Adlerhorst
Encyclopedia
Adlerhorst was a World War II
bunker complex in Germany
, located within Kransberg Castle
(incorporated into Usingen
in 1971), Wetterau
in the Taunus
mountains in the province of Hesse
. Designed by Albert Speer
as Adolf Hitler
's main military command complex, after its dismissal by Hitler in February 1940, it served only as his military headquarters during the late 1944/5 Ardennes Offensive.
Pre World War 2, there were no official Führer Headquarters
, with Hitler using either existing military complexes, or mobile facilities close to the battle lines. Under plans developed by Martin Borman and planned by Speer, a series of Führer complexes were built, the best known of which were: the Führerbunker
in Berlin; the Berghof complex in Berchtesgaden
, Bavaria
; and the Wolfsschanze
near Kętrzyn
in modern day Poland
.
Austrian noble
Emma von Scheitlein acquired Kransberg Castle
in the village of Ziegenberg in 1926, and used it for society events. Chosen due to its central location as the proposed main military command headquarters of Hitler, it was appropriated by the Nazi government in 1939. Speer immediately began adapting it, designing military-grade infrastructure which was well disguised and adapted to fit-in with its surroundings.
battles, and a set of deer antlers.
The cottages were numbered and allocated as follows:
Located in the village itself was the largest building of all, the fortified Kraftfahrzeughalle or motor pool garage. Even though its purpose was purely military, it also had a Fachwerk-style, housing not only a large fleet of armored limousines, fire engines, busses and ambulances, but the families of the personnel assigned to them. Above the castle and compound, located to the north in the hills, was a disguised Bundeswehr
depot.
Construction workers from Organisation Todt
were brought in from other regions, with the complex built quickly and without the knowledge of local residents. The entire area was ringed with camouflaged anti-aircraft batteries, constructed first to deflect suspicion about the importance of the site, communicated to locals as an expansion of the air defense zone of Bad Münstereifel
. No evidence exists in post-war records to support that the construction phase was anything but successful in covering up the complex's purpose, with no notes or briefings existing to suggest that its purpose was known beyond Hitler's inner-circle of its construction or importance.
and the drive to Dunkirk. However, although authorised quickly for operation after completion, after a visit by Hitler in February 1940 he dismissed it as an operational base. Speer was hence briefed to adapt the complex for use by the Luftwaffe
, and specifically the needs of Hermann Göring
to serve as the Luftwaffe headquarters during Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Great Britain
.
When plans for the invasion of Britain were abandoned in favour of Operation Barbarossa
, the invasion of the Soviet Union
, the castle and complex were put to use as a rehabilitation center
for soldiers of all ranks, and allocated as Göring's personal retreat.
, Hitler needed a new military base of operations for the forth coming Ardennes Offensive.
Adlerhorst had been given additional security from 1943, with most of the cottages now further disguised with fake evergreen trees so as to blend in with the pine-forested hilltop, so that from the air they defied detection. Additionally, from October 1944, Adlerhorst had become the headquarters of the Commander in Chief of OB West
, Gerd von Rundstedt
.
Hitler arrived at Giessen station
on his personal Führersonderzug (train) on 11 December 1944, taking up residence in Haus 1 until 16 January 1945. Von Rundstedt who was to command Operation Wacht am Rhein set up his headquarters near Limburg
, close enough for the generals and Panzer Corps commanders who were to lead the attack to visit Adlerhorst that evening, travelling there in an SS-operated bus convoy. With the castle acting as overflow accommodation, the main party was settled into Haus 2/the casino, including Generals Jodl, Keitel, Blumentritt
, von Manteuffel and S.S. Colonel Sepp Dietrich
. Joined by Hitler, von Rundstedt ran through the plans, that at 05:00 on December 15, envisaged the attack of three German armies consisting of over 250,000 men. Believing in omens and the successes of his early war campaigns that had been planned at Adlerhorst, Hitler rejoiced in the battles early successes, taking long walks in the pine forest, regaling his team with his postwar plans and aspirations.
