Adolf Hitler (location of the bunker)

Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] ( listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers Party). He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust.

The site of the former Führerbunker lay in the old Soviet zone of occupation in Berlin (1945–90) and happened to be very close to what became the international frontier of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) with West Berlin. As such, it was very close to the Berlin Wall for the duration of its existence (1961–89). Other than the work done by the Soviet and East German authorities to render the bunker inaccessible (to avoid its becoming a ‘shrine’ for ‘pilgrims’ seeking to commemorate the final days of the Third Reich), the site was intentionally left undeveloped for decades.

When the East Germans did finally develop the site (which, I think, happened in the 1970’s but may have occurred as late as the first half of the 1980’s), they turned it into residential blocks of apartments with a parking lot at the front. The apartments in the days of East Germany were occupied by ‘model’ workers who could be trusted to live so close to the international frontier with West Berlin without fear of their defection.

Today, the apartments and the parking lot are still there, and the only thing to inform visitors that this is the site of the bunker is in the presence of a sign in German and English, which provides information about the meaning of the site in general but does not go into specifics (e.g., the sign does not indicate the specific position of any particular part of the bunker). Another Quoran has posted a picture of the sign here on this thread of comments. I would hesitate to call the sign a ‘memorial plaque’ (for starters, it is made of impermanent materials such as steel and plastic, rather than permanent materials such as bronze, and it provides limited information about the site, rather than commemorating anything). Above all, everything at the site is discreet and inconspicuous, which is how I think that it should be.