Inside Hitler's Eastern Headquarter: The Wolf's Lair

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-05

[00:00:02]The Wolf's Lair, Hitler's infamous [music] headquarters during the Second World War.

[00:00:08]From here, the dictator and his entourage command the war against the Soviet [music] Union.

[00:00:13]A campaign of destruction of an unprecedented scale. The bunkers in the Masurian [music] forests rise high up like giant tombs of long-forgotten pharaohs.

[00:00:23]It is a national socialist [music] warning cast in concrete, a place shrouded in mystery right from the very beginning.

[00:01:06]The former Wolf's Lair today is nothing more than a tourist magnet.

[00:01:12]A quarter of a million visitors come here every year.

[00:01:15]The commercialization [music] of the site is controversial.

[00:01:18]To some, the area appears to be a Disneyland [music] for naive history tourists.

[00:01:24]The Polish authorities try to demand [music] historical validation.

[00:01:28]At least most of the guides do offer it in some way.

[00:01:33]Adolf Hitler spent exactly 837 days in this forest here together with the complete high command of the Wehrmacht.

[00:01:41]He is here.

[00:01:44]He arrived here from Berlin on June 24th, 1941.

[00:01:49]Two days after the attack on the former Soviet Union with the special train America and he lived here until the 20th of November, 1944.

[00:02:01]What makes this historic ground so interesting for visitors from all over the world today?

[00:02:07]Is it just the fascination with evil?

[00:02:10]So that is where he had walked to.

[00:02:12]A real close-up view of the sinister.

[00:02:16]Or is it the search for an authentic place that makes all that had happened comprehensible?

[00:02:24]The Wolf's Lair is a place of European fatefulness.

[00:02:28]From here, a war of extermination is controlled.

[00:02:31]Inhuman propaganda is devised and the extermination of the European Jews is being enforced.

[00:02:42]The invasion of the Soviet Union begins on the 22nd of June, 1941.

[00:02:47]One of the very first battles takes place around [music] Brest-Litovsk.

[00:02:52]In the early morning hours of June 22nd, a hurricane of fire of truly unprecedented proportions opens the battle for this bastion which is defended by the Bolsheviks.

[00:03:07]For this war in the East, Hitler needed field quarters that were just behind the enemy's front line.

[00:03:17]Flashback.

[00:03:18]One year earlier.

[00:03:20]The military chooses a forested area in East Prussia to build the planned Führer headquarters, the Görlitz, the Rastenburg city forest.

[00:03:29]The area offers pristine natural protection [music] from any enemy reconnaissance aircraft and also from overly curious neighbors.

[00:03:40]In Hitler's Greater German Reich, the coup of East Prussia was initially an isolated outpost once cut off by the Polish Corridor, but then reconnected [music] to the German Reich after the war against Poland.

[00:03:54]The area does have an intact infrastructure.

[00:03:57]However, the location near Rastenburg is primarily admirable due to its proximity [music] to the Soviet border.

[00:04:08]What he needed, of course, this were modern headquarters that would also be protected against a potential air attack.

[00:04:15]So, in that respect, according to the state of military technology, a camouflaged facility in the deep forests which would be protected by swamps and railroad facilities, but which still is very much accessible.

[00:04:29]That actually offered better working conditions than um than the old fortress in Königsberg, for example.

[00:04:36]In what was then Rastenburg, now Kętrzyn, [music] the inhabitants were simply told their local recreation area is now used for military purposes.

[00:04:47]Rumors and suspicions are circulating throughout the city.

[00:04:52]In Rastenburg, there was a large forested area called Görlitz where we used to cycle to as children because there were very, very beautiful lakes where we used to go swimming.

[00:05:08]Suddenly, it was gone.

[00:05:10]Suddenly, you were no longer allowed to go there. There's a restricted circle now.

[00:05:14]In the fall of 1940, huge quantities of building materials and machinery were unloaded at Rastenburg station.

[00:05:22]The code name of the project, Chemical Plants Askania.

[00:05:27]And then there were those trucks that came which had that sign Askania on them.

[00:05:33]They came every day from morning to evening.

[00:05:37]One way loaded with gravel, mostly gravel, and on the way back then they were empty. So you had to notice that.

[00:05:46]And that didn't just go on for a few days, it went on for weeks, for months.

