The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the village of Görlitz (now Gierłoż), about 8 kilometres (5 miles) east of the town of Rastenburg (now Kętrzyn), in present-day Poland. The central complex and the Führer's bunker were surrounded by three security zones guarded by two Schutzstaffel (SS) units: the SS-Begleitkommando des Führers, and the Reichssicherheitsdienst.
The 20 July Plot, an assassination attempt against Hitler, took place at the Wolf's Lair on 20 July 1944.[1]
Name
The name Wolfsschanze is derived from "Wolf", a self-adopted nickname of Hitler. He began using the nickname in the 1920s and it was often how he was addressed by those in his intimate circle. "Wolf" was used in several titles of Hitler's headquarters throughout occupied Europe, such as Wolfsschlucht I and II in Belgium and France, and Werwolf in Ukraine.
Although the standard translation in English is "Wolf's Lair", a Schanze in German denotes a sconce, redoubt, or temporary fieldwork. The German translation for the lair of a wolf is Höhle (cave) or Bau (dwelling).
History
As part of the preparations for the coming Operation Barbarossa, the decision was made in late 1940 to build a military headquarters for the Führer in Eastern Europe, similar in concept to the Felsennest in Western Europe. Like the Felsennest, the new headquarters had to be as close to the front as possible, but far enough to be safe from enemy forces.
Eventually, a top-secret site was chosen in the middle of the Masurian woods, in what was then East Prussia, far from roads and urban areas, and accessible only by a single railway and small airstrip. To maintain secrecy, locals were told that the construction works were for a new cement factory. The Organisation Todt completed construction of the entire 6.5km2 (2+1⁄2sqmi) complex by 21 June 1941.
Hitler first arrived at the headquarters on 24 June 1941, two days after Barbarossa commenced. At its peak, over 2,000 people lived and worked at the Wolf's Lair, including food-tasters to sample Hitler's food before he ate it to guard him against being poisoned.[2] Additional construction work began in mid-1944 to enlarge and reinforce many of the original buildings on the site on Hitler's orders, although the work was never completed because of the Red Army's rapid advance during the Baltic Offensive.
Hitler left the Wolf's Lair for the final time in November 1944 after having spent over 800 days there, the longest he had stayed at any place over the course of the war, during a 3+1⁄2-year period.[citation needed]
Layout
The buildings within the complex were camouflaged with bushes, grass, and artificial trees on the flat roofs; netting was also erected between buildings and the surrounding forest so that the installation looked like unbroken dense woodland from the air. The site consisted of three concentric security zones.[3]
Sperrkreis 1 (Security Zone 1) was located at the heart of the Wolf's Lair, the perimeter was ringed by steel fencing and guarded by the SS Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD). Within the compound, security was managed by Dienststelle I (command I) from the SS-Begleitkommando des Führers (FBK) which operated under the auspices of ObersturmbannführerBruno Gesche. These were the only armed guards Hitler allowed to be near him.[4] They never had to surrender their weapons and were never searched whereas the RSD were required to remain at positions some distance away from Hitler.[5] The zone contained the Führer Bunker and ten other camouflaged bunkers built from 2-metre-thick (6ft 7in)steel-reinforced concrete. These shelters protected members of Hitler's inner circle such as Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, and Alfred Jodl. Hitler's accommodation was on the northern side of the Führer Bunker so as to avoid direct sunlight. Both Hitler's and Keitel's bunkers had additional rooms where military conferences could be held.[1]
Sperrkreis 2 (Security Zone 2) surrounded the inner zone. The area housed the quarters of several Reich Ministers such as Fritz Todt, Albert Speer, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. It also housed the quarters of the personnel who worked in the Wolf's Lair and the military barracks for the RSD.
Sperrkreis 3 (Security Zone 3) was the heavily fortified outer security area which surrounded the two inner zones. It was defended by land mines and the Führerbegleitbrigade (FBB), a special armoured security unit from Wehrmacht which manned guardhouses, watchtowers, and checkpoints.
