The Reich Chancellery and Fuhrerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime

Germany's Nazi government initially made its primary headquarters in one of Berlin's oldest buildings, the Old Reich Chancellery. Adolf Hitler described his New Reich Chancellery and other Nazi buildings as his "words of stone," eternal monuments to the work that he and the Nazi party intended to perpetuate. Frequented by Hitler and his inner circle, these buildings were witnesses to their fanatical plans and an architectural reflection of Hitler's megalomania. The Fuhrerbunker, built underneath the Chancellery, became the last refuge of a dying regime; it was here that Hitler retreated to order the destruction of Germany and ultimately to take his own life. This book is a virtual tour of the now demolished Chancellery and Fuhrerbunker. Beginning in the eighteenth century with a brief history of the Old Reich Chancellery building, the work follows the route by which the property came into Nazi hands. Research concentrates on the Nazi occupation of the structure, the architectural changes that Hitler made to suit his purposes and the historical events that took place inside the Chancellery walls. Appendices contain a chronology of Reich Chancellors (1871-1945), a detailed list of renovations to the Chancellery, and a register of notable gatherings that took place in the Old Reich Chancellery prior to 1914. Texts of various speeches by Hitler are reproduced, along with a copy of his agreement to occupy Czechoslovakia, which was signed in the Reich Chancellery)