Shortly after Christmas, Göring arrived and took up residence in the castle. After an extremely downbeat briefing in the casino, Göring privately suggested to Hitler that a truce be sought via his Swedish
contacts. Hitler flew into a rage, and after threatening to have Göring put before a firing squad, mentally dismissed him as deputy Fuehrer.
, his counter-offensive on New Year's Day.
At midnight, nine Panzer divisions of Heeresgruppe G
commanded by Generaloberst
Johannes Blaskowitz
had mounted an all-out attack on Bastogne
. Then a faked diversionary attack was mounted by eight German divisions of Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein)
commanded by Heinrich Himmler
, against the thinly stretched 110 kilometres (68.4 mi) line of the U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army positions near Lembach
in the Upper Vosges
mountains in Alsace
, 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast, to destroy them. This line had been weakened at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
, having sent troops, equipment and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes
involved in the Battle of the Bulge
. If successful, the German operation would have left the way open for Operation Unternehmen Zahnarzt
, a planned major thrust into the rear of the U.S. 3rd Army, which would lead to the destruction of that army.
However, having cracked the Enigma code machines
, each German manoeuvre was either prepared for or out-flanked by an allied counter-move. This resulted in a bitter attritional campaign that was lost from the 25th January onwards, by the German's running out of replacement man power, machinery and supplies.
was jettisoned on Ziegenberg by a returning Allied bomber, damaging the church and several houses, killing four residents. With the Ardennes Offensive failed, and no new military plans or the resources by which to carry them out, the German military high command accepted that the western front was lost. Hitler left Adlerhorst for East Prussia
on January 16, 1945 to bolster the defenders, with the Russians having already reached Danzig.
Having been made commander of OB West on March 11, on March 17 Kesselring ordered all classified documents and sensitive equipment removed from the castle, moving himself and the command centre to the OKW house. Having been alerted to the original purpose of the complex, and not knowing if Hitler was in residence, on March 19 the castle and surrounding area was subject to a 45 minute fire bombing air raid by a squadron of P-51 Mustang
s. This resulted in the loss of 10 civilian lives, and the castle plus many of the surrounding buildings being damaged, destroyed or set on fire.
On March 28, with the American Army only 12 miles (19.3 km) away, Kesselring ordered all civilian employees and families of military personnel to evacuate, using all available motor pool equipment. German troops were instructed to dynamite the Führer compound.
Soon afterwards a British-American detention center, commonly referred to as Operation Dustbin, was moved here from Paris
and established in parts of the complex, for high-ranking German non-military prisoners of war. Focused on key industrialists, scientists and economists, among those interrogated were Hjalmar Schacht
, Wernher von Braun
, Ferdinand Porsche
, and the leaders of the IG Farben
chemical conglomerate. The highest-ranking of these persons of interest was the complex's original designer Albert Speer, who during his detention between June and August 1945 provided very open and detailed accounts of the inner workings of the Third Reich and the impact of Allied bombing of Germany.
, moved in. It was later followed by the 5th U.S. Army Corps which operated an NCO academy, and by U.S. intelligence units which directed large parts of its espionage network in communist East Germany from the castle. After a failed restoration attempt in the 1960s, in 1987 with US Army assistance the castle structure was rebuilt, the stone walls clad in stucco
. Returned to the reunified German government in 1990, it was subsequently sold to members of the family of the pre-war owner, and converted into luxury apartments from 1991.
The Wachhaus and the Pressehaus are both preserved, with the Pressehaus an almost exact replica of the Führerhaus.
The Kraftfahrzeughalle motorpool building was not demolished, occupied for two years post war by a battalion
of U.S. Army Combat Engineers. Converted into a US military hospital in 1977, it was returned to the West German Government
in the same year. The half-timbered main hall still stands, and is presently occupied by offices and small businesses.
The foundations of several of the compounds haus's have been recycled for modern home and business construction, with the foundation of the OKW haus now the basement for a hotel and bar named the Gasthaus Adlerhorst.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
bunker complex in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, located within Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle is situated on a steep rock near Kransberg , a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus mountains in the German province of Hesse. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearance in the late 19th century, served military and intelligence purposes in World War...
