Original subtitles

Narrator: berlin, germany -- The headquarters

Of one of the most Feared leaders in history...

[ speaking german ]

Narrator: ...Adolf hitler.

In this underground Nazi stronghold

Known as the fuehrerbunker,

Hitler plans world domination.

This was where hitler played out The final scenes

Of the second world war.

Narrator: do any traces remain Of the bunker

Where hitler made His last stand?

Dunkley: for the last Hundred days of his life,

Only twice did He ever come out again.

Narrator: and how was The fuehrerbunker engineered

For hitler to wage a war?

To find out, Investigators shine a light

On abandoned Nazi megastructures...

It's truly a massive space, Cathedral of war.

Narrator: ...And use innovative Laser scanners to reconstruct

The last days Of the third reich.

I think we can say that this is Some kind of super bunker.

Narrator: To solve these mysteries,

We'll blow apart Hitler's wartime bunker

To reveal how he commands His third reich

From 20 feet underground.

We'll discover hitler's secret Subterranean strongholds

And unearth the hidden heart Of his nazi regime.

♪♪

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Berlin, capital of one of The most evil empires

Of the 20th century, Adolf hitler's third reich.

Deep underneath These city streets

Lies one of the most significant Structures of world war ii,

Hitler's bunker.

Dunkley: Hitler's bunker is a source

Of great fascination Around the world.

You know, we're trying to still Get our heads around ultra evil,

And this is one of the key and Most important historical sites.

Narrator: in modern-day germany,

Remains of hitler's Brutal nazi regime

Are there to be found,

But only if you know Where to look.

Hidden somewhere Below the streets of berlin

Lies hitler's bunker,

Known as the fuehrerbunker.

It's a 3,000-square-foot complex Of top-secret rooms.

On the upper level, A maze of 19 small rooms,

Some only six feet wide.

And eight feet deeper, The heart of the bunker,

Hitler's command center.

His private wing,

Just a small office and bedroom

Protected by an immense Concrete ceiling 15 feet thick.

But where is Hitler's bunker today?

In april 1945,

Russian troops overrun berlin.

They find hitler's body

Just yards away From his fuehrerbunker.

Decades later, hitler's bunker Is a violent footnote

In german history Most would like to forget.

But military historian Nigel dunkley

Is determined to seek it out.

Dunkley: The bunker was so sensitive

Nobody wanted it to become

A rallying place For perhaps neo-nazis,

And so the decision Was made to eradicate it.

Get rid of it.

Narrator: hitler's bunker is Consigned to germany's past,

But nigel believes He can connect the dots

To lead him to its location.

So, I've got with me A famous photograph,

And it shows the reichskanzlei, The reich chancellery,

Hitler's office at the end Of the war in 1945.

Narrator: the reich chancellery Is hitler's official residence.

Dunkley: this was the absolute Epicenter of nazi power here.

440 yards long -- It was massive.

It was here to impress people

As well As being a functioning office.

Narrator: the reich chancellery Is demolished

After world war ii.

Like the bunker, its former Location isn't advertised.

Dunkley: here we are.

Right slap bang in the middle

Of where hitler's chancellery Used to be.

And in the back garden, Below it, hitler's bunker.

And that's exactly where We are standing right now.

Europe's most interesting Car park.

Narrator: what was once The epicenter of nazi power

Is now a parking lot.

But hitler's bunker starts life As something very different.

Hidden beneath The reich chancellery ballroom

Lies an air raid shelter, 72 feet long.

Two entrances allow A rapid retreat

From both sides of the building.

Inside, there is enough space To accommodate hitler

And 200 staff During a bombing attack.

A snaking system of pipes Delivers filtered air

To protect them from poison gas

And a 5-foot-thick roof

Provides shelter From the impact of bombs.

This air raid shelter is merely Phase one of hitler's bunker,

But how does he build This subterranean shield?

Historian sascha keil Thinks the answer

Lies hidden Beneath berlin's streets

In a labyrinth Of secret nazi tunnels

That make up a vast underground City over 600 miles long.

To unlock the secrets of the Fuehrerbunker's construction,

Sascha explores An abandoned tunnel

Less than half a mile away.

Just navigating these tunnels Can be dangerous.

At the bottom of the shaft,

Sascha discovers the remains Of a huge road tunnel.

