Wolfschanze Sperrkreis II

Wolfschanze (Wolf's Lair) Führer Headquarters

Security Area (Sperrkreis) II

Surrounding the inner security area (Sperrkreis I) of Hitler's Wolfschanze (Wolf's Lair) Eastern Front headquarters in East Prussia was Sperrkreis II, where housing, work areas, and air defense shelters were located for Wehrmacht staff officers, security, communications, and support personnel, and higher ranking visitors who did not have a permanent presence at Hitler's headquarters. Sperrkreis II also contained a train station and officers club.

The building on the left (object 24) is located in Sperrkreis II, just south of Göring's house and bunker (in Sperrkreis I), on the other side of the railroad tracks that ran between Sperrkreis I and Sperrkreis II. This building was used by Luftwaffe command staff and liaison officers (this building is labeled with the name Fegelein on a sketch map of Sperrkreis I drawn for the Nuremberg Trials - a reference to Himmler's liaison officer Hermann Fegelein). In the foreground is a cemetery for the nearby village of Partsch (now Parcz), which was allowed to remain inside Sperrkreis II throughout the war. The ruin on the right (object 25) was an air raid shelter bunker provided for liaison staff of the naval high command.


In 1944 a huge double wing air raid shelter bunker was built in Sperrkreis II for the protection of the staff officers working there. This was the so-called Allgemeine Bunker or General Purpose Bunker (object 26). Although this bunker appears to be relatively intact in these views, only the southern side seen here is in any sort of decent condition today. The other walls and the roof have collapsed. (Bundesarchiv)


Nearby was a barracks building for the Führerbegleit Bataillon, part of Hitler's personal security. This building (object 27) suffered heavy damage during the 1945 demolitions.


Just to the north of the FBB barracks was a building that is sometimes described as a hotel, but was the residence used by Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, and later by his successor Albert Speer, when they were at Hitler's headquarters. This building (object 28) had living quarters on the main floor, with garages located beneath. It was also badly damaged by the demolition efforts.


A building (object 29) near the northern edge of Sperrkreis II was provided for Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his staff, although Ribbentrop himself normally lived in a nearby palace. The small bunker on the right above (object 30) was the base for an observation tower on the edge of a small auxiliary airfield for landing Fieseler Storch aircraft.


The main train station serving the area, called the Görlitz Bahnhof (now Gierłoż, although the railroad is no longer in service) was located in the western part of Sperrkreis II. Hitler's personal train was parked on a siding here, under camouflage nets. The Bahnhof remains as a ruin today, as does the adjacent heavy bunker provided as an air raid shelter for the rail workers (below).

South of the Bahnhof, on the other side of the main road, was a section of Sperrkreis II devoted to the Wehrmacht Operations Staff under Generaloberst Jodl. This part of Sperrkreis II was under the command of Gen. Walter Warlimont. Several bunker and building ruins remain in this area but they are not seen by most visitors today as they are not on any of the marked tour paths. This ruin exhibits the standard bunker exterior coating of a mixture of cement, wood shavings, pebbles, and sea grass. This coating was extremely durable and formed a hard rough outer surface for bunker and building walls. (Google Maps link)


The most impressive ruin in this part of Sperrkreis II is a large Nachrichtenbunker, an air raid shelter for communications and signals personnel, who operated teletype machines here. This large bunker was similar to both the Nachrichten bunker and Göring's bunker in Sperrkreis I. It had mounts on its roof for small caliber flak guns, one of which was blown off the roof and now leans against the main ruin, on its side (above). The Nachrichtenbunker ruin can be partially entered, but the interior is in a very deteriorated state.


This section of Sperrkreis II had a residence with reinforced walls and roof for Gen. Walter Warlimont, deputy chief of the Wehrmacht Operations Staff, although Gen. Warlimont actually lived in a nearby prewar resort hotel, also located in Sperrkreis II (this resort building burned down in 1945).


This section of Sperrkreis II had seven large reinforced buildings which served as living and working areas for the staff officers of the Wehrmacht Operations Staff. These buildings are all more-or-less demolished today, with possibly one or two walls and part of the roof intact, but the remainder collapsed.


These photos show two more examples of the ruined buildings for the Wehrmacht Operations Staff in Sperrkreis II. In most cases, two or three walls were blown outwards and the roof collapsed inwards. Trees grow up today through some of the window openings of some of the outward leaning walls.


"Wache-West," the gate at the western entrance to the Wolfschanze complex. This photo presumably shows Hitler's staff car leaving the complex, headed toward Rastenburg. The iron relic in the modern photo may be the base that held the wooden gate bar. (Bundesarchiv; courtesy Tom Lewis)

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