--- Original title: "Geheimnisvolle Orte: Hitlers Wolfsschanze" ---
Since 2014, the documentary series "Geheimnisvolle Orte" (Mysterious Places) on the Channel 1 of German Television has regularly been immersed in the fascinating stories of special places in Germany and around the world. From the Brocken of Harz Mountains, the KaDeWe in Berlin to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, every place has its own and very special story that needs to be told. This installment covers the "Wolf's Lair", the most infamous of Adolf Hitler's bunkers.
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Year after year, curious tourists make the trip to Kretzyn, Rastenburg in Poland, located in the Masurian Woods what used to be former East Prussia, to view the "Wolf's Lair". The visitors of today are fascinated by the moss-covered concrete colossi that once housed Hitler's military headquarter.
Wolfsschanze, the Wolf's Lair was the largest of the so-called "Fuhrer headquarters" in WWII. This place was once cloaked in such secrecy that several rumours and legends were circulated about this mysterious military base. The documentary tells the story of its clandestine construction from the perspective of military personnel and residents of the nearby former Rastenburg. It also describes the power structure of the National Socialist state during the so-called "Russlandfeldzug", Hitler's invasion into the Soviet Union.
Approximately 2000 people were stationed in Wolfsschanze, and they were organized as a small city. The Wolf's Lair was not only a military situation centre for the Generals of German Wehrmacht , it was where the NS leadership discussed and made major decisions that led Germany to the an inevitably catastrophic end.
The decision to eradicate the Jews was discussed here with SS leaders Himmler and Heydrich. It was also in the Wolf's Lair where Goebbels presented the ideas for the total war. Last but not least it is a place where one can understand Hitler's farcical decisions and his sense of confusion while trapped in bunkers isolation.
The Wolfsschanze is not only a symbol of the cruelest German dictatorship, the other Germany also showed itself here, those brave men of July 20th who wanted to end the darkest chapter of German history but did not succeed.

A Film by Lutz Rentner and Frank Otto Sperlich ; A Noahfilm GbR and RBB/Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg Production