(incorporated into Usingen
Usingen
Usingen is a small town in the Hochtaunuskreis in Hessen, Germany. Until 1972, this residential and school town was the seat of the former district of Usingen.-Location:...
in 1971), Wetterau
Wetterau
The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains....
in the Taunus
Taunus
The Taunus is a low mountain range in Hesse, Germany that composes part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. It is bounded by the river valleys of Rhine, Main and Lahn. On the opposite side of the Rhine, the mountains are continued by the Hunsrück...
mountains in the province of Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
. Designed by Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
as Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's main military command complex, after its dismissal by Hitler in February 1940, it served only as his military headquarters during the late 1944/5 Ardennes Offensive.
Background
Pre World War 2, there were no official Führer Headquarters
Führer Headquarters
The Führer Headquarters , abbreviated FHQ, is a common name for a number of official headquarters used by the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and various German commanders and officials throughout Europe during World War II...
, with Hitler using either existing military complexes, or mobile facilities close to the battle lines. Under plans developed by Martin Borman and planned by Speer, a series of Führer complexes were built, the best known of which were: the Führerbunker
Führerbunker
The Führerbunker was located beneath Hitler's New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex which was constructed in two major phases, one part in 1936 and the other in 1943...
in Berlin; the Berghof complex in Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden is a municipality in the German Bavarian Alps. It is located in the south district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria, near the border with Austria, some 30 km south of Salzburg and 180 km southeast of Munich...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
; and the Wolfsschanze
Wolfsschanze
Wolf's Lair is the standard English name for Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters, one of several Führerhauptquartier or FHQs located in various parts of Europe...
near Kętrzyn
Ketrzyn
Kętrzyn , is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,351 inhabitants . Situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship , Kętrzyn was previously in Olsztyn Voivodeship . It is the capital of Kętrzyn County...
in modern day Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Austrian noble
Austrian nobility
Historically, the Austrian nobility was a privileged social class in Austria. The nobility was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Former noble families and their descendants are still a part of Austrian society today, but they no longer retain any specific...
Emma von Scheitlein acquired Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle is situated on a steep rock near Kransberg , a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus mountains in the German province of Hesse. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearance in the late 19th century, served military and intelligence purposes in World War...
in the village of Ziegenberg in 1926, and used it for society events. Chosen due to its central location as the proposed main military command headquarters of Hitler, it was appropriated by the Nazi government in 1939. Speer immediately began adapting it, designing military-grade infrastructure which was well disguised and adapted to fit-in with its surroundings.
Construction
The main complex was designed as a collection of seven cottages, in a heavily wooded compound beyond the castle's main entrance. Although each building was designed as an air raid bunker with 3 foot (0.9144 m) think concrete walls, each externally had the appearance of a traditional locally built Fachwerk (half-timbered) style wooden cottage, with second storey dormer windows and flower baskets under a sloped tiled roof. Internally, each was furnished in a traditional German style with oak floors, pine wall paneling, utilitarian leather upholstered furniture, and decorated with fringed shade wall lamps, wall hangings depicting hunting scenes or TeutonicTeutonic
Teutonic or Teuton may refer to:*the Teutons* Germanic peoples , see Theodiscus**Teutonic Mythology** Germanic languages * Having qualities related to Modern Germans*Nordic race*Furor Teutonicus...
battles, and a set of deer antlers.
The cottages were numbered and allocated as follows:
- Haus 1: the Führer's house, in keeping with Hitler's preferences it was no more luxuriously appointed than the other six
- Haus 2: also referred to as the "casino," which was German military terminology for an officers club. In addition to a lounge and café at ground level, and bedrooms on the second floor, the building contained an entrance to the bunker below it, giving immediate access to a secure situation room and coded communications center
- Haus 3: the Oberkommando der WehrmachtOberkommando der WehrmachtThe Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was part of the command structure of the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.- Genesis :...
-house (OKW), designed as the residence of the commanding general, and during its use housed von Rundstedt, Jodl, KesselringKesselringKesselring is a German surname of:* Albert Kesselring , German field marshal* Fritz Kesselring , Swiss elektric engineer* Joseph Otto Kesselring , American writer* Jürg Kesselring , Swiss neurologist...
