Page 31 - All About History - Issue 186-19

The Last Days Of Hitler

Hitler’s last hiding place was bomb-proof and blast-proof, but couldn’t shield
the dictator from the disaster that was overtaking his capital city

Originally built as an air-raid shelter for the Reich Chancellery, the first phase were for Hitler and Eva Braun’s personal use, including a sitting room, a study
of the bunker’s construction, the Vorbunker, was buried five feet under (in which hung a large portrait of the Prussian king Frederick the Great),
a cellar in the old Chancellery building and completed in 1936 – the year a bedroom for Eva Braun and another for Hitler himself. Communications
of the Berlin Summer Olympics. Once the bombing of Berlin by the Anglo- with the outside world were via a telephone switchboard, a telex machine,
American forces became more frequent as the war progressed, the decision a military radio set complete with an antenna running to the surface, and by
was made to construct a far bigger and more secure level: the Führerbunker. personal messenger. Ventilation was not great and, combined with the damp,
This would be connected to the Vorbunker by a steel blast door and a flight the atmosphere in the bunker was both claustrophobic and depressing.
of stairs, but would have a concrete roof some three metres thick and would Despite its size the bunker was crowded, particularly towards the end with
comprise of 30 rooms branching off a long corridor. Several of the rooms the arrival of Joseph and Magda Goebbels and their six children.

It was from this room As per his instructions,
that Hitler and his top Hitler and Braun’s
officials planned and bodies were taken
submitted orders for via this exit into the
the final few months Chancellery gardens
of the war. to be burned not long
after their bodies were
found in his study.

This sparsely
decorated room
took furniture from
the Chancellery This was the quarter’s
around February for Hitler’s personal
as the bunker physician, originally
became the Führer’s Ernst-Robert Grawitz,
permanent residence. who committed
suicide in April. He
was replaced by
Ludwig Stumpfegger.

Hitler’s study featured
an oil painting of
Frederick The Great.
This was the room
in which he and Eva
Braun committed
suicide shortly after This was the lower
being married. level of the bunker,
with an additional level
of security to access.
Staff would gather
and wait in this area to
access their superiors.

© Getty Images

© Alamy

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