The Wolf's Lair (; ) was Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. Currently, it is a museum open to the public, as well as a hotel, conference room and restaurant.
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 's bunker were surrounded by three security zones guarded by two (SS) units: the and the .
The 's armored was held in readiness nearby but, as a part of the German Army's elite Division, was used to counter-attack Red Army break-throughs in Army Group Centre's front and rescue cut-off Army, Air Force, paratrooper, and SS armoured troops.
The 20 July plot, an assassination attempt against Hitler, took place at the Wolf's Lair on 20 July 1944.
Name The name Wolfsschanze is derived from "Wolf", a nickname of Hitler used only by his close friends. "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. The name Adolf itself originates in Germanic Athalwolf, "noble wolf".
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 Central 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 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. 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 -year period.
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.
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 Obersturmbannführer Bruno Gesche. These were the only armed guards Hitler allowed to be near him. 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. The zone contained the Führer Bunker and ten other camouflaged bunkers built from steel-reinforced concrete. These shelters protected members of Hitler's inner circle such as Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, and Alfred Jodl. Hitler's accommodation was on the shaded northern side of the Führer Bunker. Both Hitler's and Keitel's bunkers had additional rooms where military conferences could be held.Kershaw 2000 p. 55 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. 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 from the site. Additional troops were also stationed about away.
Reinforcements
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."
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.
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.Junge, Traudl. Until the Final Hour. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, p. 126. According to Armaments Minister Albert Speer, "some 36,000,000 marks were spent for bunkers in Rastenburg [Wolf's Lair]."Speer, A: Inside the Third Reich, p. 217
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."Junge, Traudl. Until the Final Hour. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, p. 145.
No air attack ever came; but it has never been revealed whether the Western Allies knew of the Wolfsschanzes 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.Beevor, Antony (1999) Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942–1943. New York: Penguin Books.
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 10:30 a.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.
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 7:30 p.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.
Notable visitors
Ion Antonescu – marshal of Romania Boris III of Bulgaria – tsar of Bulgaria Subhas Chandra Bose – national leader from India Dobri Bozhilov – prime minister of Bulgaria in 1943–44 Galeazzo Ciano (minister of foreign affairs) – Italy Lajos Csatay von Csatai (general, ministry of war) – Hungary Rashid Ali al-Gaylani (former prime minister) – Iraq Italo Gariboldi (general) – Italy Rodolfo Graziani (marshal) – Italy Miklós Horthy (regent) – Hungary Gusztáv Jány (general) – Hungary Miklós Kállay (prime minister) – Hungary Prince Kiril of Bulgaria (prince of Bulgaria and Preslav, tsar successor) – Bulgaria Slavko Kvaternik (commander and minister of armed forces) – Croatia Pierre Laval (prime minister of Vichy regime) – France Konstantin Lukash (general, chief of staff of the Bulgarian Army) – Bulgaria Fanni Luukkonen (army colonel, leader of the voluntary auxiliary organisation for women) – Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (military leader and statesman) – Finland José Finat y Escrivá de Romaní (Conde de Mayalde, ambassador to Third Reich) – Spain Nikola Mihov (general, minister of war) – Bulgaria José Moscardó Ituarte (general) – Spain Benito Mussolini (prime minister) – Italy Milan Nedić – general and prime minister of Serbia Harald Öhquist – lieutenant general of Finland Hiroshi Ōshima (general, ambassador to Third Reich) – Japan Ante Pavelić – Poglavnik ("Head") of Croatia Jozef Tiso – Roman Catholic priest and President of Slovakia Cemil Cahit Toydemir – (general) – Turkey
Assassination attempt
On Thursday 20 July 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 Graf 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 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, Graf von 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.