It was built by Hitler's nazi engineers in 1938.

What can this 60-foot tunnel

Tell us about the construction Of hitler's bunker?

♪♪

Sascha believes these tunnel Builders encountered trouble

As soon as they begin to dig.

But hitler's nazi engineers Have a solution.

Berlin's soft, sandy soil

Makes building underground Difficult and dangerous.

Tunnels and trenches Can't support their own weight

And collapse inwards.

So, engineers use steel mesh and Beams to reinforce tunnel walls

And fill them with extra-strong, Quick-setting concrete.

Concrete like this is essential

When building underground In berlin.

But is it the only problem Hitler's engineers

Have to overcome?

In the underground Nazi road tunnel,

Sascha can go no further.

Berlin has a very High water table,

And parts of this road tunnel Are flooded,

But hitler demands his bunker Be built here.

So, how do the nazis overcome This next engineering hurdle?

Building below the water table Is a massive problem

For hitler's engineers.

However fast they dig,

The trenches Quickly fill with water.

So, they install pumps That run 24/7

To suck out water During construction

So they can carry on building Without delay.

Hitler's water pumps mean It's full steam ahead

For the construction Of the fuehrerbunker.

His concrete and steel walls

Are vital for withstanding Allied attack.

With these additional Reinforcements,

Hitler is going to incredible Lengths to protect himself.

But will it be enough?

Or does his fuehrerbunker Have a fatal flaw?

Berlin -- home to the secret Underground bunker

Of adolf hitler.

At the very height Of world war ii,

British and american bombers Pound the city.

The allies know If they can kill hitler,

The war will be won.

Murray: during the war,

There was sort of A miniature arms race.

The germans built more and more Heavily defended buildings,

And the allies built larger And larger bombs

In order to attack them.

Narrator: unnerved, hitler Orders his reich chancellery

Air raid shelter To be strengthened.

Phase two of Hitler's bunker begins.

To extend hitler's original Air raid shelter,

Engineer's dig A 10,000-square-foot box.

They lay a 7,000-ton Concrete base

And build Steel-reinforced walls,

Each filled with 12 feet of concrete.

On top, thick steel beams Covered with a fine steel mesh

Reinforce the walls Against explosions.

Finally, it's submerged In concrete

To create a new roof That is 15 feet thick.

This is engineering On a grand scale.

Could hitler's bunker Be destroyed?

Iain murray is an expert In world war ii weaponry.

He wants to investigate If hitler is safe

In his new and improved bunker.

Iain explores this Abandoned u-boat factory

Near bremen, germany, To discover

How effective The allies' bombs truly are.

The nazis were developing more And more sophisticated u-boats.

This bunker was built To build the latest version

Of the u-boats.

And it was Massively constructed.

Narrator: Just like hitler's bunker,

This gigantic factory

Is built completely of Reinforced concrete

With a roof and walls That are 15 feet thick.

Murray: the nazis were Exceptionally well developed

In building Massive concrete structures,

Which were impervious to most of The bombs which the allies had.

Iain explores the building For signs of allied attack.

On the roof, he makes A startling discovery.

♪♪

Murray: Well, all over this roof,

There are these huge craters.

And these have been made By penetrating bombs,

Which have come down and hit The roof at incredible speed

And penetrated Right into the concrete.

Narrator: the explosive device Responsible for

Some of these craters

Is the bunker-busting Disney bomb.

Rumored to be named after

A disney world war ii Propaganda film,

This bomb weighs More than 4,000 pounds.

Fitted with rocket motors,

It slams into its target At over 1,000 miles per hour.

The allies were hoping that The disney bombs

Would help to knock out Installations like this.

Narrator: But this bomb has a weakness.

Murray: because the disney bomb Was propelled

By a rocket motor on the back,

That tended to wobble the aim Of the bomb a little bit.

They were much harder to drop With good accuracy.

The american air force dropped 60 disney bombs on this target,

And only two of them Actually hit it.

Narrator: the disney bomb Barely scratches the surface.

The allies need something Bigger and better

If they're going to bust Hitler's bunker.

Enter the grand slam.

22,000 pounds Of explosive power.

It's one of the most devastating Weapons ever designed.

This mega bomb Has one purpose --

To annihilate The nazi war machine.

Traditional bombs Are designed to explode at

Or near the surface,

And destroy their target Directly by explosive force.