, GöringHermann GöringHermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
and KeitelWilhelm KeitelWilhelm Bodewin Gustav Keitel was a German field marshal . As head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and de facto war minister, he was one of Germany's most senior military leaders during World War II... - Haus 4: known as the "generals' house," occupied by the second echelon of the general staff, including von ManteuffelHasso von ManteuffelHasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel was a German soldier and liberal politician of the 20th century.He served in both world wars, and during World War II was a distinguished general...
, SchörnerFerdinand SchörnerFerdinand Schörner was a General and later Field Marshal in the German Army during World War II.-Early life:Schörner was born in Munich, Bavaria...
and GuderianHeinz GuderianHeinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II. He was a pioneer in the development of armored warfare, and was the leading proponent of tanks and mechanization in the Wehrmacht . Germany's panzer forces were raised and organized under his direction as Chief of Mobile Forces... - Haus 5: the so-called Pressehaus, actually occupied by an arm of GoebbelsGoebbelsGoebbels, alternatively Göbbels, is a common surname in the western areas of Germany. It is probably derived from the Old Low German word gibbler, meaning brewer...
' propaganda ministry - Haus 6: the Reichsleiters' residence, enabling the accommodation of top-level political leaders who came to consult and advise the Führer, including Martin Bormann, Alfred RosenbergAlfred Rosenberg' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
and Robert LeyRobert LeyRobert Ley was a Nazi politician and head of the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He committed suicide while awaiting trial for war crimes.- Early life :... - Haus 7: the Wachhaus, the largest building on the site, designed to house the Führer's offices and his personal security, secretarial and housekeeping staffs. Built on top of a bunker base, the building was connected to the castle by a 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) long bunker. With one wall exposed, the bunker was camouflaged as a brick retaining wall.
Located in the village itself was the largest building of all, the fortified Kraftfahrzeughalle or motor pool garage. Even though its purpose was purely military, it also had a Fachwerk-style, housing not only a large fleet of armored limousines, fire engines, busses and ambulances, but the families of the personnel assigned to them. Above the castle and compound, located to the north in the hills, was a disguised Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
depot.
Construction workers from Organisation Todt
Organisation Todt
The Todt Organisation, was a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in Germany named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi figure...
were brought in from other regions, with the complex built quickly and without the knowledge of local residents. The entire area was ringed with camouflaged anti-aircraft batteries, constructed first to deflect suspicion about the importance of the site, communicated to locals as an expansion of the air defense zone of Bad Münstereifel
Bad Münstereifel
Bad Münstereifel is a historical spa town in the district of Euskirchen, Germany, with about 19,000 inhabitants, situated in the far south of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia...
. No evidence exists in post-war records to support that the construction phase was anything but successful in covering up the complex's purpose, with no notes or briefings existing to suggest that its purpose was known beyond Hitler's inner-circle of its construction or importance.
Operations
During construction of Adlerhorst, Hitler had used the castle to plan some of the early western campaigns, including the Battle of FranceBattle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
and the drive to Dunkirk. However, although authorised quickly for operation after completion, after a visit by Hitler in February 1940 he dismissed it as an operational base. Speer was hence briefed to adapt the complex for use by the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, and specifically the needs of Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
to serve as the Luftwaffe headquarters during Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.
When plans for the invasion of Britain were abandoned in favour of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, the invasion of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the castle and complex were put to use as a rehabilitation center
Physical medicine and rehabilitation
Physical medicine and rehabilitation , physiatry or rehabilitation medicine, is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. A physician having completed training in this field is referred to as a...
for soldiers of all ranks, and allocated as Göring's personal retreat.
Ardennes Offensive
After the 20 July plot attempt on Hitler's life, and the abandonment of the Wolfsschanze due to the advances of the Red ArmyRed Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, Hitler needed a new military base of operations for the forth coming Ardennes Offensive.
Adlerhorst had been given additional security from 1943, with most of the cottages now further disguised with fake evergreen trees so as to blend in with the pine-forested hilltop, so that from the air they defied detection. Additionally, from October 1944, Adlerhorst had become the headquarters of the Commander in Chief of OB West
OB West
The German Army Command in the West The German Army Command in the West The German Army Command in the West (Oberbefehlshaber West (German: initials OB West) was the overall command of the Westheer, the German Armed Forces on the Western Front during World War II. It was directly subordinate to...
, Gerd von Rundstedt
Gerd von Rundstedt
Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt was a Generalfeldmarschall of the German Army during World War II. He held some of the highest field commands in all phases of the war....
.
Hitler arrived at Giessen station
Gießen station
Gießen railway station is the main railway station in Gießen, Hesse, Germany. The station is a Category 2 station is used by 20,000 passengers daily. The station was opened on 25 August 1850 and is located on the Main-Weser Railway and Dill railway . The current station reception building was...
on his personal Führersonderzug (train) on 11 December 1944, taking up residence in Haus 1 until 16 January 1945. Von Rundstedt who was to command Operation Wacht am Rhein set up his headquarters near Limburg
Limburg
Limburg may refer to:A province divided between Belgium and the Netherlands as consequence of the Treaty of London* Province of Limburg , a former province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, close enough for the generals and Panzer Corps commanders who were to lead the attack to visit Adlerhorst that evening, travelling there in an SS-operated bus convoy. With the castle acting as overflow accommodation, the main party was settled into Haus 2/the casino, including Generals Jodl, Keitel, Blumentritt
Günther Blumentritt
Günther Blumentritt was a German officer in World War I, who became a Staff Officer under the Weimar Republic and went on to serve as a general for Nazi Germany during World War II...
, von Manteuffel and S.S. Colonel Sepp Dietrich
Sepp Dietrich
Josef "Sepp" Dietrich was a German SS General. He was one of Nazi Germany's most decorated soldiers and commanded formations up to Army level during World War II. Prior to 1929 he was Adolf Hitler's chauffeur and bodyguard but received rapid promotion after his participation in the murder of...
. Joined by Hitler, von Rundstedt ran through the plans, that at 05:00 on December 15, envisaged the attack of three German armies consisting of over 250,000 men. Believing in omens and the successes of his early war campaigns that had been planned at Adlerhorst, Hitler rejoiced in the battles early successes, taking long walks in the pine forest, regaling his team with his postwar plans and aspirations.
Shortly after Christmas, Göring arrived and took up residence in the castle. After an extremely downbeat briefing in the casino, Göring privately suggested to Hitler that a truce be sought via his Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
contacts. Hitler flew into a rage, and after threatening to have Göring put before a firing squad, mentally dismissed him as deputy Fuehrer.
Operation Nordwind
After giving his 1945 New Year's speech from the Pressehaus, Hitler returned to Haus 1 to welcome in the New Year with his close friends and secretarial support team. At 04:00 he walked to the casino to watch the development of Operation NordwindOperation Nordwind
Operation North Wind was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in northeastern France, and it ended on 25 January.-Objectives:...
, his counter-offensive on New Year's Day.
At midnight, nine Panzer divisions of Heeresgruppe G
Army Group G
The German Army Group G fought on the Western Front of World War II and was a component of OB West.When the Allied invasion of Southern France took place, Army Group G had eleven divisions with which to hold France south of the Loire...
commanded by Generaloberst
Colonel General
Colonel General is a senior rank of General. North Korea and Russia are two countries which have used the rank extensively throughout their histories...
Johannes Blaskowitz
Johannes Blaskowitz
Johannes Albrecht Blaskowitz was a German general during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
had mounted an all-out attack on Bastogne
Bastogne
Bastogne Luxembourgish: Baaschtnech) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes. The municipality of Bastogne includes the old communes of Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and Wardin...
. Then a faked diversionary attack was mounted by eight German divisions of Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein)
Army Group Oberrhein (Germany)
The Upper Rhine High Command , also incorrectly referred to as Army Group Upper Rhine , was a short-lived headquarters unit of the German Armed Forces created on the Western Front during World War II. The Upper Rhine High Command was formed on 26 November 1944 and was inactivated on 25 January 1945...
commanded by Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, against the thinly stretched 110 kilometres (68.4 mi) line of the U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army positions near Lembach
Lembach
Lembach is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-Geography:Lembach lies in the Sauer valley, surrounded by the woods and sandstone cliffs of the North Vosges natural Park...
in the Upper Vosges
Vosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...
mountains in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast, to destroy them. This line had been weakened at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, having sent troops, equipment and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
involved in the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
. If successful, the German operation would have left the way open for Operation Unternehmen Zahnarzt
Operation Zahnarzt
Operation Zahnarzt was a plan by the Germans to eliminate the Third Army. The plan of Operation Zahnarzt was to immediately come after Operation Nordwind...
