Reich Chancellery
Reich Chancellery | |
---|---|
Reichskanzlei | |
General information | |
Address | Wilhelmstraße 77 |
Town or city | Berlin-Mitte |
Country | Germany |
Coordinates | 52°30′42″N 13°22′55″E / 52.51167°N 13.38194°E |
Completed | 1939 |
Renovated | 1939 |
Destroyed | 1945 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Carl Friedrich Richter |
The Reich Chancellery (
Today the office of the German chancellor is usually called Kanzleramt (Chancellor's Office), or more formally Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellor's Office). The latter is also the name of the new seat of the Chancellor's Office, completed in 2001.
Old Reich Chancellery
When the military alliance of the North German Confederation was reorganised as a federal state with effect from July 1, 1867, the office of a Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) was implemented at Berlin and staffed with the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck. After the unification of Germany on January 18, 1871, by accession of the South German states, Bismarck became Reich Chancellor of the new German Empire.
In 1869, the Prussian state government had acquired the
In the days of the
Devastated by air raids and almost completely destroyed during the Battle of Berlin, the ruins of the Old Reich Chancellery were not cleared until 1950.
New Reich Chancellery
In late January 1938, Adolf Hitler officially assigned his favourite architect,
Hitler placed the entire northern side of the Voßstraße at Speer's disposal, assigning him the work of creating grand halls and salons which "will make an impression on people".[5] Speer was given a blank cheque—Hitler stated that the cost of the project was immaterial—and was instructed that the building be of solid construction, and that it be finished by the following January in time for the next New Year's diplomatic reception to be held in the new building.
Speer claimed in his autobiography that he had completed the task of clearing the site, designing, constructing, and furnishing the building in less than a year. In fact, preliminary planning and versions of the designs were already being worked on as early as 1935. To clear the space for the New Reich Chancellery, the buildings on the northern side of Voßstraße No. 2–10 had been demolished in 1937.
Over 4,500 people worked in shifts, so that progress could be made around the clock.
In his memoirs, Speer described the impression of the Reichskanzlei on a visitor:
From Wilhelmsplatz an arriving diplomat drove through great gates into a court of honour. By way of an outside staircase he first entered a medium-sized reception room from which double doors almost seventeen feet high opened into a large hall clad in mosaic. He then ascended several steps, passed through a round room with domed ceiling, and saw before him a gallery 480 feet (150 m) long. Hitler was particularly impressed by my gallery because it was twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Hitler was delighted: "On the long walk from the entrance to the reception hall they'll get a taste of the power and grandeur of the German Reich!" During the next several months he asked to see the plans again and again but interfered remarkably little in this building, even though it was designed for him personally. He let me work freely.
The series of rooms comprising the approach to Hitler's reception gallery were decorated with a rich variety of materials and colours, and totalled 221 m (725 ft) in length. The gallery itself was 147.5 m (484 ft) long. Hitler's own office was 400 square meters in size. From the outside, the chancellery had a stern, authoritarian appearance. From the
The New Reich Chancellery suffered severe damage during the Battle of Berlin between April and May 1945 (in comparison, the Old Reich Chancellery was not as badly damaged). Andrei Gromyko, who would later become the Soviet foreign minister, visited the partially-destroyed structure a few weeks after the fighting in the city had completely ceased. He recalls, "We reached it not without difficulties. Ruined edifices, formless heaps of metal and ferro-concrete encumbered the way. To the very entrance of the Chancellery, the car could not approach. We had to reach it on foot..."[This quote needs a citation] He noted the New Reich Chancellery "...was almost destroyed... Only the walls remained, riddled by countless shrapnel, yawning by big shot-holes from shells. Ceilings survived only partly. Windows loomed black by emptiness."[This quote needs a citation]
The last stage of defense by defending German troops took place inside the Reich Chancellery, as mentioned by Gromyko, who stated the following:
Doors, windows and chandeliers testified on them the big imprint of the battle, most of them being broken. The lowest floors of the Reich Chancellery represented chaos. Obviously, the garrison of the Citadel fiercely resisted here... All around lie heaps of crossbeams and overhead covers, both metal and wood and huge pieces of ferro-concrete. On both sides of a narrow corridor, there were certain disposed cells, all eroded by explosions… All this produced a grim and distressing impression. If photography of this underground citadel of Hitler existed, they would become a proper illustration to Dante's Hell; just select which circle.[9]
After