Earthquake bombs like the huge Grand slam are different.

With extra-thick shells,

They're designed to survive Impact with the ground.

Shaped to fall At very high speed,

They penetrate the surface And explode deep underground,

Sending out powerful shock waves Like an earthquake.

They cause huge destruction,

Both above and below ground.

The allies hope the grand slam Will turn the tide of the war,

But can it really Bust hitler's bunker?

Iain heads inside the abandoned U-boat factory to find out.

♪♪

♪♪

Murray: It's truly a massive space.

A cathedral of war.

♪♪

So this hole in the roof Was created

By a grand slam 10-ton bomb.

That bomb has come down,

Hit the roof traveling faster Than the speed of sound,

Penetrating deep Into the concrete,

And then it's exploded And left a hole

About 20 or 30 feet In diameter in the roof.

Narrator: the grand slam's Direct hit

Blasts straight through 15 feet Of reinforced concrete.

But what if this bomb Had hit the fuehrerbunker?

So even if the fuehrerbunker Hadn't been hit on the roof,

If the bomb had landed Within 50 meters,

The shock from the explosion Would have damaged the bunker.

It would also have killed A lot of the people

Inside the bunker as well.

And if hitler was there, We would have got him.

Narrator: iain is certain Hitler's new reinforced bunker

Would have been no match For the grand slam.

Hitler is a sitting duck In his berlin bunker.

The allies are closing in,

And they have a bomb That could kill him.

If hitler is to keep His war command running,

Nazi ingenuity Will be put to the test.

Can he ever build A bunker strong enough?

Narrator: the bunker hitler Builds in the heart of berlin

Is vulnerable To allied mega bombs.

But by 1943, Hitler's nazi legions are locked

In a desperate struggle With soviet russia.

It's one of the biggest Conflicts

Waged in human history.

And hitler builds another bunker

Here, in nazi-occupied poland,

Just 90 miles From the russian front line.

This new bunker is at the center Of a huge military complex

Called the wolf's lair.

Architectural historian Robert conrad

Explores this site to see What makes this bunker unique.

Partially buried,

With a roof More than 25 feet thick,

This colossal bunker Is engineered

For hitler's Ultimate protection.

Designed like an egyptian tomb,

The living quarters are buried

Under dozens of feet of sand, Steel, and concrete.

Hitler's bedroom, Measuring 9 feet by 11 feet,

Sits among a maze of corridors And other tiny rooms.

This concrete fortress Is camouflaged with grass

And nestled in dense forest.

Has hitler finally built The perfect bunker?

Robert believes the answer Can be found among these ruins.

Hitler's bunker at the heart Of the wolf's lair

Is more than 26 times the size Of his bunker in berlin.

Hitler's wolf's lair is designed For maximum security.

The forest hideaway is laid out In three concentric rings.

At the heart of the complex Is security zone one.

It houses reinforced Concrete bunkers for hitler

And his inner circle.

Security zone two houses Lower-ranking ministers

And the barracks for the ss.

Security zone three is the Heavily fortified outer ring.

It's defended by guardhouses, Watchtowers, and checkpoints,

And surrounded by land mines.

The wolf's lair Is close to the front line

And is heavily defended.

But if hitler is going To win the war,

He'll also need protection From air attack.

The tree cover provides The perfect natural canopy

To hide hitler From allied bombers.

And at the fringes Of the wolf's lair,

Robert discovers Something else --

Train tracks.

Hitler has created The perfect bunker complex

Here in the vast forests Of northeast poland.

But the war turns Against the nazis.

Hitler's wolf's lair lies in the Path of the advancing soviets.

He must retreat.

The protection of the fuehrer Is proving

The most important Security challenge of all.

What can hitler And his engineers build

To keep him safe From the advancing enemy?

Narrator: deep in the woods Of nazi-occupied poland,

Hitler and his armies are Waging war against the allies,

But the war is turning Against the germans.

The soviets are advancing Into poland.

Hitler is forced to abandon his Secret military bunker complex,

The wolf's lair.

He needs a new command center.

A mammoth construction Is ordered

Beneath the stunning Ksiaz castle in southern poland.

It's code name -- giant.

Concealed deep in the mountain

Is a vast network Of secret nazi tunnels.

