Vorbunker

The Vorbunker (upper bunker or forward bunker) was an underground concrete structure originally intended to be a temporary air-raid shelter for Adolf Hitler and his guards and servants. It was located behind the large reception hall that was added onto the old Reich Chancellery, in Berlin, Germany, in 1936. The bunker was officially called the "Reich Chancellery Air-Raid Shelter" until 1943, when the complex was expanded with the addition of the Führerbunker, located one level below. On 16 January 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker. He was joined by his senior staff, including Martin Bormann. Later, Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels moved into the Führerbunker while Magda Goebbels and their six children took residence in the upper Vorbunker. The Goebbels family lived in the Vorbunker until their deaths on 1 May 1945.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler decided to expand the Reich Chancellery (Reichskanzlei), which he considered too small for his needs. On 21 July 1935, Leonhard Gall submitted plans for a large reception hall (that could also be used as a ballroom) to be built onto the old Chancellery. The drawings were unique because of the large cellar that led a further one-and-a-half meters down to a bunker which later became known as the Vorbunker.

The Vorbunker's roof was 1.6 meters (5.2 ft) thick, twice as thick as that of the bunker underneath the nearby Air Ministry building. The thick walls of the Vorbunker supported the weight of the reception hall overhead. It had three entry points, to the north, west, and south. Construction was completed in 1936. It had 12 rooms branching out from a single corridor.

The Führerbunker was built by the Hochtief company as part of an extensive program of subterranean construction in Berlin. It was finished by 1944 and was connected to the Vorbunker by a stairway set at right angles (not a spiral staircase). The two bunkers could be closed off from each other by a bulkhead and steel door. A permanent guard detail was posted by the steel door. The Führerbunker was located about 8.5 metres (28 ft) beneath the garden of the old Reich Chancellery, 120 meters (390 ft) north of the new Reich Chancellery building at Voßstraße 6. The Führerbunker was located 2.5 meters lower than the Vorbunker and to the west-southwest of it. The accommodations for Hitler were moved to the Führerbunker, and by February 1945 it had been decorated with high-quality furniture taken from the Chancellery, along with several framed oil paintings.

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