[00:05:50]Frantic construction [music] work begins in the city forest of Rastenburg.

[00:05:55]It is to be the largest of all headquarters.

[00:05:58]The construction teams will return to this location over and over again.

[00:06:01]Construction continues until 1944.

[00:06:05]In the first phase, an entire town of barracks is [music] being built.

[00:06:09]Later on, an area of gigantic bunkers.

[00:06:14]The war against the Soviet Union was the first planned Blitzkrieg. So in that respect, considering all the happenings of the summer of 1940, it could only be a matter of building field headquarters so to speak, so that Hitler could have the best position to organize this war from there close to the border, which was only meant to last a few weeks or months anyways.

[00:06:39]The facility is elaborately [music] camouflaged and well hidden in the dense forest.

[00:06:44]The roofs are mostly [music] greened and even trees are moved and replanted directly next to the massive bunker walls.

[00:06:51]As a result, the facility is barely [music] visible from the air.

[00:06:56]The Wehrmacht laid camouflage [music] nets made of non-flammable plastic between the buildings and neighboring trees.

[00:07:05]Also, the outer [music] walls of the bunkers are made to disappear into the green of the forest.

[00:07:09]Additionally, the concrete is plastered with a special mixture of seaweed.

[00:07:14]Camouflaged with German [music] thoroughness.

[00:07:20]The Wolf's Lair became a huge area secured by barbed wire fences, machine guns, and anti-aircraft positions.

[00:07:28]In addition, [music] tens of thousands of mines are buried around the site because of the fear of enemy reconnaissance and sabotage. Hitler is determined in the war, but Stalin's empire remains eerie to him.

[00:07:41]He was actually confident of victory. So from his military point of view, from the point of view of the German High Command, uh the Red Army the Red Army was not to be feared.

[00:07:54]But Hitler's intuitions came from his intention to create a completely new direction to world history and he would do so through this attack against the Soviet Union.

[00:08:05]And um he had And we know he was worried. Apparently, it even gave him sleepless nights that this coup which he was trying to pull off might go wrong for whatever yet unknown reason there could have been.

[00:08:23]On June 24th, 1941, two days after the attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler and his military moved to the forest into the new Führer headquarters.

[00:08:33]It is given the name Wolf's Lair, loosely based on Hitler's pseudonym Wolf from the 1920s.

[00:08:42]Above the main road and the railway line, the specially secured area of restricted zone one.

[00:08:50]Initially, there were wooden barracks in the Wolf's Lair, which will later be walled in.

[00:08:55]There are also eight high-rise bunkers with up to 1 m thick walls and ceilings which are around 2 m thick.

[00:09:07]Around the new Führer headquarters, further facilities are built [music] for the top military leaders whom Hitler wants to have close by.

[00:09:19]The highest command center is placed in the barracks of the restricted [music] inner circle.

[00:09:24]Briefings are held here on a daily basis.

[00:09:31]After the first few successes of the war, the Wochenschau conveys a good mood in the Wolf's Lair to the German viewers.

[00:09:42]This is the briefing with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Grand Admiral Dönitz, Field Marshal Keitel, General Jodl, and General Korten, the new Chief of the Air Force General Staff.

[00:10:12]>> In Rastenburg [music] in East Prussia, 7 km from the Wolf's Lair, everyday National Socialist life continues despite the horrors of the war.

[00:10:22]The achievements of the Wehrmacht are meticulously [music] observed in schools.

[00:10:27]During the war, of course, we had that map of Russia. No, I mean the map of Europe. And we had all those little flags pinned on the map everywhere to Yeah, show and observe where the German soldiers had just recently been.

[00:10:45]The younger generation [music] is eager to follow what the army leaders have come up with in the Wolf's Lair headquarters.

[00:10:55]Almost every day there was a new flag.

[00:10:58]They had advanced another centimeter.

[00:11:01]As a 12- or 13-year-old, something like that naturally seemed unheard of to me.

[00:11:06]I was an enthusiastic Pimpf.

[00:11:09]I actually really was um a true believer in National Socialism.

[00:11:16]The residents also settle in at the Führer's headquarters.

[00:11:20]Hitler's secretary Christa Schroeder writes a letter to a friend.