, a planned major thrust into the rear of the U.S. 3rd Army, which would lead to the destruction of that army.
However, having cracked the Enigma code machines
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
, each German manoeuvre was either prepared for or out-flanked by an allied counter-move. This resulted in a bitter attritional campaign that was lost from the 25th January onwards, by the German's running out of replacement man power, machinery and supplies.
Abandonment and attempted demolition
On 6 January 1945, a blockbuster bombBlockbuster bomb
Blockbuster or "cookie" was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force...
was jettisoned on Ziegenberg by a returning Allied bomber, damaging the church and several houses, killing four residents. With the Ardennes Offensive failed, and no new military plans or the resources by which to carry them out, the German military high command accepted that the western front was lost. Hitler left Adlerhorst for East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
on January 16, 1945 to bolster the defenders, with the Russians having already reached Danzig.
Having been made commander of OB West on March 11, on March 17 Kesselring ordered all classified documents and sensitive equipment removed from the castle, moving himself and the command centre to the OKW house. Having been alerted to the original purpose of the complex, and not knowing if Hitler was in residence, on March 19 the castle and surrounding area was subject to a 45 minute fire bombing air raid by a squadron of P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
s. This resulted in the loss of 10 civilian lives, and the castle plus many of the surrounding buildings being damaged, destroyed or set on fire.
On March 28, with the American Army only 12 miles (19.3 km) away, Kesselring ordered all civilian employees and families of military personnel to evacuate, using all available motor pool equipment. German troops were instructed to dynamite the Führer compound.
Capture by Allied forces
The castle and village were captured by units of the U.S. Army on March 30, 1945. They found the compound as a burned-out jumbled mass of concrete bunkers bearing no resemblance to the original "wooden country house" design. But for some reason both the Wachhaus and the Pressehaus escaped demolition, both well preserved and with access to the remaining Adlerhorst bunker complex.Soon afterwards a British-American detention center, commonly referred to as Operation Dustbin, was moved here from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and established in parts of the complex, for high-ranking German non-military prisoners of war. Focused on key industrialists, scientists and economists, among those interrogated were Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...
, Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
, Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...
, and the leaders of the IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
chemical conglomerate. The highest-ranking of these persons of interest was the complex's original designer Albert Speer, who during his detention between June and August 1945 provided very open and detailed accounts of the inner workings of the Third Reich and the impact of Allied bombing of Germany.
Present
Most of the castle lay in apparent ruins after the war, but in 1956 the Organisation Gehlen, the U.S.-German intelligence unit that later became the nucleus of the BundesnachrichtendienstBundesnachrichtendienst
The Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...
, moved in. It was later followed by the 5th U.S. Army Corps which operated an NCO academy, and by U.S. intelligence units which directed large parts of its espionage network in communist East Germany from the castle. After a failed restoration attempt in the 1960s, in 1987 with US Army assistance the castle structure was rebuilt, the stone walls clad in stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
. Returned to the reunified German government in 1990, it was subsequently sold to members of the family of the pre-war owner, and converted into luxury apartments from 1991.
The Wachhaus and the Pressehaus are both preserved, with the Pressehaus an almost exact replica of the Führerhaus.
The Kraftfahrzeughalle motorpool building was not demolished, occupied for two years post war by a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
of U.S. Army Combat Engineers. Converted into a US military hospital in 1977, it was returned to the West German Government
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in the same year. The half-timbered main hall still stands, and is presently occupied by offices and small businesses.
The foundations of several of the compounds haus's have been recycled for modern home and business construction, with the foundation of the OKW haus now the basement for a hotel and bar named the Gasthaus Adlerhorst.