In mid-March 1945, with the German capital besieged by Allied bombing, Adolf Hitler agreed to move to the bunker set up under the Chancellery, from which he would practically never leave. Beyond the Führer, the absolute king of that strange world was Martin Bormann, his personal secretary and head of the party Chancellery. He had not only adapted to the strange schedule of his boss, but followed him like a barnacle, controlling all access to it. A tireless worker, he took notes of everything, which he then passed on to his secretary Else Krüger.
Bormann was not an appreciated character, but in those days he established a tacit alliance with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, directed against the other two de facto powers of the Reich: SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and the theoretical successor to the dictator, Marshal Hermann Göring. , who, unlike the previous ones, appeared very occasionally. It was a permanent struggle for power that emanated from the Führer; nobody seemed to realize that there was no option for the future.
But, more than politicians, those who filled the rooms of the complex were the military. As head of the Wehrmacht High Command, Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and his Chief of Operations, General Alfred Jodl, came and went. The latter never contradicted the Führer, while the former often withdrew from the conversation and sometimes dozed.
The only one capable of telling the truth was the chief of the Army General Staff, General Heinz Guderian. His shouting matches with the dictator were proverbial, until he was ousted on March 28 and replaced by General Hans Krebs, who formed a mild tandem with the head of the Army Personnel Office, also General Wilhelm Burgdorf. Both shared a supervening fondness for alcohol.
On a second level were the permanent representatives and liaisons of the different arms at the Führer Headquarters: Vice Admiral Hans-Erich Voss for the Navy, the aforementioned Colonel Von Below for the Luftwaffe and Lieutenant Colonel Willy Johannmeyer for the Army.
Above all, the figure of SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein stood out. Attractive and intelligent, ruthless but likeable, Himmler's marriage had an ace up his sleeve: he was married to Gretl Braun ‒Eva's sister, lover of the Führer‒, from whom he was expecting a child.
Without having a specific function, but appreciated by all for his kindness and common sense, was Ambassador Walther Hewel, one of Hitler's few personal friends, who used to act as a mediator in disputes.
However, few of these people, except perhaps Bormann and Goebbels, would become part of the Führer's very small inner circle in those days. Beyond his aides-de-camp (Heinz Linge, Otto Günsche and Julius Schaub) and his personal doctors (first Morell and then Ludwig Stumpfegger and Werner Haase), only his secretaries (Christa Schroeder, Traudl Junge, Johanna Wolf and Gerda Christian), his dietitian Constanze Manziarly and, of course, Eva Braun, who had arrived on April 15 to join her fate with her lover, were allowed to eat with him and share afternoon tea.
The tea took place late at night, and it used to recall a happy past that would no longer return. Reality made the topic of what was the best method to commit suicide a recurring one. Hitler always said that the best way to die was to shoot yourself in the mouth, to which Eva Braun replied: "I want to be a beautiful corpse, I'll take poison."
Only the presence of Eva, with her banal occurrences, lightened the gloomy atmosphere. The turning point of that strange world would take place on April 20.
That day the Führer's 56th birthday was celebrated, but, far from past festivities, the climate was sober and sad. The hopeful effect of the death of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which according to Goebbels heralded a confrontation between the Western allies and the USSR, had faded, and there were only long faces.
One by one, the gyrfalcons shook hands with Hitler, who merely nodded. It would be the last time he would see Himmler and Göring, who left early because, according to him, they had important business to attend to. The group hastily disbanded, and the Führer, accompanied by Artur Axmann, stepped out into the garden to decorate a group of young Hitler Youth who were defending their dwindling empire against Soviet tanks with their lives.
To break with the desolate panorama, Eva Braun encouraged everyone to go up to the first floor of the Chancellery. She poured out the champagne, and someone found a gramophone with a single record: Blutrote Rosen. Eva began to dance and others imitated her; even Bormann and Morell joined the party. But the false joy was short-lived. Strong explosions finished her off. The Soviet loop closed around Berlin.
Joachim von Ribbentrop pleaded unsuccessfully with his boss, as others had already done, to leave Berlin and move to Bavaria, now that there was still time. Hitler refused, relying on Goebbels, but allowed non-essential personnel to leave. Hundreds of passes were issued that night, among which were those of the secretaries Wolf and Schroeder.
A little later, looking at the map of the situation, a bright idea occurred to him. Completely oblivious to reality, he envisioned a master move: while SS-Oberguppenführer Felix Steiner's III SS-Panzerkorps attacked from Oranienburg, General Walther Wenck's 12th Army could reach Berlin. It didn't matter that such units were fighting for their own survival, the illusion was reborn, and plans for the future returned. But Steiner did not want to uselessly sacrifice his men.
