Reich Chancellery

The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at the meeting were Europe's then six great powers: Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany; the Ottomans; and four Balkan states: Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro. The congress concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, replacing the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano that had been signed three months earlier. The leader of the congress, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, sought to stabilise the Balkans, reduce the role of the defeated Ottoman Empire in the region, and balance the distinct interests of Britain, Russia and Austria-Hungary. He also wanted to avoid domination of the Balkans by Russia or the formation of a Greater Bulgaria, and to keep Constantinople in Ottoman hands. Finally Bismarck wanted to encourage the development of civil rights for Jews in the region. Under Bismarck's influence, the congress stripped the Ottomans of many of their European possessions, but refused to grant them to Russia and massively reduced the gains of Bulgaria (compared to the Principality of Bulgaria envisaged by the preliminary San Stefano treaty). The affected territories were instead granted varying degrees of independence. Romania became fully independent, though was forced to give part of Bessarabia to Russia, and gained Northern Dobruja. Serbia and Montenegro were also granted full independence but lost territory, with Austria-Hungary occupying the Sandžak region along with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Britain took possession of Cyprus. Of the territory that remained within the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria was made a semi-independent principality, Eastern Rumelia became a special administration, and the region of Macedonia was returned to the Ottomans on condition of reforms to its governance. The results were initially hailed as a success for peace in the region, but most of the participants were not satisfied with the outcome. The Ottomans were humiliated and had their weakness confirmed as the "sick man of Europe". Russia resented the lack of rewards, despite having won the war that the conference was supposed to resolve, and humiliated by the other great powers in their rejection of the San Stefano settlement. Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece all received far less than they thought they deserved, especially Bulgaria which was left with less than half of the territory envisioned by the Treaty of San Stefano. Bismarck became hated by Russian nationalists and Pan-Slavists, and later found that he had tied Germany too closely to Austria-Hungary in the Balkans. Although Austria-Hungary gained substantial territory, this angered the South Slavs and led to decades of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, culminating in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In the long term, the settlement led to rising tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary, and disputes over nationalism in the Balkans. Grievances with the results of the congress festered until they exploded in the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912 and 1913 respectively). Continuing nationalism in the Balkans was one of the causes of the First World War in 1914.

The Führerbunker (German pronunciation: [ˈfyːʁɐˌbʊŋkɐ]) was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (Führerhauptquartiere) used by Adolf Hitler during World War II. Hitler took up residence in the Führerbunker on 16 January 1945, and it became the centre of the Nazi regime until the last week of World War II in Europe. Hitler married Eva Braun there on 29 April 1945, less than 40 hours before they committed suicide. After the war, both the old and new Chancellery buildings were levelled by the Soviets. The underground complex remained largely undisturbed until 1988–89, despite some attempts at demolition. The excavated sections of the old bunker complex were mostly destroyed during reconstruction of that area of Berlin. The site remained unmarked until 2006, when a small plaque was installed with a schematic diagram. Some corridors of the bunker still exist but are sealed off from the public.

The Borsig Palace (German: Palais Borsig) was an iconic building at the corner of Voßstraße and Wilhelmstraße in the center of Berlin and one of the grandest Italianate villas in Germany. Completed in 1877 for industrialist Albert Borsig, who died before he could move in, the building served for a time as a bank. In 1933 it became the residence of Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, where dramatic scenes relating to the Night of the Long Knives would play out just one year later. In the aftermath, Palais Borsig was converted into the new headquarters of the Sturmabteilung (Storm Troopers) on Adolf Hitler's direct orders. It was then integrated into the New Reich Chancellery by Albert Speer in 1938. The palace was severely damaged in World War II and, together with Hitler's Chancellery, demolished by the Soviet forces in 1947.

The Vorbunker (upper bunker or forward bunker) was an underground concrete structure originally intended to be a temporary air-raid shelter for Adolf Hitler and his guards and servants. It was located behind the large reception hall that was added onto the old Reich Chancellery, in Berlin, Germany, in 1936. The bunker was officially called the "Reich Chancellery Air-Raid Shelter" until 1943, when the complex was expanded with the addition of the Führerbunker, located one level below. On 16 January 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker. He was joined by his senior staff, including Martin Bormann. Later, Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels moved into the Führerbunker while Magda Goebbels and their six children took residence in the upper Vorbunker. The Goebbels family lived in the Vorbunker until their deaths on 1 May 1945.

The Reich Ministry of Transport (German: Reichsverkehrsministerium or RVM) was a cabinet-level agency of the German government from 1919 until 1945, operating during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Formed from the Prussian Ministry of Public Works after the end of World War I, the RVM was in charge of regulating German railways, roadways, waterways, and the construction industry - a kind of infrastructure agency in today's understanding. In the 1920s, the Ministry's involvement in the rail sector was limited to administrative and technical supervisory functions. The National Railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn) was initially organized as an independent state-owned company to guarantee that Germany paid war reparations according to the provisions of the 1924 Dawes Plan. Under Nazi control, the Transport Ministry expanded exponentially. The Reichsbahn, which had become Germany's largest public asset and also the largest such enterprise in the capitalist world at the time, was taken over by the RVM in 1937. Railroads in the German states, transportation associations, and even private transport companies also came under the Nazi government's direct control through the Ministry. During World War II the RVM took over agencies in conquered nations and provided military rail transport. It also became responsible for the deportation of European Jews to extermination camps. The particular unit involved, "No. 21. Bulk Transport", functioned in close cooperation with the SS. The RVM therefore came to play a pivotal role in The Holocaust. The Ministry lived on for a time after the war in the Flensburg Government and was dissolved de facto at the end of May, 1945. The Ministry's headquarters were located in central Berlin on the Wilhelmplatz. Over time it came to occupy a complex of buildings, including underground air-raid shelters built in 1940. Heavily damaged by Allied bombing, the site wound up in East Berlin in 1949. Portions of it served as the East German Railway headquarters until German Reunification in 1990. Most of the site was left derelict and was demolished in 2012. A large shopping mall was built in its place in 2014, with two small wings historically preserved.

