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Jack D Shipley's avatar

I noticed the comparison between the Putin ballroom and Trump’s royalty fantasy ballroom. Also, as Trump is said to have kept Mein Kampf by his bedside that this parallel comparison from Ai is important:

Adolf Hitler commissioned this exact sequence of construction at the Old Reich Chancellery (Wilhelmstraße 77) in Berlin between 1935 and 1944, creating the multi-level bunker complex where he spent the final months of World War II.

The Reception Hall and Initial Shelter (1935–1936)

* The Ballroom: In July 1935, Hitler tasked architect Leonhard Gall with designing an extension to the Old Reich Chancellery that included a large reception hall capable of functioning as a ballroom.

* The Air-Raid Shelter: Gall integrated a subterranean shelter directly beneath the new ballroom. Officially named the Reich Chancellery Air-Raid Shelter (later referred to as the Vorbunker, or "forward bunker"), it featured 12 rooms along a central corridor.

* Structural Integration: Completed in 1936, the shelter was built with 1.6-meter-thick reinforced concrete walls and ceilings—engineered specifically to support the immense weight of the ballroom above while providing protection for Hitler, his personal guards, and domestic staff.

The Deep Bunker (1943–1944)

* Escalating Threat: As Allied bombing campaigns intensified and conventional shelters became inadequate against heavier ordnance, Hitler commissioned a significantly deeper, heavily reinforced addition in 1943.

* Subterranean Construction: Built by the Hochtief construction firm, this lower shelter—the Führerbunker—was completed in 1944. It was placed roughly 8.5 meters underground in the Chancellery gardens, about 2.5 meters lower than the Vorbunker.

* Connection: A right-angled flight of concrete steps and heavy, gas-tight steel bulkheads joined the Vorbunker (under the ballroom) to the deeper Führerbunker.

Hitler permanently moved his personal quarters down into the lower Führerbunker on January 16, 1945. The upper Vorbunker beneath the ballroom served as quarters for military adjutants, bodyguards, and kitchen staff, and later housed Joseph and Magda Goebbels and their six children during the final days of the Battle of Berlin.

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