| Bendlerblock | |
|---|---|
 South facade onLandwehr Canal | |
 Interactive map of Bendlerblock | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical |
| Location | Stauffenbergstraße 13, 10785Berlin,Germany |
| Coordinates | 52°30′25″N13°21′41″E / 52.5069°N 13.3614°E /52.5069; 13.3614 |
| Current tenants | |
| Year built | 1911–1914 |
| Known for | Resistance memorial, role in20 July plot |
| Website | |
| gdw-berlin | |
TheBendlerblock (German pronunciation:[ˈbɛndlɐˌblɔk]ⓘ) is a building complex in theTiergarten district ofBerlin,Germany, located on Stauffenbergstraße (formerly namedBendlerstraße). Erected in 1914 as headquarters of severalImperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) offices, it served theMinistry of the Reichswehr after World War I. Significantly enlarged underNazi rule, it was used by several departments of theOberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) from 1938, especially theOberkommando des Heeres and theAbwehr intelligence agency.
The building is notable as the headquarters of aresistance band ofWehrmacht officers who staged the20 July plot againstAdolf Hitler in 1944. As the leaders of the conspiracy were summarily shot in the courtyard, the Bendlerblock also includes theMemorial to the German Resistance. Since 1993, the building complex has served as a secondary seat of the GermanFederal Ministry of Defence.
The complex got its name from the street it was on. Today, it is on Stauffenbergstraße (Named in honour ofClaus von Stauffenberg) which was previously known asBendlerstraße from 1837 until 20 July 1955, afterJohann Christoph Bendler [de] (1789–1873) fromHoym in PrussianHalberstadt. Bendler, a chiefmason and member of the Berlin city council, had acquired large estates south of theGroßer Tiergarten park in order to develop the later mansion district onTiergartenstraße.[1][2]
The main building on theLandwehr Canal was erected between 1911 and 1914 in aNeoclassical style as the seat of theImperial Naval Office, until 1916 led by Grand admiralAlfred von Tirpitz. It was also the headquarters of theImperial Admiralty Staff and theImperial Navy Cabinet directly subordinate to EmperorWilhelm II.[1]
AfterWorld War I, the GermanWeimar government had to face the regulations of the 1919Versailles treaty, whereafter the remainingReichswehr andReichsmarine forces had to be greatly reduced and from that time on used the complex jointly. It also served as the seat of the first Reichswehr MinisterGustav Noske and supreme army commanderWalther Reinhardt.[1]
In Minister Noske's office,Truppenamt chief Major GeneralHans von Seeckt openly rejected an intervention of Reichswehr troops against paramilitaryFreikorps forces during the 1920Kapp Putsch ("Reichswehr do not fire on Reichswehr").[1]
On 3 February 1933, four days after his appointment by Reich PresidentPaul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler sought the support of Reichswehr commander-in-chief GeneralKurt von Hammerstein-Equord, unveiling his political ideology in an extended declamation. Despite the support by new Reichswehr MinisterWerner von Blomberg, Hitler's appearance resulted in a grave crisis with the army command and Hammerstein-Equord's resignation in December. He was succeeded by Lieutenant GeneralWerner von Fritsch.[1]
From the mid-1930s onwards, large annexes were erected along Bendlerstraße according to plans designed byWilhelm Kreis. From 1938 the enlarged "Bendlerblock" again was used by theSeekriegsleitung (Maritime Warfare Command) of theOberkommando der Marine and the OKWAmt Abwehr. The main building served the General Army Office of theOberkommando des Heeres (OKH)[1][2] under GeneralFriedrich Fromm, succeeded by GeneralFriedrich Olbricht in 1940, and still as seat of the commander-in-chief of theGerman Army (Heer). After theBlomberg–Fritsch Affair in 1938, Colonel-generalWalther von Brauchitsch took command and from 1941 Hitler took command himself.[3]
Already in 1938, the head of theAbwehr intelligence agency under AdmiralWilhelm Canaris and Lieutenant ColonelHans Oster evolved plans for acoup d'état in the course of theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia.[1] These plans were upset by theMunich Agreement, whereby the major European powers reconciled by permitting the annexation of the "Sudetenland".[4]
In the early 1940s, the OKH Army Office under the leadership of General Friedrich Olbricht became the focus of military resistance to the Nazi regime. In October 1943, ColonelClaus von Stauffenberg was transferred to the General Army Office as chief of staff.[1]
It was at the Bendlerblock that Stauffenberg and Major GeneralHenning von Tresckow secretly modified the Wehrmacht "Operation Valkyrie" plan for the suppression of a possible revolt into a scheme for acoup attempt upon an assassination on Hitler. Stauffenberg's position gave him direct access to situation briefings in Hitler'sWolf's Lair headquarters inEast Prussia. On 20 July 1944, he set the fuse of a bomb there and immediately returned to Berlin.[5]
The bomb went off, but Hitler survived. As the day progressed and the news spread, the conspirators were unable to take control of Germany. Following the arrest of the conspirators in the Bendlerblock by order of GeneralFriedrich Fromm, the resistance fighters Colonel von Stauffenberg, General Friedrich Olbricht,Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, and Stauffenberg's adjutantWerner von Haeften, were executed by firing squad that same night in the courtyard of the building. A fifth plotter, GeneraloberstLudwig Beck, was allowed to shoot himself. Fromm's opportunism did not pay off: he was arrested for connivance the next day, condemned to death and executed on 12 March 1945.[6]
During theBattle of Berlin in the last days ofWorld War II in late April and early May 1945, GeneralHelmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defence Area, used the Bendlerblock as his headquarters before surrendering to GeneralVasily Chuikov of the SovietRed Army at 6:00 a.m. on 2 May.[7]
The section of the Bendlerblock around the courtyard, where Stauffenberg and the other conspirators were executed, now houses theMemorial to the German Resistance. It is also used as one of the ceremonial sites where new members of theWachbataillon of theBundeswehr (German military's drill unit) take their oaths.[8]
Following German reunification, the Federal Minister of Defence's Berlin office was moved to the Bendlerblock.[2][9]
On 27 August 2025, thegovernment ofChancellor Friedrich Merz held its first cabinet meeting at the Bendlerblock.[10][11]
The Ministry of Defence as proprietor tends to restrict access to the Bendlerblock, due to its historical significance and lingering sensitivities about Germany's role in World War II. Filming permission was first granted in 2003 to a TV studio for the filming ofStauffenberg, starringSebastian Koch. It was awarded with theDeutscher Fernsehpreis.[12]
The Ministry hesitated to grant permission for filming scenes of theTom Cruise-starred movieValkyrie about the 20 July Plot, especially a re-enactment of the execution on the original location. However, permission was eventually granted, and filming took place. (The movie was primarily photographed in and around Berlin, with some African and other scenes filmed in California.)[13] DirectorBryan Singer led the film crew in a minute of silence before filming began, in honour of those who were killed on the site in 1944.[14]
'Shortly before we started filming, screenplay writer Christopher McQuarrie, director Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise made short remarks and then asked for a minute of silence, out of respect for the place and out of respect for the life achievement of these people who were executed there,' German actor Christian Berkel, who plays fellow plotter Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, was quoted as saying in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
52°30′25″N13°21′41″E / 52.50694°N 13.36139°E /52.50694; 13.36139