[00:11:24]The bunkers are scattered throughout the forest, divided into working areas.

[00:11:29]Our sleeping bunker is the mere size of a normal train compartment, and it is clad in light-colored wood.

[00:11:36]The room is rather small and a bit cramped, but it now makes a decent impression after I have attached some nice pictures to the bunker wall.

[00:11:45]It is almost too cool in the rooms.

[00:11:47]The forest keeps out all the heat.

[00:11:50]But everything is still quite beautiful, except for the damn plague of mosquitoes.

[00:11:57]The soldiers and officers get equipped with protective nets.

[00:12:01]Hitler also complains about the mosquitoes in the summer of 1941.

[00:12:07]The fire extinguishing pond near the Führer bunker has been identified as a possible source of mosquitoes.

[00:12:13]In preemptive obedience, soldiers [music] pour kerosene into the pond, but only the frogs die.

[00:12:20]>> [music] >> The mosquitoes multiply now that they have gotten rid of their natural enemies.

[00:12:25]The dictator is not only annoyed by the mosquitoes, he also misses the croaking of the frogs and rages [music] when he hears about the biological liquidation campaign.

[00:12:34]The pond got extensively cleaned with great efforts, and new frogs were brought in.

[00:12:41]In the late summer of 1941, the German military [music] machinery comes to a standstill.

[00:12:47]At the map table in the Wolf's Lair, Hitler is repeatedly told that the units [music] cannot keep up with the schedule.

[00:12:54]Nevertheless, people are still clinging to the hope of a quick victory.

[00:13:00]All plans are based on the assumption of a short summer campaign. [music] Contrary to expectations, however, the Red Army does not collapse like a house [music] of cards. Instead, the advance slows down and becomes more strenuous.

[00:13:14]The citizens help our soldiers repair the roads, which were completely neglected under the Soviets.

[00:13:31]Severe storms that have recently hit have made these roads almost impassable.

[00:13:36]The drivers have to perform real feats.

[00:13:47]Perhaps the dictator [music] faced dark foreshadowings.

[00:13:51]A secretary writes about [music] a breakfast at Casino 1.

[00:13:55]The boss tends to sit in a way so that he can see [music] the map of Russia hanging on the opposite wall, which of course inspires [music] him to repeatedly come up with new lectures about Soviet Russia and the dangers of Bolshevism.

[00:14:09]Just the other day, he actually said that Russia seemed eerie to him, like that ghost ship [music] in the story of the Flying Dutchman, because you don't know anything about Russia.

[00:14:22]Nightmares behind meter-thick concrete.

[00:14:26]These are irritations that still resonate [music] today.

[00:14:30]How could the Germans get involved in such an incredibly insane war plan?

[00:14:35]Today, the highlight of every guided tour is the bunker of the infamous dictator.

[00:14:40]Now, you can see Adolf Hitler's bunker here in front of you.

[00:14:43]Only this front wall of the original bunker back then has been relatively well preserved till today.

[00:14:51]Two entrances led inside to where Hitler's apartment was located.

[00:14:56]Albert Speer, Hitler's architect, writes the following in the book Erinnerungen.

[00:15:01]He lived, worked, and slept in this tomb.

[00:15:05]The 6-m thick concrete walls that surrounded him separated him.

[00:15:10]They also figuratively separated him from the outside world and imprisoned him in his delusion.

[00:15:18]But the Wolf's Lair is not just a normal military headquarters. Also, decisive [music] political decisions are made in the bunkers.

[00:15:26]In August 1941, Joseph Goebbels travels to the Wolf's Lair.

[00:15:31]The Berlin Gauleiter presents Hitler with a decree on the deportation of the remaining Berlin Jews to the East.

[00:15:38]In October 1941, the so-called Jewish question is discussed again during a visit by SS leader Himmler.

[00:15:46]The Wannsee Conference was prepared here.

[00:15:49]This would be the death sentence for millions of people.

[00:15:54]And also, the Wolf's Lair would become [music] a place for inhumane demagoguery.

[00:15:59]Even the propaganda machine of the Nazi state is being directed from here.

[00:16:04]Hitler regularly records the Wochenschau [music] in his headquarters.

[00:16:09]A barrage of propaganda.

[00:16:22]Two worlds are clashing in this moment.

