It was the main "lair" of Hitler's headquarters on the western front. From a secret bunker in the cliffs of the Eifel Mountains (western part of the Rhine Shale Mountains), Hitler led a blitzkrieg war against France in 1940. After the capture of Paris, the German Fuehrer ordered his beloved headquarters to be included in the list of protected historical monuments.
In 1945, the building was blown up, but to this day there are traces of Hitler's fortified, well-disguised residence. It was still quite dark when an armored train entered the station grounds at Euskirchen, a small town south of Cologne. The heavy train braked with a loud grinding noise. Then there was complete silence. Five minutes later, the noise of numerous car engines was heard. Several convoys of cars drove off from the station and moved southward. Adolf Hitler was sitting in one of the cars of the second column.
This episode dates back to May 10, 1940. At 4.30 a.m. the Fuehrer and his retinue made a transfer at Euskirchen en route to Rodert, a small village near Bad Münstereifel. In this picturesque quiet place near the Belgian border, the dictator ordered the construction of a secret "headquarters of the Fuehrer's headquarters" for him, which was codenamed "Nest in the Rocks". From Nest in the Rocks, Hitler intended to command an offensive against France and the Benelux countries. In his special train "America", shortly before arriving in Eiskirchen, Hitler gave the order to start an offensive operation.
At about five o'clock in the morning, in the predawn twilight, Hitler arrived at Rodert. Captain Sprengemann led the Fuehrer into a concrete bunker, which until June 6 served as his command headquarters and at the same time his home. For Western Europe, at that moment, World War II began, with all its cruelty, irreparable human losses and bitter poverty.
The "Nest in the Rocks" is nowhere near as well known as Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia or other Fuehrer headquarters.
According to the plan, the Fuehrer's headquarters during the start of the offensive in the western direction was to be located in the Ziegenberg castle near Bad Nauheim in the land of Hesse. The re-equipment of the castle under Hitler's headquarters cost the treasury several million Reichsmarks and was almost completed. But the Fuehrer firmly refused to place his headquarters in the castle. He wanted something simpler - an ordinary command post, because, according to his own words, he feared for his reputation in the eyes of the Germans. ("Thousands of German citizens will visit this castle afterwards, and ordinary people will be amazed at the fact that I lived in luxury.")
In the "Nest in the Rocks" one could meet Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, SS chief Heinrich Himmler, Labor Minister Fritz Todt and "chief propagandist" of the Third Reich, Joseph Goebbels, not to mention many other less "eminent" Nazis. Goering, on his visits to the Eiffel, did not forget about his passion for hunting and wandered for hours with a gun in the woods near Bad Münstereifel. The Fuehrer also sometimes went out for a walk and relax in nature.
Hitler stayed in the "Nest in the Rocks" for almost four weeks, on June 6, 1940, he left for occupied Belgium, where, as soon as possible, the new Wolf Gorge headquarters in Brühlide Pesch, in the Ardennes, was equipped for the Fuehrer's headquarters. A team of seven non-commissioned officers and fifty soldiers was left in Rodert.
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In 1942 and 1943, the Nest in the Rocks was expanded and further strengthened, but it was never used for its intended purpose again. At the end of the war, it was blown up, but who did it and under what circumstances is not known exactly. Different sources tell about this in different ways. Some argue that Hitler's favorite "nest" was blown up by German sappers during the retreat. Others believe that the bunker in Eselberg was blown up by American soldiers on March 17, 1945.
The house, built in 1934, belonged to a local family named Prince. In the spring of 1940, the owners of the house were moved to a rented apartment in Rodert, and the house was rebuilt into a temporary shelter for high-ranking visitors. The building is now being used as a warehouse. The massive doors have survived. Hitler's secretaries lived in a small building called the "girls' house". Hitler dropped by on the morning of May 10, 1940 to see how they settled down.
In the village square there was a tavern "Hak". Together with the adjoining hall of the village club, he served Hitler as a cinema. When moving in a hurry, they forgot to take a film projector (apartment move Moscow), and Goebbels personally made sure that the necessary equipment was delivered to Rodert in two days.
In the so-called first barrier zone on the outskirts of Rodert in Mount Eselsberg, there were the premises of the Fuhrer himself. On the gentle slope of the mountain, the foundations of a vast barrack are still visible, where Hitler and his generals met at least twice a day to clarify the situation at the front and decide on further actions. There was incessant movement, constantly someone came and went, and the guards did not have a minute of rest until late at night, because Hitler was a typical "owl" - he went to bed late, slept until noon.
A path on the forested mountainside leads to the holy of holies of the headquarters - to the place where Hitler's temporary apartment was located. The bunker, blown up in 1945, has been transformed into shapeless piles of concrete. Only in a few places are holes with twisted gratings visible, where there were entrances to the inside. The bunker consisted of five separate boxes, two of which were probably adjacent. The only room with a window served the Fuhrer as a bedroom and at the same time an office. Colonel-General Wilhelm Keitel and Heinz Linge, personal assistant and servant of the Fuhrer, lived next to Hitler in small boxes. Small rooms were too sound permeable and extremely uncomfortable.
In the concrete ruins, the remains of the partitions between the individual rooms are still clearly visible. Above the underground bunker, there was probably a barrack for officers who belonged to a narrow circle of the Fuhrer's entourage, and for generals. In its immediate vicinity, there were apparently bomb shelters, as well as a kitchen, a canteen and a sanitary service.
Although Hitler spent very little time in his bunker in Eselberg, he retained sentimental memories of the place. As early as June 1, 1940, before leaving the Nest in the Rocks, he gave the order - to include the air defense positions and all structures of the headquarters in Rodert among the state-protected historical monuments. All buildings were preserved in the form in which they were during the Fuhrer's stay. Not even a single sign on the doors was allowed to be removed.
Christa Schroeder, one of Hitler's secretaries, later recalled how the Fuhrer, at times, with affection remembered the Nest in the Rocks: “He always admired the beautiful nature and shared his plans to go there all together at least once a year”. Schroeder also said that Hitler in Rodert very soon invented the playful name "Bird Paradise" for his apartment in the bunker, and that is exactly what Eselsberg called when he was among his entourage.
Although Hitler spent very little time in his bunker in Eselsberg, he retained sentimental memories of this place.
During a trip to the front-line area on Christmas days in 1940, Hitler allegedly once again stopped for a short time at the Nest in the Rocks, but this fact has not been reliably established. But it is known for sure that two years later he recalled with pleasure the days he spent in the Eiffel in the spring of 1940. “My best bet was Nest in the Rocks,” Hitler said in February 1941.
The dictator, who did not hesitate to give orders for the destruction of entire cities, along with architectural monuments, was very concerned about the safety of Rodert and the entire Euskirchen district. In March 1943, he rejected plans to use the Nest in the Rocks for other purposes. As a justification, the Fuehrer said that he wanted to go there for three days, and if Euskirchen and the surrounding area were rummaged beyond recognition, it would be very sorry. "We can't let that happen." And in the following years, the Fuehrer was no longer up to the secluded "Nest in the Rocks".