Synopsis

Blaine Taylor has written and assembled a fascinating photographic history of Adolf Hitler’s many headquarters, both before and during World War II. Taylor includes all of the private residences, offices, command posts, and even mobile headquarters from which the Nazi dictator planned his rise to power and the conquest of Europe. Taylor recounts the background and physical description of each headquarters while also relating these locations’ importance to the larger story of Nazi Germany and World War II.

Restless, Hitler rarely worked at a desk and was almost always on the move during the war, with headquarters scattered throughout Germany and across the continent from the Ukraine to Belgium. Taylor describes the best-known headquarters, such as Wolf’s Lair, the Berchtesgaden complex, and the Berlin bunker, but he also includes many lesser-known ones such as Hitler’s armored train Amerika, Felsennest near the Belgian border, and the compound codenamed Tannenberg in the Black Forest. Hitler spent a fortune on these varied sites, some of which he never used. Ultimately, and perhaps fittingly, he spent his final days before committing suicide holed up in his extensive bunker deep beneath Berlin.

Biography

Blaine Taylor is the author of several books about Nazi Germany and World War II, including Volkswagen Military Vehicles of the Third Reich: An Illustrated History and Mercedes-Benz Parade and Staff Cars of the Third Reich, 1933–1945: An Illustrated History. He lives in Towson, Maryland.