The Top Secret mission to reconstruct Fuhrerbunker in Berlin

A German museum recently started planning to reconstruct a model of Fuhrerbunker. The Fuhrerbunker was in Berlin, Germany and was situated between Brandenburg Gates and Potsdamer Platz. It was an enormous bunker where the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, spent the last few months of his life. Hitler went to live in this bunker on 16th January 1945, and from here, he controlled his German forces during the Second World War.  The bunker was destroyed in 1947. Presently, there is a car park replacing the site of the original bunker, but there is an information board where the historical facts about that site are mentioned.

Present day location of the  Fuhrerbunker
Present day location of the Fuhrerbunker, the information sign is on the right.

Germany’s “Top Secret” museum will be initiating this reconstruction. The museum is in Oberhausen, which is near Duisburg in North Rhine-Westphalia and has plans to reconstruct some parts of the bunker. This will include Hitler’s secretary’s office, his rooms, his personal physician, Dr.Morrell’s clinical room and the radio room. This model of the Fuhrerbunker will be reconstructed within the museum premises.

Inside the Reich Chancellery bunker
Inside the Reich Chancellery bunker

On Thursday, Ingo Mersmann, the director of the museum, told The Local: “We are just in the planning stages-the architects are working on it.” He stated, “We want this to be an educational experience so that families or groups of school kids can see how it really was to experience the tiny rooms and the dampness of the bunker. We want to recreate it to show people. We are doing so very carefully and sensitivity.”

Unlike the original Fuhrerbunker whose walls were decorated by the portraits of Hitler, this reconstructed bunker’s wall will be decorated with empty black frames. This will be done for those who misunderstood the reconstruction to be in favor of the ideology of Hitler, The Local reports.

Mersmann said: “We certainly don’t want to recreate a place for the misguided people who still see him as a hero to come as a pilgrimage. We are planning against that.”

The museum is planning to open the display sometime this summer. Since the bunker is going to be the permanent part of the museum, the visitors will have to pay an extra of 3 Euros over the ticket which cost 12.50 Euros.

Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE