to 2.60 meters in 1944 during the construction of the main bunker, for which the floor of the ballroom was opened. The bunker was largely self-sufficient. It had 23 rooms, including lock rooms with gas-tight steel doors, a diesel generator set of 40 kW and air filters. It also had sanitary facilities and a kitchen.

Main bunker

The main bunker was lower than the front bunker and was entered from here, as well as through the emergency exit that led into the garden of the New Reich Chancellery. Its bottom depth was 8.50 meters. According to various information, the room height was between 2.85 and 3.05 meters, the internal dimensions were 15.50 meters × 18.50 meters. The floor slab was 2.5 meters thick, the ceiling slab was around four meters thick, according to various statements. It was additionally reinforced by steel girders on the underside of the ceiling. The main bunker was largely self-sufficient. It also had 23 rooms, including air locks with gas-tight steel doors, a power generator with a diesel engine and a ventilation system with three air filters.

The main bunker housed Joseph Goebbels, Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler and Rochus Misch , who operated the telephone and telex systems in the bunker. There was also the switchboard and the card room, where a briefing took place every day at 5 p.m.

Known residents

Movies

The events at the end of the Second World War up to the suicides of Hitler, Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels characterize the films The Last Act (1955), Hitler - The Last Ten Days (1973), The Bunker (1981) and The Downfall ( 2004) according to.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Führerbunker  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 46-49 .
  2. ^ Anton Joachimsthaler: Hitler's end. Legends and documents . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0285-5 , p. 72 .
  3. ↑ Ian Kershaw : Hitler. 1936-1945 . 2nd Edition. Stuttgarter Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-421-05132-1 , p. 994 .
  4. ↑ Ian Kershaw: Hitler. 1936-1945 . 2nd Edition. Stuttgarter Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-421-05132-1 , p. 1002-1003 .
  5. ↑ Ian Kershaw: Hitler. 1936-1945 . 2nd Edition. Stuttgarter Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-421-05132-1 , p. 1004 .
  6. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 47 .
  7. ^ Ralf Georg Reuth: Goebbels. A biography . Piper, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-05557-4 , pp. 648 .
  8. ↑ Ian Kershaw: Hitler. 1936-1945 . 2nd Edition. Stuttgarter Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-421-05132-1 , p. 1055-1060 .
  9. ↑ Ian Kershaw: Hitler. 1936-1945 . 2nd Edition. Stuttgarter Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-421-05132-1 , p. 1063-1065 .
  10. ^ Ralf Georg Reuth: Goebbels. A biography . Piper, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-05557-4 , pp. 663-664 .
  11. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 95 .
  12. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 106 .
  13. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 107 .
  14. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 120-125 .
  15. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Myth of the Führerbunker. Hitler's last refuge . 3. Edition. Berlin Story Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-929829-43-3 , pp. 39 .
  16. ↑ Florian Müller-Klug: The "Führerbunker" - data & facts. In: Clio Berlin Blog. February 7, 2016, accessed February 7, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Florian Müller-Klug: The "Führerbunker" - data & facts. In: Clio Berlin Blog. February 7, 2016, accessed February 7, 2016 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 30  '44.9 " N , 13 ° 22' 51.9"  E