Hitler’s Bunker

Hitler returned to Berlin after the failed Ardenner offensive in mid-January 1945. At that time Berlin had for years been affected by heavy allied bombing raids and Hitler was forced to seek shelter daily after his retrun to Berlinn. Because of these frequent bombings, Hitler decided to move into the bunker permanently sometime in late February or early March 1945. Already in 1935, a bunker was built under the bank hall adjacent to the old Reich Chancellery. The fact that a bunker was built shows that Hitler already in 1935 knew he couldn’t rule out future bombings of Berlin. At the beginning of 1943, another bunker was built adjacent to the first one. The new bunker was about nine meters below ground level and was thus about two meters deeper than the old one. It was reinforced with a 4.5 meter thick concrete roof and 3.5 meter thick walls. Both bunkers were linked together via a staircase. The new BUnker had a length of just over fifteen meters and a width of just under twenty meters and had nineteen small rooms. The new bunker was called the main bunker while the old one was called the ante bunker. Together they formed what is known as the Führer bunker (Hitler’s Bunker).

Rooms in both ante bunker and main bunker were small and sparingly decorated because their original purpose was not accommodation. But in the absence of other safe places corresponding to the circumstances, the main bunker was Hitler’s and his fiancee Eva Braun’s last refuge. Eva Braun had come from Obersalzberg and moved into the bunker against Hitler’s will on March 7, 1945. On the south side of the corridor in the main bunker, Hitler and Eva Braun had their own rooms with their own bedrooms and bathrooms. Hitler also had a small living room, reception room and meeting room. On the north side, Goebbels had his bedroom and study. There was also something called the doctor’s room and a couple of guard rooms. When Goebbels family moved into the bunker, they were housed in the ante bunker and it was also there that the couple’s six children were murdered by their mother, Goebbel’s wife, Magda Goebbels. Only on a few occasions did Hitler leave the bunker and then only for a short while. In addition to the Führer bunker, several more shelters and bunkers were built in connection with the government quarters of other ministries. These were not linked to the Führer bunker.

The Soviet Red Army launched its final assault on Berlin, April 16, 1945, (the same day Lenin would have turned 75) with a huge bombardment. From then up til Hitler’s suicide, April 30th, life for the inhabitants in the bunker shifted between hope and despair. The difference between night and day was erased and the topics of conversation varied from how best way to commit suicide to the latest fashion. Hitler himself oscillates between melancholy and rage. Eva Braun had also decided that she too would stay in Berlin and face the same fate as Hitler. Hitler’s attempts to induce her to travel down to Obersalzberg were ignored. They married on April 29 in tragic and bizarre circumstances and a small wedding dinner was held. After that, Hitler withdrew to dictate his political and private testament. The next day, the newlyweds committed a joint suicide in Hitler’s living room and their bodies were cremated in the Reich Chancellery garden.

Hitler’s remains was found by the Russians on May 4. It did not take long to identify the bodies but the Russians found no reason to publish the findings. The Russians denied all knowledge of the findings and instead spread rumors that Hitler could very well have fled to the west. In fact, the remains, along with the remains of the spouses Goebbels, their children and General Hans Krebs, had been buried in a wooded area outside Rathenow west of Berlin in early June 1945. In February 1946, the bodies were dug up and transported to Magdeburg where they were buried in a safer area. They remained there until 1970 when they were again dug up, cremated and the ashes were spread in a nearby river.

After the war, the area around the bunker became a tourist destination for Westerners. Therefore, the Soviet Union tried to destroy the bunker for the first time in 1947, but they only managed to partially destroy it. This is because of the bunker’s massive construction. In 1959, East Germany tried to demolish it, but they also failed and the area was covered with excavated masses. In connection with the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the entire bunker area was examined as it was located along the border between East and West Berlin. The purpose of this was to investigate whether it was possible to escape from east to west via the bunkers. In the seventies East Germany carried out some explorations of the bunker and in 1988 it was dismantled/destroyed further to make room for new housing. In the late nineties, other bunkers adjacent to Hitler’s bunker were excavated to make room for other buildings.