Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair Headquarters By Roger Mason & Blaine Taylor Ed’s Note: Roger Mason wrote the arti- based on famous battles, Wagnerian Alfred Jodl, Henrich Himmler, Todt, cle text, while Blaine Taylor found the opera characters or predatory fowl, Joseph Goebbels or Joachim Von photographs and wrote their captions. while several locations referred to Ribbentrop. All of them stayed in wolves. In the 1920s Hitler had tempo- temporary quarters nearby, or set up Origin rarily used the last name of “Wolf” as their own satellite headquarters. an alias. He told his associates he often Security Zone II included support n the autumn of 1940 Hitler was envisioned himself a lone wolf prowl- buildings, storage, administrative looking eastward for his next ing through a dark forest. The new offices and staff areas. The original I campaign. He therefore ordered east front headquarters was named by buildings were wooden huts along Minister of Construction Ernst Todt Hitler the Wolfschanze or Wolf’s Lair. with a handful of small bunkers. to personally conduct a search for a Roads and footpaths were laid out suitable location for his new east front Construction within both zones. Vehicles were headquarters. Todt, along with two kept to a minimum in Security senior adjutants, began scouring East Upon final site selection, Zone I. Only Hitler, Keitel, Goering Prussia for suitable areas. Eventually work on the eastern front FHQ and visiting VIP were allowed to three locations were selected there began immediately. The design bring their cars into that area. and in Poland. The top choice was a was a rectangular complex in a During initial construction some wooded area in the Gorlitz Forest near wooded area with two security areas trees were removed to allow more the East Prussian town of Rastenburg. divided by a rail line. Security Zone building space. In turn, that caused the The site was remote and sparsely I included accommodations and designers to become concerned about populated, and was connected to civili- buildings for Hitler and his staff. the possibility of aerial reconnaissance zation by a single highway and rail line. Within it was housing for a due to gaps in the vegetation. There By that time the Fuehrer had select number of senior officials, were also extensive walkways cut already occupied five other military including Field Marshals Keitel and through the trees between the huts and headquarters in western Germany, Goering. It didn’t include housing bunkers. Many of those walkways were France and Belgium. They ranged for other senior Nazis, such as therefore covered and camouflaged, from temporary buildings with field fortifications to permanent com- pounds with underground bunkers. All of them required construction and engineering expertise. Organization Todt, the official construction and civil engineering firm of the Reich, was given those tasks. Siegfried Schmelcher was appointed chief architect for all Fuehrerhauptquartier (Fueher Headquarters or FHQ). He in turn set up a design studio with a team of 30 architects and engineers at the Organization Todt offices in Berlin. Schmelcher’s deputy was Leo Muller. The team members were selected for their expertise in a variety of engineering and architectural disciplines including: sanitation, water systems, heating, camouflage and Some of the German high command at a weapons fortification. They maintained a demonstration in East Prussia nearby the Wolf’s Lair HQ. large warehouse that provided all the From left to right: Minister of Armaments & War Production Albert Speer, Army Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, Armor Inspector furniture used for the various FHQ. General Heinz Guderian, High Command Chief & Field Every FHQ received a codename, Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Hitler, a pair of unidentified usually selected personally by Hitler. officers, and Gen. Walter Buhle.(Photo by Walter Frentz, The list included a variety of names FHQ motion picture cameraman during the war.) 40 WORLD at WAR 39 | DEC 2014–JAN 2015 WORLD at WAR 39 | DEC 2014–JAN 2015 41 table in the area, which complicated that aspect of construction. The only underground rooms were in the offi cer mess, where a food storage facility and wine cellar were located. Invasion of Russia On 22 June 1941 the Wehrmacht crossed the border into the USSR, and within 36 hours Hitler was on the move from Berlin to Rastenburg. His headquarters staff boarded trains in Berlin and were told they were going to a secret location. Gen. Walter Warlimont was deputy chief of operations for the military high command. He described the impressions of the staff as they arrived at Security Zone II. That area was sur- rounded by barbed wire and contained wooden huts for offi ces. He wrote Another interior map room scene showing Hitler (right) greeting