Due to its use and its long construction history, the Berlin Reich Chancellery building offers an interesting object of study for a wide variety of areas of European history. Since it is impossible to comprehensively cover this more than 250 years of history in a single 90-minute lecture, I offer 10 different lectures that address the most important themes in the history of the Reich Chancellery. This is the only way I can examine the various topics in detail, allowing the listener to gain insights beyond the superficial.
In the 10 lectures, I will present numerous photographs and plans from my private archive. Furthermore, 3D graphics created by me will be presented during the lectures to illustrate areas not documented in photographs.
The lectures are delivered in either German or English.
Lecture 1/ The History of the Reich Chancellery - A General Overview
This lecture provides a general overview of the architectural history and residents of the Reich Chancellery from 1733 to 1945. Each topic will be briefly touched upon in order to at least superficially address the various issues that have played a role in the history of the Reich Chancellery in the short 90-minute timeframe. This lecture provides a brief insight into all the key topics that are otherwise explored in much greater detail and depth in the various lectures.
Lecture 2/ The Architecture of the Reich Chancellery
This lecture will focus specifically on the architectural history of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Christoph Neubauer will explain the renovations undertaken by architects such as Konrad Wiesend, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Wilhelm Neumann, Ernst von Ihne, Eduard Jobst Siedler, Paul Ludwig Troost, Albert Speer, Caesar Pinnau, and Leonhard Gall over the building's 250-year history. The lecture will contrast and compare the impact of the various architectural styles. Furthermore, the urban planning implications of the renovations and expansions will be discussed.
Lecture 3/ Conferences and Events in the Reich Chancellery That Made World History
This lecture will specifically examine the political and social events that took place in the Reich Chancellery building between 1736 and 1945. At the inauguration ceremony of the Schulenburg Palace, later the Reich Chancellery, an incident occurred that would soon have world-historical repercussions. From that day on, the history of the Reich Chancellery was closely intertwined with the political and social events of Prussia and Germany. Anton Radziwill presented his compositions here, and world history was made in the building under Bismarck at the Balkan Conference and the Congo Conference. The meetings that led to the First World War, which culminated in the occupation of the Reich Chancellery by revolutionaries, also took place here. In the 1920s, economic negotiations between Germany, France, Great Britain, and the USA took place in the Reich Chancellery, and in the 1930s, preparations were made for World War II, which ultimately ended in 1945 with Adolf Hitler's suicide in the Reich Chancellery bunker.
Graphics and photographs of many of these important global events have been preserved. This lecture will assign them to the various rooms of the building, and explain the background.
Lecture 4/ The Security of the Reich Chancellors
This lecture focuses on the various security measures implemented to protect the Reich Chancellors while they lived and worked in the Reich Chancellery. Special security measures were introduced as early as the conversion of the Palais Radziwill into Bismarck's Reich Chancellery. Assassination attempts and other security-related incidents subsequently led to a constant expansion of security in the Reich Chancellors' residence. However, while the Reich Chancellors of the Weimar Republic were still content with doormen and guards, Adolf Hitler's personal security was drastically expanded from 1939 onwards, including in the Reich Chancellery. This lecture provides a chronological and detailed description of the working methods of the various guard units responsible for the protection of the Reich Chancellors. Furthermore, the lecture will address structural features, such as bunkers and guard quarters, that were of particular importance for personal security.
Lecture 5/ The Apartments of the Reich Chancellors
With one exception, all Reich Chancellors had their primary residence in the Reich Chancellery. This lecture describes the private living quarters occupied by the various Reich Chancellors and compares their furnishings and size.
The main part of the lecture is devoted to Adolf Hitler's so-called "Führerwohnung" (Leader's Apartment). By examining the furnishings of this particularly well-documented apartment, in conjunction with the constant changes, modernizations, and expansions, the connection between the living quarters used by Adolf Hitler in the Reich Chancellery and his claim to power is clarified.
Lecture 6/ The Employees of the Reich Chancellery and Their Apartments
This lecture will examine the various residents of the Reich Chancellery who lived in the building alongside the Reich Chancellors. It will demonstrate how the living space requirements for the Reich Chancellery's employees constantly expanded. While apartments for the gardener, the servant, and the porter seemed sufficient during Bismarck's time, the employees' living space requirements soon expanded to include drivers, pilots, adjutants, caretakers, and secretaries. This lecture will examine where and how the Reich Chancellery's employees were housed in the building. This provides interesting insights into the daily lives of the various Reich Chancellors and their employees.
Lecture 7/ The Bunkers and Underground Facilities of the Reich Chancellery (Führerbunker)
This lecture will specifically address all the rooms of the Reich Chancellery that existed below the ground floor. While these were merely ordinary basement rooms until 1936, a massive expansion of the Reich Chancellery's underground facilities took place between 1936 and 1945. While a bunker for Adolf Hitler and his closest associates (the Führerbunker) was built during this period, additional bunker facilities were built starting in 1938 with the construction of the New Reich Chancellery, some of which reached a depth of 8 meters and extended over several underground floors. In addition to a detailed description of these basement and shelter facilities, this lecture will also address the proven and suspected underground bunkers, cellars, technical rooms, and connecting corridors, some of which still exist today on the former site of the Reich Chancellery.
Lecture 8/ The Technical Facilities of the Reich Chancellery
The technical facilities of the Reich Chancellery, in addition to the pure need for comfort, were always also intended to publicly showcase the technical achievements of the German Reich. This lecture therefore focuses specifically on the building's technical equipment. The first section covers the period from 1735 to 1938. It describes the development of electricity from candle lighting to electrification and from coal-fired stoves to central heating. The expansion of sewage pumping stations, rainwater retention basins, generator houses, and telephone systems during this period will also be discussed. Christoph Neubauer will also present the tunneling project for the new building from 1928 to 1930 by the Berlin S-Bahn. The technical facilities of the New Reich Chancellery will then be presented. Among other things, the New Reich Chancellery was equipped with a lifting platform for trucks, electric gates, automatic bunker doors, escalators, heating system with built-in soot filter, independent energy center and automatic air conditioning.
Lecture 9/ The Various Workrooms of the Reich Chancellors
From 1878 to 1945, nine different private or official workrooms were set up and used by the Reich Chancellors in the Reich Chancellery. This lecture will identify the various workrooms for each Reich Chancellor and explain the reasons for their modifications or relocations. Furthermore, the constantly changing architectural and technical features of the workrooms under the successive Reich Chancellors will be discussed. This allows for a direct comparison between the personalities of the Reich Chancellors and the architectural design of their respective workrooms.
Lecture 10/ Attention Media! - The Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker in Postwar Textbooks and Documentaries
The history of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin is featured in many book publications and TV documentaries. In this lecture, Christoph Neubauer demonstrates how superficially this topic is often treated by historians and journalists. In addition to a few book analyses, Neubauer's lecture focuses primarily on the various international TV documentaries on the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker. He compares the theories and claims presented therein with the surviving documents and photographic evidence, thereby refuting much misinformation in postwar history. A separate section of the lecture is devoted to the topic of Adolf Hitler's alleged escape from the Führerbunker in the spring of 1945, a topic often addressed in TV documentaries. In this lecture, Neubauer not only highlights the most common oversights made by authors and journalists, but also reveals deliberate misinformation and mystification by the media in historiography.