Obsessed with Hitler
2005-04-22 08:38
Ulrike von Leszczynski
Berlin - Where was Adolf Hitler's bunker? Berlin city guides have heard this question often in recent weeks since 60 years after the end of World War 2 interest in seeking out the authentic locations of Nazi "wickedness" is more lively than usual.
Visitors are keen to know all about where the Nazi dictator spent his final hours before he took his own life on April 30 1945 yet there is little of substance to show them. The last remnants of Hitler's underground refuge were blown up at the beginning of the 1990s.
Tour guides have to make do with books and sketches as they try to explain to tourists that under a parking lot fringed by prefabricated tower blocks from the 1980s was once the headquarters of a crazed man bent on conquering the world.
The resurgence of interest in Hitler's bunker may be a result of Bernd Eichinger's controversial film Der Untergang (The Downfall) for which the bunker was re-created as a film set. The picture was shown in the United States as The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich.
As the exhausted, bloodshot-eyed dictator, actor Bruno Ganz certainly sent a shiver down the spine of millions of filmgoers when the film was shown in Germany last autumn and winter.
Eichiger's work is based largely on the final chapter of historian Joachim Fest's eponymnous 1 000-page Hitler biography.
The final bunker days
The chapter headed "Twilight of the Gods" describes the intensity of those final bunker days shortly before Berlin fell.
With the Russian Red Army drawing nearer, the Fuehrer stormed through his catacombs under war-ravaged Berlin like a man possessed, terrorising all those around him.
One moment enraged, the next bursting into tears, Hitler was still dreaming of great victory, marshalling whole divisions of troops that had long since ceased to exist. Those among his clique who dared to point out the futility of his orders were accused of betrayal and incompetence.
Just a few days after his 65th birthday on April 20 1945, Hitler finally accepted the hopelessness of his situation and decided to kill himself.
Eva Hitler is believed to have poisoned herself on April 30th while the dictator probably shot himself in the head.
Their bodies were later burnt beyond recognition in the garden of the Reich Chancellory building. Mark Benecke, a criminologist from Cologne, recently announced what he believes to be the discovery of part of Hitler's skull and his teeth in an archive in Moscow.
There is no plaque or hoarding in Berlin with information about the "Fuehrer's" bunker or what went on inside it all those years ago.
'Evil' site a sensitive location
The "evil" site where it once stood is altogether a sensitive location in the city.
It lies only a short distance away from the new Holocaust memorial with its field of concrete blocks symbolising the millions of Jews who died at the hands of Hitler's followers. The memorial opens to the public on May 10th.
What little remains of Hitler's bunker in the German government district has been blasted to smithereens, sealed-off or simply filled-in with rubble or sand.
German authorities are, by their own admission, concerned that these sites could otherwise become places of pilgrimage for extreme right-wingers harking back to Nazi times.
This is not to say that there are no remains of Hitler's past in the centre of the city. A particularly determined British television team managed to track down a building where Russian experts allegedly took Hitler's remains for examination.
Those less interested in such grisly sensationalism can gain some idea of what it must have been like in the final days of Berlin by visiting a site near the Gesundbrunnen subway station. Here a group by the name of "Underworlds of Berlin" runs tours of civilian bunkers left over from the war.
Visitors to these dank relics are often overcome by feelings of claustrophobia and dread. Faded signs and wall inscriptions add to the authenticity of an experience which shows that despite the many myths the last days in Hitler's bunker subterranean refuge must have been grim indeed.
Such displays are unlikely to satisfy the curiosity of tourists who still flock to Berlin's government district. Every day dozens of British and American guests wander past the ministries clutching historical maps with details of the key "Third Reich" locations.
Yet alongside the elderly war veterans are an increasing number of young people from abroad. According to Berlin Tourism spokesperson Natascha Kompatzki, the most popular question, namely "Where was the Berlin Wall?" is usually followed by a second query: "And where was Hitler's bunker?". - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA