(Redirected from Wolf\'s Lair)
Wolf's Lair's location in former
East Prussia (present national borders shown).
'Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze' (
English: ''Wolf's Lair'', ) was the
codename for
Adolf Hitler's
World War II Eastern Front
military headquarters.
The remains of the complex are located in
Poland at the hamlet of Gierłoż () near
Kętrzyn (), although at the time of operation this area was part of the former
German province of
East Prussia, the southern part of which was assigned to the
People's Republic of Poland after
1945. It consisted of a group of
bunkers and fortified buildings in a thickly wooded area, surrounded by several rings of
barbed wire and defensive positions. The complex was served by a nearby airfield. It was built for the
1941 German invasion of the
Soviet Union, codenamed '
Operation Barbarossa' (22 June 1941), and abandoned on 25 January
1945 as the Soviet army
front line troops approached
Wegorzewo () located only 10 miles away. Hitler arrived on the night of 21 June 1941, and departed for the last time on
20 November 1944. He spent over 800 days there, off and on, during
World War II.
The original bunker system was constructed by
Organisation Todt, but the enlargement of Wolfsschanze was never finished; the expansion work was stopped only a few days before the Russian advance to Wegorzewo pressured German forces to blow up the entire Wolfsschanze bunker complex just prior to the Wehrmacht retreat westward.
The Wolfsschanze was the location of the failed
assassination attempt on Hitler which was carried out by
Claus von Stauffenberg on
20 July 1944.
The whole complex was severely damaged by the demolitions carried out during the German retreat because Hitler thought it was too valuable to allow the Soviets to use. Clearance of the large minefields around the site set up by the Germans was carried out from 1945 to 1956 by the Polish Army. Nowadays the complex is a museum, open all year long. Despite the damage, the site remains to this day a notable tourist attraction. A monument to the July 20 plotters can also be found on the site.
A self-adopted nickname of Hitler's was "''Wolf''," likely suggested by the derivation of his given name ''Adolf'' from the
Old High German "''adal''" and "''wolf''" ("noble wolf"). Hitler began using the nickname in the early
1920s and was so addressed only by those in his intimate circle. The nickname is reflected in the names of his various headquarters scattered throughout
continental Europe (''Wolfsschanze'' in
East Prussia, ''Wolfsschlucht'' in
Belgium, ''
Wehrwolf'' in
Ukraine).
 Enormous amounts of explosives were used to destroy the Wolfsschanze bunkers. Here the explosion has lifted a bunker's roof — 2-meter-thick solid ferro-concrete. |  A better-preserved Wolfsschanze bunker. |