Führerbunker
The Führerbunker (German, literally meaning "shelter for the leader" or "the Führer's shelter") was a bunker in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was in this subterranean bunker where Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun spent the last weeks of the war. Both killed themselves there on April 30, 1945.
The elaborate complex consisted of two separate levels, the "Vorbunker" (the upper bunker) or "forward bunker" and the newer Führerbunker one level below. They were both connected together by a stairway set at right angles. The Führerbunker was about 8.2 meters beneath the garden of the old Reich Chancellery building at Wilhelmstraße 77. This is about 120 meters north of the new Reich Chancellery building, which had the address Voßstraße 6. The Vorbunker was under the large hall behind the old Reich Chancellery. It was connected to the new Reich Chancellery. The Führerbunker was somewhat lower than the Vorbunker and in the west of it. The two bunkers were connected via sets of stairs set at right angles.
The complex was protected by about four meters of concrete. About 30 small rooms were distributed over two levels with exits into the main buildings and an emergency exit into the garden. 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 that began in 1940. The rooms of Hitler were in the newer, lower section and by February 1945 it had high quality furniture taken from the Chancellery along with several framed oil paintings.
Führerbunker Media
Ruins of the bunker after demolition in 1947
Site of Führerbunker and information board on Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße in August 2011
A side angle view of the site in July 2007