A facility for Army headquarters was also located near the complex.[1] The FBK and RSD had responsibility for Hitler's personal security within the site, while external protection of the complex was provided by the FBB, which had become a regiment by July 1944. The FBB was equipped with tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and other heavy weapons. Any approaching aircraft could be detected up to 100km (60mi) from the site. Additional troops were also stationed about 75km (45mi) away.[6]
Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, recalled that Hitler repeatedly spoke in late 1943 or early 1944 of a possible bomber attack on the Wolfsschanze by the Western Allies. She quoted Hitler as saying, "They know exactly where we are, and sometime they're going to destroy everything here with carefully aimed bombs. I expect them to attack any day."[7]
According to Speer, between 28 July 1941 and 20 March 1942, Hitler left Rastenburg only four times for a total of 57 days. Afterwards, Hitler spent the next three months in Obersalzberg before returning to Rastenburg for the next nine months.[8]
Hitler's entourage returned to the Wolfsschanze from an extended summer stay at the Berghof in July 1944. The previous small bunkers had been replaced by the Organisation Todt with "heavy, colossal structures" of reinforced concrete as defense against the feared air attack.[9] According to Armaments Minister Albert Speer, "some 36,000,000 marks were spent for bunkers in Rastenburg [Wolf's Lair]."[10]
Hitler's bunker had become the largest, "a positive fortress" containing "a maze of passages, rooms and halls." Junge wrote, "We had air-raid warnings every day" in the period between the 20 July assassination attempt and Hitler's final departure from the Wolfsschanze in November 1944, "but there was never more than a single aircraft circling over the forest, and no bombs were dropped. All the same, Hitler took the danger very seriously, and thought all these reconnaissance flights were in preparation for the big raid he was expecting."[11]
No air attack ever came. It has never been revealed whether the Western Allies knew of the Wolfsschanze's location and importance. The Soviet Union was unaware of both the location and the scale of the complex until the site was uncovered by its forces during their advance towards Berlin in early 1945.[12]
Hitler's daily routine
Hitler would begin his day by taking a walk alone with his dog around 10 a.m. or so, and at 10:30a.m. he looked at the mail that had been delivered by air or courier train. A noon situation briefing would be convened, either in Keitel's or Jodl's bunker, and frequently ran for two hours. This was followed by lunch at 2 p.m. in the dining hall. Hitler invariably sat in the same seat between Jodl and Otto Dietrich, while Keitel, Martin Bormann, and Göring's adjutant General Karl Bodenschatz sat opposite him.[1]
After lunch, Hitler dealt with non-military matters for the remainder of the afternoon. Coffee was served around 5 p.m., followed by a second military briefing by Jodl at 6 p.m. Dinner could also last as long as two hours, beginning at 7:30p.m., after which films were shown in the cinema. Hitler then retired to his private quarters where he gave monologues to his entourage till late, usually going to sleep around 3 or 4 a.m. Occasionally, Hitler and his entourage listened to gramophone records of Beethoven symphonies, selections from Wagner or other operas, or German lieder.[1]
On Thursday, July 20, 1944, an attempt was made to kill Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. It was organized by a group of acting and retired army officers, as well as some civilians, who wanted to remove Hitler and establish a new democratic government in Germany that would negotiate a peaceful end to the war with the Allies before Germany's inevitable defeat, which had become apparent to both sides by then. However, the main challenge facing the conspirators was that Hitler's habit of last-minute changes to his schedule had led to the failure of attempts by others to kill him.
Eventually, the conspirators chose the Wolf's Lair as a viable location to target Hitler because it was the only place where they were sure they could get close enough to kill him. Staff officer Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg volunteered to carry a bomb hidden in a briefcase into one of the daily military briefings usually held in the bunkers, in the hope that the heavy reinforcements of the bunkers could be turned against the Führer through the shockwave of the blast reverberating off the heavily reinforced walls of the room and certainly killing him.
However, on the day of the planned assassination, the location of the meeting was unexpectedly changed to a light brick hut due to Hitler's complaints about the immense heat within the bunkers that day. This change in venue, along with other factors, such as Hitler unexpectedly calling the meeting earlier than anticipated, would contribute to the eventual failure of the plot. Despite this change in plans, Stauffenberg went ahead with carrying out the plot. He carried the briefcase containing the bomb into the conference hut, making a request to be placed close to Hitler on grounds that he had trouble hearing due to his injuries sustained while fighting in North Africa, which would ensure that the bomb would be close enough to Hitler to be effective.