The statue of Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau ("der alte Dessauer") is a bronze sculpture installed at Wilhelmplatz in Berlin, Germany. At the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 a plan was formulated to erect marble statues of Prussian generals who died in the war. Initially four were installed, between 1769 and 1786. Between 1794 and 1828 two statues, including Leopold I by Johann Gottfried Schadow, which had initially been intended to be installed elsewhere in Berlin were relocated there.Because of the vulnerability of the marble statues, the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch suggested recasting them in Bronze. The marble originals were moved to the Bode Museum, and the new statues were cast by August Kiß. The statues survived World War II, but were not on public view for many years. Finally the statues or Leopold and Hans Joachim von Zieten were re-erected between 2003 and 2005 on a subway island on the transverse axis of the former Wilhelmplatz.

The Ordenspalais ("Palace of the Order [of Saint John]") was a building on the northern corner of Wilhelmplatz with Wilhelmstraße in Berlin (now in Berlin-Mitte). Erection of the building at Wilhelmplatz No. 7/8 began in 1737 as the residence of the Prussian Major General Karl Ludwig, Count of Waldburg-Capustigall, who died the next year. By command of King Frederick William I of Prussia, the palace was finished by the Order of Saint John (the Johanniterorden) according to plans by Carl Friedrich Richter, who also designed the neighbouring Palais Schulenburg (later the German Reich Chancellery). From 1738, the palace was the principal residence of the Herrenmeister ("Master of the Knights"), chief of the Order, and housed the Berlin legation of the Order. The palace later was renamed for Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, who was Herrenmeister from 1763 to 1811. The Kingdom of Prussia took over the building in 1811, upon the dissolution of the Order by a government desperate for funds in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, and the building thereafter housed several governmental agencies before Prince Charles of Prussia made it his residence in 1829. He had the palace remodeled in a Neoclassical style according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, with an annex built by Friedrich August Stüler. In 1853, the building, now numbered Wilhelmplatz No. 8/9, saw the solemn restoration of the Johanniterorden and Prince Charles's installation as the new Herrenmeister. After his death in 1883, the palace remained the residence of Prince Charles's descendants Princes Frederick Charles and Friedrich Leopold of Prussia. After World War I and the fall of the Prussian monarchy, the palace became the subject of a lengthy lawsuit between the House of Hohenzollern and the Free State of Prussia. The palace remained empty until the German government made it the offices of the united press department of the Reichsregierung and the Foreign Office, which held daily press conferences here. In March 1933, the building became the headquarters of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda led by Joseph Goebbels. During his tenure, the building was again enlarged, with Stüler's annex extended and rebuilt until 1940. The Ordenspalais itself was destroyed in the last months of World War II. The annex, renumbered Wilhelmstraße No. 49, survived and from 1947 was the seat of the East German National Front organization. Since 1999, the building has held the main offices of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs (German: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsminɪsˌteːʁiʊm fyːɐ̯ ˈaʁbaɪ̯t ʊnt zoˈt͡si̯aːləs] (listen)), abbreviated BMAS) is a federal ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany headed by the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs as a member of the Cabinet of Germany (Bundesregierung). Its first location is on Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, the second in Bonn.

Tresor (German for safe or vault) is an underground techno nightclub in Berlin and a record label.

Voßstraße (also sometimes spelled Voss Strasse or Vossstrasse in English); German pronunciation: [ˈfɔsˌʃtʁaːsə] is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. It runs east–west from Ebertstraße to Wilhelmstraße in the borough of Mitte, one street north of Leipziger Straße and very close to Potsdamer Platz. It is best known for being the location of Hitler's new Reich Chancellery complex, and the bunker where he spent his last days.

Wilhelmplatz was a square in the Mitte district of Berlin, at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Voßstraße. The square also gave its name to a Berlin U-Bahn station which has since been renamed Mohrenstraße. A number of notable buildings were constructed around the square, including the old Reich Chancellery (former Palais Schulenburg), the building of the Ministry of Finance and the Kaiserhof grand hotel built in 1875.

The Reich President's Palace (German: Reichspräsidentenpalais) was from 1919 to 1934 an official residence of the President of the Reich and the official seat of the German head of state. The palace was located at Wilhelmstrasse No. 73 in Berlin and housed the Office of the Reich President, which regulated all matters related to the function of the Reich President as a state institution. Private apartments of the President and some of his employees where in Palace as well as various representation and reception rooms.