"Wolf's Lair" a Gierloz Travel Page by alancollins

The Wolfschanze, the Fuhrer's headquarters in Gierloz, was Hitler's largest headquarters. It was was a complete city in itself, with airfields, power stations, a railway station, air purification installations, a water supply and drainage system, as well as heating. In total the site covered 250 hectares, and was surrounded by barbed wire and land mines.

The process of constructing the Wolfschanze started in the autumn of 1940 and was completed in the autumn of 1944.

Hitler himself spent 900 days at the Wolfschanze. He arrived on 24th July 1941 and left on 20th November 1944. During the night of 24 January 1945, when the Germans were forced to retreat further to the west, the Wolfschanze was blown up by engineers of the German army, who wanted to prevent the place from failing into Russian hands.