The bomb exploded at precisely 12:42p.m., with Stauffenberg having excused himself from the meeting a few minutes before. The interior of the building was devastated, four officers were injured and would later die of their wounds but Hitler was only slightly injured. This was due to the fact that one of the other officers present at the meeting had, for his own comfort, moved the briefcase from where it had been put by Stauffenberg close to Hitler and placed it against one of the legs of the solid oak table being used for the meeting. Consequently, the thick, heavy table absorbed most of the blast and this, along with the collapse of some of the hut's thin walls thus dissipating the shockwave, saved the Führer's life.
Even before the bomb detonated, Stauffenberg and his adjutant, Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, had already begun their departure for Berlin where they planned to take control of the country alongside their fellow conspirators. Their escape involved passing through various security zones that controlled all access around the site. After a short delay at the RSD guard post just outside Sperrkreis 1, they were allowed to leave by vehicle. The two officers were then driven down the southern exit road towards the military airstrip near Rastenburg.
The alarm had been raised by the time they reached the guardhouse at the perimeter of Sperrkreis 2. According to the official RSHA report, "at first, the guard refused passage until Stauffenberg persuaded him to contact the adjutant to the compound commander who then finally authorized clearance". It was between here and the final checkpoint of Sperrkreis 3 that Haeften tossed another briefcase from the car containing an unused second bomb. The two men reached the outer limit of the security zones and were allowed to catch their plane back to army general headquarters in Berlin.
The attempted assassination was derived from Operation Valkyrie, a covert plan officially sanctioned by Hitler for the Reserve Army to take control and suppress any revolt in the country in the event of his untimely death, which the conspirators adapted to suit their purpose. Unfortunately for the conspirators, news soon arrived from the Wolf's Lair that Hitler was still alive. Upon hearing from Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels that Hitler was indeed alive, as well as speaking to the Führer himself, Major Otto Ernst Remer, in command of the Reserve Army's troops in Berlin still loyal to the regime, was fully convinced of Hitler's survival and he quickly re-established control of key government buildings and arrested the conspirators.
That same evening, Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were summarily executed by gunshot outside the Bendlerblock in Berlin.
On 20 August 1944, Hitler personally presented survivors of the bomb blast with a "20 July 1944 Wound Badge". Next-of-kin of those killed in the blast were also given this award.
Destruction and capture
Enormous amounts of explosives were used by the retreating Germans to blow up the Wolfsschanzebunkers. Here the explosion has lifted a bunker's roof, made of solid ferro-concrete two meters thick.
The Red Army reached the borders of East Prussia during the Baltic offensive in October 1944. Hitler departed from the Wolf's Lair for the final time on Monday, 20 November 1944, when the Soviet advance reached Angerburg (now Węgorzewo), 15km (9mi) away. Two days later, the order was given to destroy the complex.
The demolition took place on the night of 24–25 January 1945, ten days after the start of the Red Army's Vistula–Oder offensive. Tons of explosives were used; one bunker required an estimated 8,000kg (18,000lb) of TNT. Most of the buildings were only partially destroyed due to their immense size and reinforced structures.
The Red Army captured the abandoned remains of the Wolfsschanze on 27 January without firing a shot, the same day that Auschwitz was liberated farther south.
