Reviews for The Reich Chancellery and Fuhrerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime

The average rating for The Reich Chancellery and Fuhrerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-19 00:00:00 Moo Ali 4+ This is a very interesting and informative book. I learned a lot of new information and appreciate the pictures of the author standing next to key spots. The author gives a very thorough history of the key buildings and land use that preceded the building of the chancellery. He also presents a thorough description of activities and many visitors who were entertained there. It is a valuable resource so one shouldn't take my comments below as anything other than constructive. I had to read the narrative closely multiple times and continue referring to the many pictures before I got a real understanding of where the various buildings or blocks were located directionally. While the diagram of the chancellery and the grounds is nice I had to study it carefully to understand the meaning of the shadings used so I could see the outline of the building itself. I think I "got it." I believe this book would be better if it included some street maps of Berlin during the war and now, perhaps inset together to compare and contrast. These would be especially beneficial if the street numbers the author mentions frequently could be displayed in their places. Using a map from Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina's recent book "The Death of Hitler," one sees that Wilhelmstrasse, Voss Strasse and Hermann Goering Strasse form a triangle pointed at the Brandenburg Gate. A mark on their map is given to indicate the chancellery parallel to Voss Strasse but there is no indication as to how far Voss is from the point of the triangle. Were there 78 buildings along Wilhelmstrasse or were some numbers skipped? Did they alternate odd and even numbers on the east and west sides? Full disclosure: I am not familiar with the current or the past layout of Berlin. GUidebook maps are okay at best. During a quick bus tour in 1980 I recall the tour guide saying something like "over there in that distant field over the wall is where the bunker was" without stopping, pointing directly, or mentioning the chancellery at all. This is 2019 and all kinds of new construction has occurred. I get the notion that no one wants to advertise the past in the detail like elsewhere so that no one may inadvertently create an unwanted memorial. However, as a military historian I try to get an accurate picture as possible of locations, directions, and distances. I would also like to see some easier to understand architectural designs, which apparently exist in the archives, published here. The illustrations on pages 64 and 77 are helpful but they don't show the clarity of architectural prints. The author mentions the walk from the Honour Court to Hitler's office as intimidating but cannot see a diagram that clearly lays this out. One can piece together some of the pictures but the entire length of the "walk" isn't clear. Consider for illustrative purposes the entry "walk" at the Forbidden City in Beijing, built for the same intimidating effect. One can go there now but one can also find books that via pictures and diagrams lay it out clearly. Those are my observations and suggestions for perhaps another revised edition.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-18 00:00:00 Kevin Flowers This book is incredibly thorough and tells a very rich political and architectural history. There are many helpful illustrations of ceremonial and political moments in this book, as well as the motivations of the designers and clients. My one criticism, which is somewhat severe, is that this book should have included the architectural drawings of this building, as well as possibly having some new, purpose-made renders. The original architectural drawings are not that hard to come by, and I am puzzled as to why this book would exclude them. In addition, given everything we know about this ill-feted structure and its many ancillary buildings, it should have been relatively easy to come up with renders to supplement the pre-existing drawings. Why didn't they?