[00:16:25]The victorious, disciplined German troops are meeting the defeated enemy.

[00:16:29]The faces of these captured Soviet hordes are dull and impassive.

[00:16:34]Moscow wanted to Bolshevize Europe with this despicable rabble.

[00:16:43]The German soldiers [music] experience their first Russian winter.

[00:16:48]Propaganda is of little help to them in the trenches.

[00:16:55]Setbacks are immediately [music] reported to the dictator in the Wolf's Lair.

[00:16:59]The campaign gets stuck.

[00:17:01]Hitler is dissatisfied. [music] Generals are getting dismissed.

[00:17:05]All the hope is now resting on the following year, 1942.

[00:17:10]The Führer decided to celebrate his birthday at his headquarters.

[00:17:13]General Field Marshal Keitel conveys the army's congratulations to the Führer at the beginning of the daily military briefings.

[00:17:19]It is April 1942.

[00:17:22]Hitler celebrates his birthday for the first time in the Wolf's Lair. There was a surprise in the protocol.

[00:17:28]Some of us were asked to perform a birthday song for the Führer at his birthday celebration.

[00:17:35]We now wanted to prepare for it.

[00:17:37]We will not sing the normal folk songs there, but we will sing the songs of our movement, the songs of the Führer.

[00:17:48]So, I was completely convinced that we certainly would have to perform and sing at least one of our standard songs here, too.

[00:17:56]I think I'll get it together.

[00:17:58]Our flag flutters in front of us. We move into the future one man at a time.

[00:18:03]We march for Hitler through the night and hardship with the flag of freedom for the future and bread, or something like that. Our flag flutters in front of us. Our flag the new era. And the flag leads us into eternity.

[00:18:18]It actually did.

[00:18:24]And then came the small catastrophe.

[00:18:27]Our choirmaster was not allowed to travel with us. The second choir director was about uh 17 and a rather tall young man.

[00:18:34]Little Pimpfs were in demand. Cute Pimpfs were in demand.

[00:18:40]The choirmaster [music] is replaced.

[00:18:43]A boys' and a girls' choir make their way to the Wolf's Lair.

[00:18:48]The little singers wait for the Führer.

[00:18:50]Among them, the then [music] 13-year-old Dietmar Pesch.

[00:18:55]The Führer's door opens. Hitler walks in.

[00:18:59]The top Pimpf leader of our group reports, "My Führer, 11 Pimpfen and 11 young girls have arrived."

[00:19:12]And then, the song.

[00:19:14]But what song?

[00:19:17]Our replacement choirmaster I didn't actually talk to him about it, but he must have gone completely crazy.

[00:19:25]He must have suddenly forgotten his prelude, because what does he say?

[00:19:30]He announces the song, "All the birds are already here." And start at verse two. So, we sang, "How cheerful they all are, they move nimble and gay.

[00:19:40]Blackbirds, thrushes, finches, and starlings, and the whole flock of birds wishes you a happy New Year, greater well-being, and abundance."

[00:19:49]That was the National Socialist song.

[00:19:52]All the birds are already here as a battle song of the movement.

[00:19:56]Two days later, the children see their performance on the Wochenschau and hear themselves [music] singing a different song.

[00:20:03]Young girls in Pimpf and sing a song to the Führer on his birthday.

[00:20:16]>> [singing] >> But then came the biggest surprise.

[00:20:25]It wasn't just Hitler who was on the show.

[00:20:28]It was not only this Pimpf and choir, but there were also people who, at least that's how it was cut.

[00:20:35]They listened enthusiastically to our singing.

[00:20:40]The entire first line of the Hitler Guard.

[00:20:44]So, Mr. Göring close-up, laughing from the heart and happy that we were singing.

[00:20:51]One month later, in May 1942, the Wehrmacht celebrates another success.

[00:20:57]Hitler flies to a new headquarter further to the east.

[00:21:01]He settles on Soviet soil for the first and last time.

[00:21:06]Not far from the small Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia, the [music] dictator wants to be closer to the front line at the headquarters, which he calls Werwolf.

[00:21:17]But the hoped-for success does not materialize.

[00:21:20]Hitler ends up returning to the Wolf's Lair in November 1942.

[00:21:25]The enemy's counteroffensive at Stalingrad ended the short trip to Vinnytsia abruptly.

[00:21:30]There are serious clashes between Hitler and his generals.

[00:21:37]They blame this problematic and messy situation on his orders.

[00:21:41]Hitler, on the other hand, blames others and feels betrayed.

[00:21:45]He requests stenographers from Berlin.

[00:21:48]From now on, they will have to record every word of the daily briefings.

[00:21:54]The stenographer's notes and minutes are later then [music] typed up on typewriters, about 100 pages day after day.

[00:22:02]The new stenographer's barrack in security zone one is strictly guarded.

[00:22:06]By then, hardly anything was possible in this totalitarian Führer system without a Führer's order.

[00:22:12]So, his uh subjects were actually queuing up, so to speak, uh to get a Führer's order in order to be able to do anything at all in this blocked war economy of this built system. And of course, it was very easy to lose sight of the big picture because everything was actually heading towards Hitler, as he was the one claiming all the control.

[00:22:34]So, to him, it was also very important to record these decisions, which he had been blamed for, in order to be able to demonstrate, I already pointed this out at that time back then.

[00:22:45]And why wasn't this or that not done?

[00:22:49]Hitler awaits a state guest.

[00:22:52]As early as 1942, the dictator had almost completely outsourced his government business to the Führer's headquarters. The high-ranking guests usually come in the Führer's train.

[00:23:04]The station of the Wolf's Lair, fascist allies from Italy, Norway, Japan, Croatia, Hungary, and Romania are soon to step out of the train here.

[00:23:14]Hitler needs them for the costly campaign in the east.

[00:23:18]The Wochenschau reports about the state visits without mentioning the location of the secret place.

[00:23:24]The Führer receives the Romanian leader, Marshal Antonescu, and the Deputy Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu.

[00:23:33]The discussions, which were based on the spirit of friendship and the battle-hardened brotherhood in arms of both nations, covered all questions of combat operations, as well as the determined continuation of the war until total victory.

[00:23:49]Before the Führer's train arrives here, it passes through Rastenburg. [music] The children of the town like to gather there at the tracks, and they discover something related to security.

[00:24:00]As 13, 14-year-olds, we would be eagerly standing at the train crossings, and we would look if there would be another train coming to our Führer. We watched out for that. And it was so incredibly exciting to us little kids, because in front of this so-called guest train, which was meant for Hitler himself, all for this train in which Hitler's staff, the other Reich leaders, and higher ranks of the NSDAP traveled to the headquarters.

[00:24:29]That was incredibly exciting for us to see.

[00:24:32]In front of this train, another single locomotive was running 60, 80, 100 m in front of it.

[00:24:41]That would be the locomotive that was allowed to blow up if an attack was planned and executed.

[00:24:47]Even us little boys realized that.

[00:24:50]During this visit, discussions on the political and military situation took place.

[00:24:55]They were carried by the spirit of loyal friendship and unbreakable brotherhood in arms. Exactly that is being put to the test today in the common fight against the enemies of the new Europe.

[00:25:08]At the beginning of 1942, the USA's entry into the war and its recent failure outside of Moscow led to great doubts and mistrust, even among its allies, as to whether they had bet on the right card after all. In this respect, he needed this stage scenario of this bunker world to express his determination strongly enough to the foreign statesmen that he invited. It is different here than perhaps in a castle or in the well-known Reich Chancellery.

[00:25:39]Here he is all commander, lord, so to speak, of his surroundings. And these thick bunker walls were intended to symbolize something like the unwavering loyalty which he which he expected from his allies.

[00:25:58]It is New Year's Eve, 1942.

[00:26:03]There is little to celebrate in the Wolf's Lair.

[00:26:12]Not for Hitler himself, and not for the generals, either.

[00:26:22]The Soviet attacks to destroy the army of the 6th Regiment continues relentlessly.

[00:26:31]The Red Army drives the German troops into a cauldron near Stalingrad.

[00:26:36]The Wolf's Lair becomes a hive of frenzied activity.

[00:26:38]>> [music] >> General Paulus asks via cable for permission to withdraw the northern front, as it can no longer be held.

[00:26:45]Hitler rejects the proposal outright.

[00:26:49]It has long since become clear that Göring's promise to supply the starving soldiers from the air was a rather grandiloquent promise that could not be kept.

[00:26:59]The situation is getting worse and worse.

[00:27:02]But Hitler insists on his decision. He is not interested in the real situation.

[00:27:07]"If we would reveal this, we are actually revealing the whole point of this campaign," said the dictator.

[00:27:16]Now, on the one hand, there were strategic military reasons to cut off all aid supplies via the Volga.

[00:27:23]But the situation became a prestige duel, because the city bore the name of his opponent, and it would have been truly spectacular to inflict a defeat on Stalin right there, so to speak. And in addition, it just seemed sensible to secure his so-called Fortress Europe to the east with such a great success.

[00:27:45]Also, because he had to expect the fact that the Americans would soon, well, intervene in the war in Europe.

[00:27:54]A few weeks later, the decision.

[00:27:58]At the end of January 1943, General Paulus was taken prisoner.

[00:28:03]Over 300,000 German soldiers will follow him.

[00:28:10]The Red Army fought mercilessly for this victory with bloodshed. Many thousands of their soldiers do not live to see [music] the victory celebrations.

[00:28:20]Hitler is raging in the Rastenburg Forest.

[00:28:24]For him, being captured is the path of dishonor.

[00:28:29]The dictator had repeatedly refused the requested permission to surrender.

[00:28:38]This defeat hit Hitler hard.

[00:28:41]The house of [music] cards of his war planning has collapsed.

[00:28:46]His valet, Linge, mentions in a note >> [music] >> that his master had suddenly and seamlessly become physically old.

[00:28:55]From this point on, [music] the dictator will no longer allow any distractions in his surroundings.

[00:29:04]Dark premonitions arise in the Rastenburg [music] Forest.

[00:29:11]The Wochenschau only shows the idyllic world of the Führer, but Hitler withdraws [music] more and more into himself.

[00:29:17]It seems that he now only finds joy in his German Shepherd, Blondie.

[00:29:22]At least he is [music] still loyal to him, even now.

[00:29:27]We used to see him walking his dog, Blondie, quite regularly when we were relieved of duty in that security zone A1, or uh previously called security zone A.

[00:29:41]And he used to let him jump over one of these obstacles. and these, there's And Blondie was his favorite dog.

[00:29:50]And he probably had a closer relationship with it than with humans.

[00:29:57]The ominous nature of this place reveals itself to the local children in a different way.

[00:30:02]The cordoned off area of the Wolf's Lair presents a magical attraction for them.

[00:30:07]The forbidden beckons.

[00:30:10]They are often drawn through the forest to the barrier fences where no civilian is supposed to have any business.

[00:30:17]The children see and learn quickly about the drills and the harassments that the younger guards have to endure.

[00:30:25]And then, on that one day, we heard that a young man had been smoking a cigarette while on guard duty.

[00:30:32]And that was strictly forbidden.

[00:30:35]And he had also been threatened as well.

[00:30:38]And he knew what happened after smoking.

[00:30:42]So, he wasn't allowed to do anything at all, just stand and keep guard.

[00:30:46]In any [clears throat] case, he took it to heart and ended up taking his own life.

[00:30:52]He then hung himself somewhere there.

[00:30:56]At the end of April 1943, Soviet fighter planes reach the Rasten burg area for the first time.

[00:31:02]They drop incendiary bombs and hit isolated farmsteads.

[00:31:07]Also, the major German cities now regularly experience heavy Allied bombing raids.

[00:31:13]The barracks and [music] bunkers of the Wolf's Lair are reinforced once again.

[00:31:17]In the final construction phase, a further concrete shell is poured over the walls [music] and ceilings.

[00:31:24]Hermann Göring's bunker [music] shows the concreting over of the old ceiling.

[00:31:29]Between the concrete levels, crushed stone to dampen the possible blasting effect.

[00:31:35]The thickness of the final ceilings is now up to 8 m strong.

[00:31:40]Experts have calculated these parameters from the explosive [music] power of the most modern Allied bombs.

[00:31:50]The security regulations in the Wolf's Lair are tightened once again.

[00:31:54]Within security zone one, the restricted circle A is outlined.

[00:31:59]Only those who work for Hitler personally or in one of the offices located there were granted access.

[00:32:06]But the safety precautions have their gaps.