Historical site
Memorial to Polish Army sappers who demined the area in 1945–1955
Following the war, more than 54,000 land mines were removed from the area, together with abandoned ordnance, and the entire site was left to decay by Poland's Communist government. Since the fall of Communism in the early 1990s, the Wolf's Lair has been developed as a tourist attraction. Visitors can make day trips from Warsaw or Gdańsk.[49] Hotels and restaurants have grown up near the site.[50] Plans have periodically been proposed to restore the area, including the installation of historical exhibits.[51]
As of 2019, the site was drawing almost 300,000 visitors a year. The Srokowo Forest District, which manages the site, announced renovation and restoration plans for the historic site, including new accommodation options, expanded historical exhibitions, and other upgrades to improve visitor experience. Critics worried that the planned changes could turn the site into a place for neo-Nazi pilgrimages, although the District's spokesperson said that they would "make every effort" to maintain "due seriousness and respect for historical truth". Pawel Machcewicz, a Polish historian who specializes in World War II, said, "[T]he scars left by the war should be preserved and presented as a lesson, a warning... Exhibitions should explain the history, contextualise the place, but not completely overshadow it."[52]
In February 2023, the Srokowo Forest District officials announced that the renovation of the "Wilczy Szaniec" site had begun and is slated to be completed by the end of 2024. The project will include expanding and renovating the hotel and restaurant building, adding a new conference room, redesigning the exhibition space, as well as constructing a new observation deck.[53]
In 2024, archaeologists exploring the complex's former living quarters of Hermann Göring reported discovering five human skeletons (three adults, a teenager and a baby believed to be a family) missing their hands and feet and lacking any traces of clothing or personal objects buried under the brick residence.[54] Alongside each of the skeletons thunderbolt stones (or Donnerkeil)—bullet-shaped fossils of extinct squid-like creatures called belemnoids—were found.[55][56]
Count Claus von Stauffenberg was a German army officer who is best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair.
The 20 July plot was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German resistance, mainly composed of Wehrmacht officers. The leader of the conspiracy, Claus von Stauffenberg, tried to kill Hitler by detonating an explosive hidden in a briefcase. However, due to the location of the bomb at the time of detonation, the blast only dealt Hitler minor injuries. The planners' subsequent coup attempt also failed and resulted in a purge of the Wehrmacht.
Werner Karl Otto Theodor von Haeften was an Oberleutnant in the Wehrmacht who took part in the military-based conspiracy against Adolf Hitler known as the 20 July plot.
Führerhauptquartier Werwolf was the codename used for one of Adolf Hitler's World War II Eastern Front military headquarters located in a pine forest about 12 kilometres north of Vinnytsia, in Ukraine, which was used between 1942 and 1943. It was one of a number of Führer Headquarters throughout Europe, and the most easterly ever used by Hitler in person.
Blondi was Adolf Hitler's German Shepherd, a gift as a puppy from Martin Bormann in 1941. Hitler kept Blondi even after his move into the Führerbunker located underneath the garden of the Reich Chancellery on 16 January 1945.
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge was a German editor who worked as Adolf Hitler's last private secretary from December 1942 to April 1945. After typing Hitler's will, she remained in the Berlin Führerbunker until his death. Following her arrest and imprisonment in June 1945, both the Soviet and the U.S. militaries interrogated her. Later, in post-war West Germany, she worked as a secretary. In her old age, she decided to publish her memoirs, claiming ignorance of the Nazi atrocities during the war, but blaming herself for missing opportunities to investigate reports about them. Her story, based partly on her book Until the Final Hour, formed a part of several dramatizations, in particular the 2004 German film Downfall about Hitler's final ten days.
Albrecht von Hagen was a German jurist and a resistance fighter in the time of the Third Reich.
Julius Schaub was an aide and adjutant to German dictator Adolf Hitler from the 1920s until the dictator's suicide on 30 April 1945.
Axel Ernst-August Clamor Franz Albrecht Erich Leo Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst was a German officer during World War II and was a member of the German Resistance. He planned to assassinate Adolf Hitler in coordination with Claus von Stauffenberg in November 1943 at the Wolfsschanze.
Until the Final Hour, also published as Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary or simply Hitler's Last Secretary is a memoir of the last days of Hitler's government, written by Traudl Junge in 1947, but not published until 2002 and 2003. The book was part of the basis for the 2002 Austrian documentary Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin and the film Der Untergang in 2004.
Hans-Erich Voss was a German Vizeadmiral and one of the final occupants of the Führerbunker during the battle of Berlin in 1945. He was also among the last people to see both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels alive before they committed suicide. After the war in Europe ended, he spent several years in prison in both the Soviet Union and East Germany.
SS-Begleitkommando des Führers, later known as the Führerbegleitkommando, was originally an eight-man SS squad formed from a twelve-man security squad tasked with protecting the life of Adolf Hitler during the early 1930s. Another bodyguard unit, the Reichssicherheitsdienst was formed 1933, and by the following year replaced the FBK in providing Hitler's overall security throughout Germany. The FBK continued under separate command from the RSD and provided close, personal security for Hitler. The two units worked together for Hitler's security and protection, especially during trips and public events, though they operated at such events as separate groups and used separate vehicles. When the FBK unit was expanded, the additional officers and men were selected from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). The majority of these additional men were used by Hitler as guards for his residences while uninhabited and as orderlies, valets, waiters, and couriers.
The Führer Headquarters, abbreviated FHQ, were a number of official headquarters used by the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and various other German commanders and officials throughout Europe during World War II. The last one used, the Führerbunker in Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, is the most widely known headquarter. Other notable headquarters are the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, where Claus Graf von Stauffenberg in league with other conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944, and Hitler's private home, the Berghof, at Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, where he frequently met with prominent foreign and domestic officials.
Ernst John von Freyend was a German Oberkommando der Wehrmacht officer who served during World War II as the adjutant to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. He is notable for unwittingly helping to place the 20 July plot bomb that was intended to kill Adolf Hitler.
Hans Hermann Junge was a German SS officer who served as aide-de-camp and valet to Adolf Hitler. He was married to Traudl Junge, Hitler's last private secretary. He was killed in combat during the latter stages of the Battle of Normandy in August 1944 and is buried in Champigny-Saint-André German war cemetery.
Emilie Christine Schroeder, also known as Christa Schroeder, was one of Adolf Hitler's personal secretaries before and during World War II.
Albert Bormann was a German National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) officer, who rose to the rank of Gruppenführer during World War II. Bormann served as an adjutant to Adolf Hitler, and was the younger brother of Martin Bormann.
Margot Wölk was a German secretary who was among 15 young women who, in 1942, were selected to taste German leader Adolf Hitler's food at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia for two-and-a-half years to confirm that it was safe. She was the only one of the 15 to survive World War II, and her background as Hitler's food taster was not revealed until a newspaper interview on her 95th birthday in December 2012.
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust. He was hated by his persecuted enemies and even by some of his own countrymen. Although attempts were made to assassinate him, none were successful. Hitler had numerous bodyguard units over the years which provided security.
The Carlshof Institutions was a diaconal hospital in Carlshof, East Prussia. Founded in 1882, it was located about 3 km (1.9 mi) east of the town center of Rastenburg (Kętrzyn). Carlshof housed up to 1,500 inmates from all over East Prussia and specialized in treating patients with epilepsy and intellectual disability; it also cared for alcoholics, elderly, and juveniles as well as homeless persons. In World War II, Carlshof served as a military hospital and barracks for Hitler's nearby headquarters at the Wolf's Lair.
↑ Misch, Rochus (2014) [2008]. Hitler's Last Witness: The Memoirs of Hitler's Bodyguard. London: Frontline Books–Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. pp.120–121. ISBN978-1848327498.
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Office and barracks of Hitler's bodyguard
FBK/RSD command post
Emergency generator
Bunker
Office of Otto Dietrich, Hitler's press secretary
Conference room, site of the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt
RSD command post
Guest bunker and air-raid shelter
RSD command post
Secretariat under Philipp Bouhler
Headquarters of Johann Rattenhuber, SS chief of Hitler's security department, and Post Office
Radio and telex buildings
Vehicle garages
Railway siding for Hitler's Train
Cinema
Generator buildings
Quarters of Morell, Bodenschatz, Hewel, Voss, Wolff, and Fegelein
Stores
Residence of Martin Bormann, Hitler's personal secretary
Residence and bunker of Adolf Hitler
Bormann's personal air-raid shelter for himself and staff
Office of Hitler's adjutant and the Wehrmacht's personnel office
Military and staff mess II
Quarters of General Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations of OKW
Firefighting pond
Office of the Foreign Ministry
Quarters of Fritz Todt, then Albert Speer after Todt's death
RSD command post
Air-raid shelter with Flak and MG units on the roof
Hitler's bunker and air-raid shelter
New tea room
Residence of General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, supreme commander of OKW
Old tea house
Residence of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring
Goring's personal air-raid shelter for himself and staff, with Flak and MG on the roof
Offices of the High Command of the Air Force
Offices of the High command of the Navy
Bunker with Flak
Cementry
Rastenburg railway line Lageplan Wolfsschanze.svg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Lageplan_Wolfsschanze.svg/570px-Lageplan_Wolfsschanze.svg.png)
