The dark secrets of Hitler's homes

Jaw-dropping revelations about the despot's main residences

Adolf Hitler's residences were the settings for key events in the murderous dictator's dysfunctional – and frankly disturbing – private life. The angst-ridden scenes of suicides and assassination attempts, these properties harbor plenty of dark secrets. We reveal the shocking truth behind the Nazi despot's homes.

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Prinzregentenplatz 16, Munich: Hitler's private apartment

The dictator divided his time between four main properties. Hitler was living in a plush nine-room apartment on Munich's Prinzregentenplatz when he declared himself Führer in 1934, and used the property thereafter as a place to stay and meet dignitaries when he was visiting the Southern German city.

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Hitler had moved into the apartment in 1929. The property was financed by Nazi benefactor and publisher Hugo Bruckmann and decorated by interior designer Gerdy Troost, who decked it out with contemporary Nazi-approved furniture and 'non-degenerate' art.

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Hitler liked to show off his apartment to world leaders he was seeking to impress. The Führer met with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini at the apartment in 1937 and hosted British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain there the following year.

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According to historians, Hitler's girlfriend, Eva Braun, would show friends this 1938 photograph of Chamberlain in the apartment, whispering, “if only he knew what goings-on that sofa has seen!” The building is still standing and currently houses the Munich Pólice HQ.

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Reich Chancellery, Berlin: Hitler's official residence

When Hitler gave himself the title of Führer in 1934, he commandeered the former president's private apartment in the Reich Chancellery and renamed it the Führerwohnung (leader's apartment).

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The Nazi despot was unimpressed with the space, and while he thought it could pass as a suitable HQ for “a soap company”, Hitler deemed the private apartments unbefitting for a leader of his stature.

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Hitler set about remodeling the residence and called upon the services of his personal architect Albert Speer, who went on to oversee extensive slave labor works during World War II.

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Hitler would spend time with his lover Eva Braun in the official residence, but their liaisons were discreet and unpublicized. The Nazi leader, who believed he was irresistible to the opposite sex, thought that the women of the Reich would be traumatized if they discovered he wasn't single.

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Always eager to keep his relationship with Braun hush-hush, Hitler forced her to use a back entrance to enter and leave the Reich Chancellery and was cautious never to be spotted in public with his lover.

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During the period Hitler resided in Berlin, Braun attempted suicide. In 1935, the Nazi leader's mistress took an overdose of sleeping pills. It was Braun's second attempt to kill herself – she'd already tried to take her own life in 1932.

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Braun was frequently unhappy about the secretive nature of her relationship with Hitler and the fact the couple couldn't get married. They were often apart, and it was during these periods of separation that Braun attempted to take her own life.

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    Berghof, Berchtesgarden: Hitler's country retreat
Though Hitler spent a fair amount of time at the Reich Chancellery during World War II, the Führer's preferred base was the Berghof, his idyllic country retreat near Berchtesgarden in Southern Germany's Bavarian Alps.

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Hitler bought the Alpine retreat in 1933, using the royalties he'd amassed from sales of his autobiography Mein Kampf, and named it the Berghof following extensive renovations in 1936.

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It was here that Hitler could really relax, and the Nazi leader was frequently accompanied by Eva Braun. Away from prying eyes, the Berghof was one of the few places the couple could openly express their relationship.

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Hitler's stays at the Berghof were exploited for propaganda purposes. In an attempt to soften his brutal image, the Führer was presented as an idealized country gentleman, fond of children and animals, and photos of Hitler relaxing at his country estate were commonplace in German newspapers and magazines at the time.

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Hitler was often pictured with young children, including a girl called Bernile Nienau. The Munich-born fraulein met Hitler at a local rally in 1933, and when she told him they shared the same birthday, he invited seven-year-old Bernile and her mother to the Berghof.

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    Berghof, Berchtesgarden: Hitler's country retreat
Charmed by the child, Hitler grew so fond of Nienau that she was even described as 'des Führers Kind' (the Führer's child). But Neinau had a secret. She was a quarter Jewish, and therefore considered 'undesirable' by the Nazi regime.

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Surprisingly, after Neinau had been denounced, Hitler was reportedly prepared to overlook Neinau's part-Jewish ancestry, but when the Führer's right-hand henchman Martin Bormann found out, he banned Neinau and her mother from the Berghof and pulled all photos of Hitler and the child from publication

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Neinau never saw the Führer again, and while she and her family were spared the horrors of the Holocaust, Neinau died at the tender age of 17 in Munich's Schwabinger Hospital from polio-related spinal paralysis.

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Wolf's Lair, Kętrzyn: Hitler's Eastern Front bolthole

Hitler had several Führerhauptquartiere (Führer Headquarters) on the Eastern Front, but the so-called Wolfsschanze or Wolf's Lair complex in Kętrzyn, modern-day Poland, was his principal command post and Eastern Front residence.

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In total, the Nazi leader spent more than 800 days at the Wolf's Lair during World War II. Hitler's heavily fortified living quarters were located in a bunker at the northern side of the sprawling complex.

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Holed up in his lair, Hitler became convinced he would be poisoned, a not altogether unlikely prospect. To counter the threat, a team of 15 women from a nearby village were recruited as food tasters.

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On July 20, 1944, a group of high-ranking Wehrmacht officers, including aristocrat Claus von Stauffenberg (pictured) tried to assassinate Hitler by placing a bomb in the Wolf's Lair. Dubbed 'Operation Valkyrie' or the July 20 Plot, the operation was a tragic failure.

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The bomb detonated at 12:42 injuring 25 people, three of whom later died from their injuries. Food taster Margot Wölk heard the explosion and was convinced Hitler had been killed. Unfortunately, Hitler survived the assassination attempt. He was saved by a sturdy table leg, which shielded him from the blast.

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The retribution was swift and savage. The ringleaders, including Claus von Stauffenberg, were executed by firing squad and anyone with the remotest link to the conspiracy was rounded up, tortured and put to death. As many as 5,000 Germans were executed in the aftermath.

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Fleeing the advancing Soviet troops, Hitler left the Wolf's Lair for the last time in November 1944. Out of the 15 food tasters, Margot Wölk managed to escape but the remaining 14 were not so lucky. They were rounded up and shot by Soviet troops in January 1945.

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The Wolf's Lair was destroyed not long after with thousands of tons of TNT, but the mine fields surrounding the complex were not cleared until the mid-1950s, and the area remained largely out of bounds for decades.

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    Reich Chancellery, Berlin: Hitler's official residence
Hitler carried on living at the official residence of Reich Chancellery sporadically until the final days of World War II, when along with Braun and his closest confidants and colleagues, he retreated to the Führerbunker, the VIP air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery.

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The Red Army closing in, Hitler agreed to marry his lover and Braun finally got her wish on April 28, 1945. Two days later, the couple committed suicide: Hitler shot himself in the head and Braun bit into a vial of cyanide.

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Their bodies were burned in the gardens of the Reich Chancellery. By May 1945, the building was all-but destroyed and not long after World War II, the remnants of the Reich Chancellery were demolished by Soviet troops.