Starting at the castle, The shaft from the fourth floor

Plunges down 130 feet,

Splitting into multiple routes.

Inside, some tunnels Are neatly lined with concrete

And wide enough for armored Vehicles to drive through.

But 40 feet deeper, Some passages are unfinished.

Roughly cut into the bare rock,

A maze of tunnels carved Deep into the mountain.

What is hitler building here?

To find out, mining surveyor Mateusz jablonski and his team

Head directly Beneath ksiaz castle,

One of the largest castles In poland.

For the first time,

Mateusz's team Will digitally map

This twisting labyrinth Of tunnels,

Producing a never-before-seen 3-d model of the giant.

Mateusz uses innovative Laser scanners

To measure the dimensions of The tunnels beneath the castle.

His aim -- to understand exactly What hitler is building here.

Mateusz's laser scanner Bounces light off

Static targets placed Throughout the tunnel system.

The refracted light From the laser

Maps the surface of the rock.

Mateusz and colleague Aga ochalek

Think clues about Hitler's grand plan

Lie in the very rock That surrounds them.

Harder than concrete,

Gneiss is a metamorphic rock,

Making it extremely difficult To tunnel into.

But the nazis have come up With a brutal solution

To their engineering problem --

Forced labor.

5,000 prisoners from nearby Concentration camp gross-rosen

Died digging these passages.

Forgotten victims Of hitler's obsession

To build bigger, Better, and stronger.

In the mobile lab,

The data From mateusz's scans

Is finally ready to process,

And the team makes A fascinating discovery.

Not only are the tunnels Underneath ksiaz

Hollowed out from Incredibly strong rock,

Some of these tunnels Are also lined with concrete.

Mateusz's 3-d model uncovers

Mysterious concrete Reinforcements,

But there's more.

Incredibly, the tunnels Beneath the castle

Are far more extensive than They could ever have imagined.

Some of the super Bunker's tunnels

Run deep into the mountainside.

What is hitler building here?

The tunnels at ksiaz castle Are part of a much larger plan.

Hitler orders work on six other Underground sites nearby.

But what is their purpose?

Could they be part of a network To protect the entire nazi elite

With ksiaz castle Hitler's centerpiece?

Or could the sites Be underground factories

That furnished the nazi War machine with vehicles?

Could they even be part Of a top-secret plan

To develop nuclear weapons?

With the sites unfinished, These mysteries remain unsolved.

♪♪

The soviets advanced through Poland towards the giant.

If hitler can finish his network Of super bunkers,

He can try and hold out here.

But his plans fail.

The soviet advance pushes hitler Back from the giant.

He falls back to berlin And his fuehrerbunker.

In this adapted air raid shelter

Never designed As a headquarters,

Hitler is more vulnerable Than ever before.

How can he command his armies And rule his reich from here?

Narrator: in the final months Of world war ii,

Hitler abandons The eastern front.

He retreats from his forest Stronghold, the wolf's lair.

Then from his stunning Super bunker, the giant.

The advancing soviets Beat the nazis back to berlin

And hitler to his bunker.

Dunkley: Hitler's chancellery bunker.

It was the epicenter, The nerve center,

The command and control center

For hitler's Nazi entire war machine.

Narrator: this parking lot

Less than a mile from The brandenburg gate

Was once home To the fuehrerbunker.

More than 70 years ago,

Germany's war effort And hitler's survival

Depended on him Running the war from here.

This was where hitler played out The final scenes

Of the second world war.

The last hundred days Of his life, he moved in here

And only briefly, twice, Did he ever come out again.

[ hitler speaking german ]

♪♪

Narrator: designed to be Occupied only in an emergency,

The fuehrerbunker is now Hitler's final life line.

A whirring engine room Generates electricity 24/7,

Powering three large filters

To clean the air pumped in From aboveground

And huge pumps to drive out the Constant seepage of groundwater.

A communications room provides Two-way contact

With the outside world.

Facilities are basic,

And life down here Is damp and uncomfortable.

How is it possible To wage a war from here?

Military historian nigel dunkley Wants to discover

How hitler commanded his armies From his berlin bunker...

...Once nothing more than An air raid shelter.

He believes this nazi-built Communications control center

On the edge of berlin Can offer clues.

Dunkley: Here we are deep underground,

In a place called Zossen wuensdorf,

And we are in the former command Bunker of the german wehrmacht,

Of the german armed forces.

