Wolf's Lair

The Wolf's Lair (German: Wolfsschanze; Polish: Wilczy Szaniec) was Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II.

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.

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.

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.

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 3+1⁄2-year period.

[1] 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The previous small bunkers had been replaced by the Organisation Todt with "heavy, colossal structures" of reinforced concrete as defense against the feared air attack.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 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.

Consequently, the thick, heavy table absorbed most of the blast and this, along with the collapse of some of the hut's thin walls thus dissipating the shockwave, saved the Führer's life.

Even before the bomb detonated, Stauffenberg and his adjutant, Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, had already begun their departure for Berlin where they planned to take control of the country alongside their fellow conspirators.

According to the official RSHA report, "at first, the guard refused passage until Stauffenberg persuaded him to contact the adjutant to the compound commander who then finally authorized clearance".

The two men reached the outer limit of the security zones and were allowed to catch their plane back to army general headquarters in Berlin.

The attempted assassination was derived from Operation Valkyrie, a covert plan officially sanctioned by Hitler for the Reserve Army to take control and suppress any revolt in the country in the event of his untimely death, which the conspirators adapted to suit their purpose.

Hitler departed from the Wolf's Lair for the final time on Monday, 20 November 1944, when the Soviet advance reached Angerburg (now Węgorzewo), 15 km (9 mi) away.

The Red Army captured the abandoned remains of the Wolfsschanze on 27 January without firing a shot, the same day that Auschwitz was liberated farther south.

Following the war, more than 54,000 land mines were removed from the area, together with abandoned ordnance, and the entire site was left to decay by Poland's Communist government.

Critics worried that the planned changes could turn the site into a place for neo-Nazi pilgrimages, although the District's spokesperson said that they would "make every effort" to maintain "due seriousness and respect for historical truth".

The project will include expanding and renovating the hotel and restaurant building, adding a new conference room, redesigning the exhibition space, as well as constructing a new observation deck.

[53] In 2024, archaeologists exploring the complex's former living quarters of Hermann Göring reported discovering five human skeletons (three adults, a teenager and a baby believed to be a family) missing their hands and feet and lacking any traces of clothing or personal objects buried under the brick residence.

  1. Office and barracks of Hitler's bodyguard
  2. FBK / RSD command post
  3. Emergency generator
  4. Bunker
  5. Office of Otto Dietrich , Hitler's press secretary
  6. Conference room, site of the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt
  7. RSD command post
  8. Guest bunker and air-raid shelter
  9. RSD command post
  10. Secretariat under Philipp Bouhler
  11. Headquarters of Johann Rattenhuber , SS chief of Hitler's security department, and Post Office
  12. Radio and telex buildings
  13. Vehicle garages
  14. Railway siding for Hitler's Train
  15. Cinema
  16. Generator buildings
  17. Quarters of Morell , Bodenschatz , Hewel , Voß , Wolff , and Fegelein
  18. Stores
  19. Residence of Martin Bormann , Hitler's personal secretary
  20. Residence and bunker of Adolf Hitler
  21. Bormann's personal air-raid shelter for himself and staff
  22. Office of Hitler's adjutant and the Wehrmacht's personnel office
  23. Military and staff mess II
  24. Quarters of General Alfred Jodl , Chief of Operations of OKW
  25. Firefighting pond
  26. Office of the Foreign Ministry
  27. Quarters of Fritz Todt , then Albert Speer after Todt's death
  28. RSD command post
  29. Air-raid shelter with Flak and MG units on the roof
  30. Hitler's bunker and air-raid shelter
  31. New tea room
  32. Residence of General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel , supreme commander of OKW
  33. Old tea house
  34. Residence of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring
  35. Göring's personal air-raid shelter for himself and staff, with Flak and MG on the roof
  36. Offices of the High Command of the Air Force
  37. Offices of the High command of the Navy
  38. Bunker with Flak
  39. Cementry
  40. Rastenburg railway line
Hitler meeting Reich Commissioner Robert Ley , automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche , and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring at the Wolfsschanze in 1942
Claus von Stauffenberg (left) meeting Adolf Hitler at the Wolfsschanze five days before the 20 July plot in 1944
Hermann Göring surveys the conference room destroyed by the suitcase bomb left by Claus von Stauffenberg on 20 July 1944 .
Enormous amounts of explosives were used by the retreating Germans to blow up the Wolfsschanze bunkers . Here the explosion has lifted a bunker's roof, made of solid ferro-concrete two meters thick.
Memorial to Polish Army sappers who demined the area in 1945–1955