Finding out at the meeting the next day, Hitler did not hold back. With the exception of Krebs, Burgdorf, Keitel, Goebbels and Bormann, he ushered everyone out of the map room ‒a tiny room in which only the Führer could sit‒ and, foaming at the mouth, railed at all the generals of he. “But if you gentlemen think that I am going to leave Berlin, you are completely mistaken! I'd rather shoot myself in the temple!"
Already calm, he left the room and, addressing his secretaries, who were waiting anxiously, he told them: “In an hour a plane will take off that will take you south. All is lost, there is no hope." Those present were stunned, and the first to come out was Eva Braun, who declared that she was staying with him. Hitler's eyes moistened, and the never-before-seen thing happened to her: she kissed him on the mouth. The secretaries and even the cook said one after another that they were also staying. To which Hitler replied: "I wish my generals were as brave as you."
It was then, and not before, when Goebbels phoned his wife to move to the bunker with their children, specifying that the children could only bring one toy each, and not many clothes: "They will no longer need it." Everyone understood that it was the end, and the rules began to relax. When Hitler passed by, few got up, and drunkenness and sex were rampant in the corners. Some weddings were even officiated. Each one hurried the last moments.
Not even the arrival of Magda Goebbels and her children, who were going to see "Uncle Adolf", enlivened the atmosphere. What's more, after a while hardly anyone took care of them anymore, and they wandered here and there with their games. Dr. Theodor Morell was dismissed, and General Helmuth Weidling, who, accused of disobedience, volunteered to be shot, left the next day as head of the defense of Berlin. However, the biggest disappointments were yet to come.
Bormann presented a telegram from Göring. In it he stated that, if the Führer did not say otherwise, and in accordance with the will of June 29, 1941, he would take charge of the Reich while Hitler was isolated. At first, he seemed to ignore it, but, at the request of his secretary, he reacted violently and ended up ordering his arrest.
He would later do the same with Himmler when he found out that he had come into contact with the allies through the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte. It did not matter that Fegelein was his brother-in-law: discovered while preparing his escape, he was arrested and executed.
Meanwhile, other characters joined the bunker's tenants, such as Heinrich Müller, the head of the Gestapo, or Albert Speer, who confessed to Hitler that he had sabotaged the Nero Order, although his apathetic interlocutor hardly reacted, and when he was fired he was dismissed. He limited himself to saying: “So he's leaving...? Good. Bye bye!".
He made others come, such as General Robert Ritter von Greim, who was to take charge of what was left of the Luftwaffe and who had arrived with the pilot Hanna Reitsch in a Fieseler “Storch” plane, which landed near the gate of Brandenburg.
But there was no turning back. Hundreds of refugees were piling up in the tunnels of the complex, and the installed field hospital could not cope. The Führer presented the two secretaries who had stayed with a small bottle with a deadly dose of cyanide, saying: "I am very sorry that I cannot give you a more beautiful farewell gift."
When SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke, in charge of defending the government quarter, informed him that the resistance was at its limit, Hitler sped up the proceedings. He had her dog poisoned, to test the effects of the cyanide, and kill his puppies, he ordered Schaub to burn her documents and Linge to arrange for her to be cremated. They all obeyed mechanically. Only Eva Braun seemed somewhat upset: “Mrs. Junge,” she confessed, “I am terribly afraid. I wish it had all happened already!"
At 1 a.m. on April 29, Goebbels had civil servant Walter Wagner brought to the bunker for a campaign wedding. The contracting parties were Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Immediately afterwards, Hitler wrote his political and personal will to Mrs. Junge, and three couriers left with copies of it, while several officers received permission to try to flee. There was still time for a new military meeting.
After lunch, he said goodbye to the secretaries and senior officials with a soft handshake while he stammered some unintelligible words. An hour later, at 3:30 p.m., the newlyweds committed suicide, the bodies were cremated in the garden and their remains disposed of in a hole.
After telegraphing to Admiral Karl Dönitz that Hitler had named him his successor, Goebbels and Bormann agreed to send the Russian-speaking Krebs to negotiate with Soviet General Vasili Chuikov. Knowing that he would only accept unconditional surrender, Goebbels committed suicide in the company of his wife, but not before poisoning his children. So would Generals Burgdorf and Krebs. The others tried to get out in small groups with mixed luck.
It is not clear who was the last to leave the bunker. Radio operator Rochus Misch would claim the credit, although that honor seems to have gone to electrician Johannes Hentschel.
This text is part of an article published in number 624 of the Historia y Vida magazine. Do you have something to contribute? Write to us at redaccionhyv@historiayvida.com.