[00:32:09]With the help of an SS friend, the intelligence soldier Alfons Schultze had the opportunity to get a first-hand impression of the Führer's bedroom.

[00:32:19]They made a very legitimate and very important impression.

[00:32:24]They can do that, putting on important faces.

[00:32:27]And then, we went into the Führer's bunker, into the sleeping room, which was basically nothing more than a camp bed. And above it, there was a shelf with two or three books on it.

[00:32:41]And I thought, "My God, what might your Führer read in his sleepless nights?"

[00:32:47]So, I took one, stomach diseases, and the second, his stomach diseases.

[00:32:53]Yeah, I thought, "That's the interesting part."

[00:32:57]Bunker 21, the intelligence bunker.

[00:33:00]New Year's Eve 1943.

[00:33:03]The soldiers make [music] plans to meet after their duty.

[00:33:06]On that particular night, they get drunk without restraint.

[00:33:09]We were stinking drunk that evening, everyone who wasn't on duty.

[00:33:14]And one started and everyone just joined in the roar at midnight.

[00:33:18]Nations hear the signals, and that's not what they wanted.

[00:33:31]The anthem of the communist movement, and that just a few [music] meters away from the Führerbunker.

[00:33:38]A healthy portion of gallows humor as a harbinger of doom.

[00:33:42]There won't be another New Year's celebrated in this location.

[00:33:52]Then comes January 1944.

[00:33:55]The Red Army launches a new major offensive in the attempt to liberate Leningrad.

[00:34:01]After 900 days of siege, the Wehrmacht is forced to retreat here, too.

[00:34:06]Hitler demands that the generals should try commit the troops even more strongly to the battle.

[00:34:12]A few days later, the dictator records a radio speech in the Wolf's Lair to address the German people.

[00:34:18]This is German National Radio.

[00:34:22]We broadcast an address by the Führer to the citizens of the German nation, sent from the Führer's headquarters on the 30th of January.

[00:34:31]I expect the citizens of the cities to forge weapons for this battle. I expect every single German to fulfill this as his sole duty to the utmost, to make every sacrifice that is and that must be demanded of him.

[00:34:46]I expect from every healthy person that he'll fight in this war with life and limb. I expect every last sick, infirm, or otherwise incapacitated person to work to the last ounce of their strength.

[00:35:02]On July 20th, [music] 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg lands at the Wolf's Lair airfield, 6 km away.

[00:35:10]He is carrying two explosive devices.

[00:35:16]Stauffenberg gets past the controls and into the Führer's headquarters without any difficulty.

[00:35:23]On this day, [music] he wants to carry out the long-planned assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler at all costs.

[00:35:30]And only a little later, a bomb explodes during [music] the daily briefing.

[00:35:37]The assassination attempt fails.

[00:35:39]The meeting had been moved at short notice from the Führerbunker to the so-called [music] Speer Barrack.

[00:35:46]The explosion is powerful, but quickly deflagrates through the windows of the barrack.

[00:35:52]Although Hitler survives, chaos ensues in the Wolf's Lair.

[00:35:58]And then, ambulances and police cars arrived.

[00:36:02]I first saw the bleeding people and the injured people being carried and transported to the Speer Barrack.

[00:36:10]And that was maybe about 20 m away. But also, a number of apparently dead people were driven down in a special car.

[00:36:23]A few hours after the despicable assassination attempt, the Führer receives the Duce from Italy for a very cordial discussion.

[00:36:33]Hitler uses a visit by Mussolini to show the world that he, the Führer, is master of the situation.

[00:36:41]He will later speak of providence.

[00:36:47]Shortly afterwards, >> [music] >> a merciless campaign of revenge against the military opposition in Germany begins.

[00:36:57]The next day, Hitler visits the wounded in the military hospital nearby in the city of Karlshof.

[00:37:03]To the outside world, he pretends to be the caring and strong man.

[00:37:09]But after the assassination attempt, he will hardly trust anyone.

[00:37:14]An eerie atmosphere of mistrust and fear now dominates the Wolf's Lair.

[00:37:24]In August 1944, Soviet reconnaissance planes make their next move and drop leaflets over the site.

[00:37:30]These leaflets listed many of the employees that were working at the Wolf's Lair.

[00:37:36]They had the message on them, "Defect while there's still time.