famed Luftwaffe the atmosphere was “foreboding,” fi ghter ace Erick Hartmann at left (Heinrich Hoffmann Albums). and seemed like a “cross between a monastery and a concentration camp.” With the invasion of Russia begun, the central focus of the war moved to the eastern front: to Hitler, everywhere comfort facilities were added for the else became secondary theaters of permanent staff, including a second operation. The larger general staff dining hall, a sauna and a cinema. was replaced at the FHQ by a smaller An additional security zone was set group of offi cers under the supervision up inside the original Zone I, which of Gen. Jodl. His planning team took became known as Security Zone A. verbal orders directly from Hitler and That included a fence immediately turned them into written operational surrounding the Fuehrer bunker plans and documents. Hitler assumed more and more personal control of Living at the Wolf’s Lair operations as the war progressed. With every branch of the German Most of the staff didn’t live at the government increasingly having to be Wolf’s Lair, but in various civilian and connected to the Wolfs Lair FHQ, the military quarters nearby. Commuting facility grew in size and complexity. to work was therefore an issue. Staff living at the army compound at Construction Phase II: Mauerwald could drive those 10 miles An exterior view, taken after the explosion, of the northeast side of the Conference 1942-43 or take a small commuter train to Hall. The trio of window shutters are open (Library of Congress). the FHQ. Suffi cient time had to be As the fi ghting dragged on, the added to daily schedules to permit while the bunkers were painted to also worked to keep the light subdued. need to make the temporary buildings passage through the layers of security. match the surrounding forest and the It’s unclear if all that was to thwart permanent became obvious, while Visitors and workers would entire area was covered by camoufl age aerial reconnaissance or because the staffi ng requirements also continued approach the compound through netting. The only open space was a Fuehrer detested bright light. It was to grow. Approximately 1,500 support one of three gates. At each gate was meadow directly east of the Fuehrer probably a combination of both. staff were soon at the FHQ. More a member of the Fuehrer Begleit bunker, which was reserved for The original bunkers were small, staff meant more offi ce space was (Escort) Battalion and an offi cer of the Hitler’s dog as a recreation area. above ground, and with no under- needed. Buildings that had started Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD or Reich Lighting at night was minimized. ground tunnels. At the time the Wolf’s as wooden huts were converted into Security Service). Every person’s papers Hitler’s secretary Traudel Junge Lair was built, it was intended only as permanent constructions of brick were checked. A basic pass would recalled how walking across the a temporary fi eld headquarters like and mortar. Every branch of the allow its holder entry to Security Zone FHQ at night could be disorienting. its predecessors on the western front. government and armed forces came II, but another kind of pass was needed White rings were painted on trees at There was then no perceived need for to have at least a liaison offi cer, often in order to gain access to Security Zone eye-level to provide contrast in the permanent structures, because the with his own staff, at the Wolf’s Lair. I. Once entry was granted, visitors gloom, while the roads and some of conquest of Russia was to be com- Wooden annexes were added to were escorted directly to their place of the walkways were illuminated by pleted by fall. Underground structures Keitel and Hitler’s bunkers to provide business and told not to wander from blue lights. The camoufl age netting were also limited due to the high water more working space. Additional it. Any staff member needing to stretch One of Hitler’s favorite wartime portraits. (US Army Combat Art Collection, Washington, DC.) 42 WORLD at WAR 39 | DEC 2014–JAN 2015 WORLD at WAR 39 | DEC 2014–JAN 2015 43 The monument to the German anti-Hitler resistance movement (above, center), taken in 1998 at the site of the 1944 assassination attempt (photo by John H. Bloecher). Hitler’s bomb blast injuries were immediately Head of the German Army Personnel Gen. Adolf Heusinger survived the bomb blast them because of their claustrophobic treated by his personal physician since 19360 Dr. Department Gen. Rudolf Schmundt was and World War II to become a general in the atmosphere, the noisy ventilation, Theodor Morell (Heinrich Hoffmann Albums). severely wounded in the bomb blast, West German Bundeswehr in 1955, and he and he died in the hospital on 1 October appears here in that uniform. Heuisinger was and the fact Hitler preferred the 1944.