1889 - 1945
By early 1945, Nazi Germany was on the verge of total military collapse. Poland had fallen to the advancing Soviet Red Army, which was on the verge of capturing Berlin. British, U.S. and Canadian forces were crossing the Rhine into Germany and U.S. and British Commonwealth up from Italy int the the Alps.
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Hitler retreated to his Führerbunker in Berlin on the 16th January 1945. It was clear to the Nazi leadership that the battle for Berlin would be the final battle of the war in Europe. 325,000 German soldiers were surrounded and captured in the Ruhr Pocket on April 18, leaving the path open for U.S. forces to reach Berlin.
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By April 11th the Americans were 62 miles west of the city. On April 20th (Hitler's birthday), Soviet forces were on the outskirts of Berlin and bombarded Berlin for the first time. A day later Red Army tanks reached the outskirts of the city.
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Hitler suffered a total nervous collapse when he was informed that the orders he had issued the previous day for SS-General Felix Steiner's Army Detachment Steiner to counter attack had not been obeyed. He launched a tirade against his commanders, calling them treacherous and incompetent, culminating in a declaration - for the first time - that the war was lost.
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Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself. Luftwaffe chief Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring learned about this and sent a telegram to Hitler asking for permission to take over the leadership of the Reich in accordance with Hitler's 1941 decree naming him as his successor. Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann convinced Hitler that Göring was threatening a coup. In response, Hitler informed Göring that he would be executed unless he resigned all of his posts. Later that day, he sacked Göring from all of his offices and ordered his arrest.
Photo: U.S. Federal Government • Believed to be in the Public Domain
By the 27th April, Berlin was cut off from the rest of Germany. Secure radio communications with defending units had been lost; the command staff in the Führerbunker had to depend on telephone lines for passing instructions and orders, and on public radio for news and information. Hitler received a BBC report stating that Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had offered to surrender to the Western Allies. The offer was declined. Himmler had implied to the Allies that he had the authority to negotiate a surrender, which Hitler considered to be treason. That afternoon, Hitler's anger and bitterness escalated into a rage against Himmler and he ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's headquarters) shot for desertion.
Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 145 Bild-F051673-0059 • Licensed for reuse under CC-BY-SA 3.0
Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler in 1942.
The Red Army had advanced into Berlin and were preparing to storm the Chancellery. This and Himmler's treachery prompted Hitler to make the last decisions of his life. Shortly after midnight on the 29th April, he married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in a map room within the Führerbunker. The two then hosted a modest wedding breakfast, after which Hitler took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament. It left instructions to be carried out immediately following his death, with Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels assuming Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively.
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Hitler and Braun lived together as husband and wife in the bunker for less than forty hours. Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on the 30th April 1945 in his Führerbunker. Eva Braun committed suicide with him by taking cyanide. In accordance with his prior written and verbal instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker.
Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-V04744 • Licensed for reuse under CC-BY-SA 3.0
Exterior of the Führerbunker shortly before its destruction.
Hitler and Eva Braun's remains were burnt in a shell crater outside the emergency exit at the left.
Source: Wikipedia
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