[00:37:42]We do know all your names, and you will all be held accountable."

[00:37:47]Also, my name was on there as well.

[00:37:51]The Red Army received this information from unfortunate captured soldiers who were previously on duty in the Wolf's Lair.

[00:37:59]After the leaflets had rained down onto the Wolf's Lair, no one was allowed to be transferred to the front by order of the Führer himself.

[00:38:09]We were given a stamp as person entrusted with confidential information, no one is to be deployed to the front line.

[00:38:20]But if the Allies actually knew where the Führer's headquarters were located, why didn't they simply try to bomb the Wolf's Lair and be done with it?

[00:38:31]Well, at that time, the British actually did consider, even at this point in the middle of the war, that it might be advantageous to attack and eliminate Hitler personally.

[00:38:45]After careful consideration, however, it was decided that it would be better not to do this because with a successor like a capable general such as Manstein, it would be much more difficult to defeat the Wehrmacht.

[00:39:02]So, not attacking Hitler meant that this insane dilettante at the top of the German leadership with the strategic mistakes he made, he would be easier to be defeated in the end.

[00:39:18]In the fall of 1944, the mood in the Führer's headquarters is gloomy.

[00:39:22]The Red Army stands at the border of East Prussia. The anti-aircraft [music] positions on the bunkers are getting cleared.

[00:39:28]Military equipment, communications technology, and all household goods are packed.

[00:39:35]On November 20th, 1944, Hitler and his entourage leave the Wolf's Lair forever.

[00:39:46]The German troops continue to retreat.

[00:39:48]With the scorched earth tactic, nothing should fall into the enemy's hands intact.

[00:39:54]An incredible orgy of explosions accompanies the German retreat.

[00:40:12]On January 24th, 1945, German engineers finally [music] also blow up the bunkers of the Wolf's Lair.

[00:40:19]Heavy chunks of concrete are literally hurled dozens of [music] meters through the air.

[00:40:24]What remains is a landscape of bunkers, rubble, and ruins.

[00:40:30]In January 1945, it was a total concrete wasteland in the wintry snowy landscape.

[00:40:36]Now substantially overgrown with greenery.

[00:40:39]The old falls apart.

[00:40:41]Time changes and new life blossoms from the ruins.

[00:40:46]Only 10 years was enough.

[00:40:48]After the war, the Polish settled here and everything that could be used for other purposes was demolished and taken away.

[00:40:55]All log cabins, wooden paneling, parquet flooring, steel shutters, camouflage nets hung everywhere above, which can still be seen as garden fences in Rastenburg today.

[00:41:07]>> [music] >> The Wolf's Lair, a field of rubble.

[00:41:11]Now the area is being conquered by the Polish population.

[00:41:15]The new settlers transport [music] everything that can be dismantled to the surrounding villages and towns.

[00:41:22]But the massive colossus still has a destructive power.

[00:41:26]Almost 50,000 [music] mines are buried here.

[00:41:29]In 1946, Polish pioneers began to [music] defuse the countless mines around the area of the Wolf's Lair.

[00:41:36]For them, the war is still not over.

[00:41:40]It was very dangerous because there were no documents at all.

[00:41:45]We didn't know anything at the beginning. We carried out several inspections to be able to assess the situation on the field.

[00:41:55]We didn't know how the terrain was mined, whether it was without a system or according to a pattern. Finally, we found out that it was mined according to a so-called coordination system, according to a certain pattern.

[00:42:11]The process of demining [music] will last until 1955.

[00:42:15]More than one Polish pioneer loses his life in the process.

[00:42:21]Then in 1957, the area starts to be used for tourism. The Wolf's Lair becomes an excursion destination.

[00:42:28]More and more visitors from Germany, from East and West, are coming here.

[00:42:33]Some criticize the propagandistic nature of the communist era.

[00:42:37]Others, later, turn up their noses at the arrival of the market economy and the purely touristic concept without any serious historical context. [music] The Wolf's Lair remains an oppressive place.

[00:42:50]The war to the East was commanded from here. A war that brought endless suffering and changed Europe from the ground up.

[00:42:59]Today, the Wolf's [music] Lair is not an official memorial, but a bizarre monument to the consequences of German delusions of grandeur during the 20th century.