♪♪

This is the heart Of the commcen,

The communication center.

No sense in just having hitler Giving orders

Unless they can be communicated.

And one of the main ways Of communicating his orders

Is by this message system.

Narrator: in the fuehrerbunker, All communications

Run through A central communications room

With an ss sergeant On duty at all times.

A telephone switchboard Gives hitler voice communication

With the outside world,

And calls can be routed To his private office.

A telex machine gives The fuehrer

Secure two-way Text communication

With his generals In all corners of the reich.

♪♪

And a large antenna Above the bunker

Connects to an army radio set,

Allowing hitler to monitor Enemy radio broadcasts.

This underground bunker complex Where we are

Was made by the same company

That made hitler's Own personal bunker.

Narrator: with hitler's Fuehrerbunker no more,

This bunker is one of The last places in the world

That could offer a glimpse into The final days of his empire.

Nigel searches for a space

With roughly the same dimensions As hitler's quarters.

Dunkley: wow. Look at this. Can you smell it?

You smell damp. You smell plaster.

Look at the state of the walls. Amazing. Look at this.

Nothing has been Touched here for decades.

Narrator: virtually unchanged Since the 1940s,

Nigel gets a glimpse Into a long-forgotten past.

Dunkley: right, having Discovered this little room,

What I want to do Is just measure it.

Trusty little tape measure.

Well, look at this.

Narrator: Nigel's search is over.

Dunkley: amazing. The same dimensions.

It's 14 feet,

So pretty well Exactly the same dimensions

As hitler's own private room.

I'm getting goose bumps Just thinking about it.

This has got exactly The same atmosphere

That one would expect In hitler's own bunker rooms

If they still existed.

This is as close You're ever going to get.

Narrator: In a room exactly like this,

Hitler faces the annihilation Of his reich.

Dunkley: I find it remarkable. I find it actually bizarre

When you think Of the big decisions

That he was required to make

And he made them In such a small little room.

♪♪

Narrator: far removed from His forest command center,

The wolf's lair,

And the huge underground Super bunker the giant,

Hitler wages a world war From a few rooms

In a tiny, oppressive Former air raid shelter.

[ bombs whistling, exploding ]

And he's losing.

Dunkley: this is just Full of ghosts, isn't it?

Just full of atmosphere.

This is such a dark, Creepy place.

He became even more effected By the weird atmosphere

That there is down here.

He was losing touch With reality,

Not for the first time In his life,

And that's quite clear.

He was giving orders to units, To formations,

To armies even Which no longer existed.

[ hitler speaking german ]

He's on a different world Down here.

Narrator: in april 1945, Russian troops enter berlin.

In his bunker,

Hitler orders every german To fight to the death,

But he swallows A cyanide capsule

And then shoots himself In the head.

Hitler's bunker outlives him.

But what happens to it After his death?

Narrator: in may of 1945,

Hitler is found dead among The rubble of his berlin bunker.

And the soviets discover The subterranean world

That has been his stronghold For the last four months.

Soviet leader joseph stalin Orders its destruction.

But that's not The end of the story.

In 1986,

Nearly 40 years After stalin gave the order,

Robert conrad is driving Past the site

Now in communist east germany.

In the backyard of The reich chancellery,

Workers unearth Something strange.

Intrigued, robert wants To get a closer look.

He dresses up as a construction Worker to sneak into the site.

Robert has discovered Hitler's bunker.

Somehow, it has defied stalin's Orders for its destruction.

Robert returns several times To photograph the bunker.

These are some of the final Photographs of hitler's bunker.

Shortly after these photos Are taken,

The east germans Begin to destroy it.

After two years,

All the east germans managed To do is demolish the roof.

♪♪

Unable to completely Destroy the bunker,

They build a parking lot On top of it.

Despite all efforts, The fuehrerbunker lives on.

♪♪

From his frontline wolf's lair

To his giant super bunker Underneath a mountain,

Hitler is on a quest For engineering perfection,

But these abandoned structures Are now

A monument to his downfall.

Spending the final days Of the war

In an adapted air raid shelter

Never intended As a command center,

Hitler's berlin bunker Becomes his tomb.

A hidden reminder Of germany's violent past

And a thrilling Archeological window

Into a world few have ever seen.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