FÜHRERBUNKER, Führerbunker

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Führerbunker.

The Führerbunker was the famous underground bunker where Adolf Hitler spent the last days of his life.

Unfortunately, nothing remains of the bunker today, and the only element that marks its presence is an exhibition panel in a parking area along the Cora-Berliner Strasse, illustrating the underground network it was part of and explaining the events that sealed the bunker’s fate after the war. It was demolished by the Soviets to prevent the place from becoming a cult object for Neo-Nazis.

The large underground structure is believed to have occupied an area of some 250 square meters, located between the Brandenburg Gate and Leipzigerstrasse. The Führer took refuge here in January 1945, when the outcome of the war became clear, with the Soviet Red Army at the gates of Berlin. Surrounded by those closest to him, including his partner Eva Braun, Goebbels and his family, Hitler spent the last few months of his life below ground.

It was not until April 20, 1945, his 56th birthday, that the Führer emerged to make his last appearance in public, handing over the Iron Cross to a boy soldier of the Hitler Youth.

On April 29th, when the German capital was surrounded by the Russian Army, Hitler married Eva Braun, and the following day, while the Soviet troops were entering Berlin, he shot himself in the head, after ingesting a dose of cyanide. The Goebbels family was also found poisoned.

Let me leave you with an interesting fact. In recent decades, numerous legends have suggested that Hitler survived the siege of the city and fled to South America, where indeed many Nazis sought refuge after the Second World War. However, there is a document of the Stasi, the Ministry of State Security of the German Democratic Republic, that states Hitler’s body was found by Soviet soldiers when they entered the bunker. According to another reliable account, the Führer was cremated according to his own wishes, and his remains were identified by his dentist, who recognized the jawbone.