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Bornholm was briefly Swedish in 1658, before and after it has been staunchly Danish.I guess the plan was to get him out of surrounded Berlin, not necessarily an escape from the country. The safest bet would have been anywhere NW. But according to your map, there is one place they could go: the Swedish island of Bornholm.
Personally, I don't believe such details as what to do with him once he had been taken from the bunker and perhaps flown to Gatow had even been considered. As mentioned, Reitsch would have only had time to contemplate the idea, perhaps even discuss it with von Greim before pleading with Hitler to leave, but to have gone to such lengths as to what to do with him next probably didn't get too far up the conversation ladder.
Let's put it this way, the Fuhrer had no intention of leaving the bunker. He ordered von Greim to return with Himmler. It's also worth noting that Hitler wrote his last will and testament on the same day as he ordered von Greim to go get Himmler, in which he stated Doenitz as his replacement. Hitler stated that there was no way he was going to become a thing for the Allied powers to parade if he got captured, so, even at the time he learned of Goering's betrayal and ordered von Greim to Berlin, he was not planning on leaving.
The site of Hitler's bunker, with Wilhelm Strasse to the left and Voss Strasse directly ahead. Now a non-descript car park surrounded by East German-built luxury apartments, whose footprint follows the impenetrable lines of the bunker's subterranean construction.
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Sorry, I can't tell you which way the photo is oriented. Maybe the sun angle may be a clue. My Mother took that picture on a Berlin trip back in 1954.I'm trying to figure out in which direction we are looking. If we are facing east, we are looking towards Wilhelm Strasse on the other side of the ruins, from what was Herman Goering Strasse. That would make the building we can see part of to the right the remains of the Propaganda Ministry, original sections of which survive to this day.
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Based on the date, I reckon that this is looking due east as this would have been the furthest east that Westerners could go without a permit to enter East Berlin. I reckon the buildings to the left are the remains on the Unter den Linden. By this stage, the DDR was in control and was rather strict about these things at that time. The Wall was only another seven years later, but the DDR was paranoid about its citizens heading west as in 1953 DDR troops had suppressed rioting workers with machine guns not that far away from the spot where the photograph was taken, near the remains of what was the RLM building, again, which still survives.Sorry, I can't tell you which way the photo is oriented. Maybe the sun angle may be a clue. My Mother took that picture on a Berlin trip back in 1954.
I don't see the secret Nazi base in the Antarctic shown - perhaps because it's still secret?If he makes it to the u-boat, it just has to reach the entrance at the north pole.
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I don't see the secret Nazi base in the Antarctic shown - perhaps because it's still secret?
It is of course a stealth base engineered by the Horten brothers.I don't see the secret Nazi base in the Antarctic shown - perhaps because it's still secret?
BTW, Germans refer to an officers' club as a "casino".
A couple of notes... Karl Marx Allee had been re-named from Stalin Allee when he left power. The nice new buildings lining the street had sidewalks with overhead wooden scaffolds to protect pedestrians from pieces of siding that were coming off the building sides and falling on the sidewalks below.Brilliant photos! So good to see these and figuring out where they are now. I have friends living in Berlin and have always enjoyed my time there, spending hours roaming the streets, so seeing old photos is always a treat.
Ah interesting. It was a German who told me about Haus der Flieger. Maybe they might have indulged in a little illicit gamesmanship...
Checkpoint Charlie has its own KFC now, a wee snack on 11 herbs and spices before crossing the border...
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The first time I went to Checkpoint Charlie was not long after the wall came down and it was still much like how it looked in your picture, Manta, but without the bricks and barrier arms and people just ambling across the road. The sign there now is a reproduction, the original is in the Alliertenmuseum, I think. Interesting to see Karl Marx Allee under construction. It was held up as the centre piece of East German decadence, but it is a bit of a slum now as some of those big apartment blocks lie empty as no one can afford the rents, so I've been told. Some have been pulled down because of their general state of deterioration.
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The former Karl Marx Allee from the Fernsehturm.
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I've seen reference to that memorial in books and stuff. There were quite a few across the city, some of which still exist. A former girlfriend of mine studied psychology at Humboldt Uni.
The opera house now. This is the Bebelplatz, y'know, when book burning was a Nazi craze...
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That remains me the film:Karl Marx Allee had been re-named from Stalin Allee when he left power.
One of my all time favorite movies.
A couple of notes... Karl Marx Allee had been re-named from Stalin Allee when he left power.
Hero picture from February 1962.