While the western half of the plot was used by the East German government for the establishment of the so-called "Death-Strip" adjacent to the
Gallery
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The New Reich Chancellery under construction in 1938
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The New Reich Chancellery, pictured here on the junction of Hermann-Göring-Straße (now Ebertstraße) and Voßstraße in 1939
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The New Reich Chancellery as pictured on Voss Street in 1939
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The New Reich Chancellery's Courtyard of Honor in 1939. The main entrance was flanked by Arno Breker's two bronze statues Die Wehrmacht and Die Partei ("The Armed Forces" and "The Party")
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The New Reich Chancellery's garden portal (gateway) in 1939
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The New Reich Chancellery's grand marble gallery in 1939
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The New Reich Chancellery's work-study office/room for Hitler in 1939
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The New Reich Chancellery's Reich government chamber (cabinet room) in 1939
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The location of the Old (15) and the New Reich Chancellery (1), together with theWilhelmstraße(26)
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The corner of Wilhelmstraße and Voßstraße today, now occupied by an apartment block and a Chinese restaurant
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A part of the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park, supposedly built from red marble – actually granite – which was said to be taken from the ruins of the New Reich Chancellery
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A bronze Nazi eagle from the New Reich Chancellery on display at the Imperial War Museum in London
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AnotherEagle-and-swastika on display at National Museum of the United States Air Forcein Ohio
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Replica of Arno Breker's Die Wehrmacht (Schwertträger) on display in German Historical Museum in Berlin
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Tapestry from the Reich Chancellery at the former International Museum of World War II, together with uniforms for a party leader and Sturmabteilung member.
See also
- Chief of the Reich Chancellery
- German Chancellery
- Nazi architecture
- Vorbunker
- Welthauptstadt Germania
- Berchtesgaden Chancellery Branch office ("Reichskanzlei Dienststelle Berchtesgaden")
References and citations
- ISBN 0-7864-2393-5.
- ISBN 0-7864-2393-5.
- ^ Mollo, Andrew; Ramsey, Winston, eds. (1988). The Reichs Chancellery and the Berlin Bunker then and now. After the Battle. Vol. 61. London: Seymour Press. p. 28.
- ISBN 978-1-84212-735-3.
- ISBN 978-1-84212-735-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2393-4.
- ^ "Who Was Who in Nazi Germany" Archived 2011-08-09 at the Wayback Machine, Nuremberg Trials Project. Harvard University. Retrieved 2 aug 2011
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2393-4.
- ^ А. Андрей Громыко, Памятное, Москва: Политиздат, 1988, pp 216–217, translated in Maks Ostrovski, The Hyperbole of the World Order, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, pp 144–145.
- ISBN 3-447-05096-9.
- ^ Architektur der Angst einestages – Zeitgeschichten auf Spiegel Online
General
- Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich. New York: Macmillan. LCCN 70-119132.
- Kellerhoff, Sven Felix (2006). Berlin unterm Hakenkreuz (Berlin under the Swastika). Berlin: Berlin Edition be.bra Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-8148-0147-6.
- Allied Intelligence Map of Key Buildings in Berlin (Third Edition, 1945)
Further reading
- Lehrer, Steven (2006). The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime. McFarland. p. 214. ISBN 0-7864-2393-5.
- Lehrer, Steven (2002). Hitler Sites: A City-by-city Guidebook (Austria, Germany, France, United States). McFarland. p. 224. ISBN 0-7864-1045-0.
- Taylor, Blaine. Hitler's Headquarters: From Beer Hall to Bunker, 1920–1945.
- Cowdery, Ray and Josephine. The New German Reichschancellery 1938–1945.
- Schönberger, Angela (1981). Die Neue Reichskanzlei Von Albert Speer. Zum Zusammenhang von nationalsozialistischer Ideologie und Architektur. Berlin: Berlin: Gebr. Mann.
- Scobie, Alex (1990). Hitler's State Architecture: The Impact of Classical Antiquity. University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- Taylor, Robert (1974). The Word in Stone. The Role of Architecture in the National Socialist Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Speer, Albert (1940). Die Neue Reichskanzlei / Architekt Albert Speer. München: Eher Verlag.
- Neubauer, Christoph (2010). Stadtführer durch Hitlers Berlin (Deutsch/English). Frankfurt (Oder): Flashback Medienverlag. ISBN 978-3-9813977-0-3.
- Neubauer, Christoph (2014): Die Reichskanzlei – Architektur der Macht, Band 1 (1733–1875). Chr. Neubauer Verlag, Großschönau 2014, ISBN 978-3-9813977-1-0.
Documentary
- Ruins of the Reich DVD R.J. Adams(Third Reich architecture ruins)
- Hitlers Berlin 3D – Die Reichskanzlei Interaktiv DVD(Computer Animation of the Reich Chancellery).