The Imperial Chancellory (German Reichskanzlei) is the traditional name of the office of the German Chancellor. Today it is usually called Kanzleramt (Chancellor's Office), or more formally Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellor's Office).
Building from 1938
In 1938, Albert Speer was assigned by Hitler to built the new German Reich Chancellory in the capital of Berlin. Within a year, the building was completed. Under the complex was the Führerbunker, where Hitler committed suicide.
Hitler decreed that the enormous new Chancellory should impress every visitor with its monumentality. "On the long corridor from the entrance to the reception hall, they'll learn something about the grandeur of the German Reich," Hitler said. The long corridor was to be 300 metres long, with a court of honour, a forecourt, a mosaic hall, a round hall, and a marble gallery along the way. Hitler's own office was 400 square metres in size. From the exterior, the chancellery has a stern, authoritarian appearance.
From the Wilhelmplatz , visitors would enter the Chancellory through the Honour Courtyard. At the far end of the courtyard was the main entrance, flanked by two bronze statues by sculpture Arno Breker : "Wehrmacht" and "Partei".
Entering the Chancellery, visitors would find themselves in a small reception area, followed by the impressive Mosaic Hall. The floor and the walls of this room were all covered with red-stone marble; daylight entered the hall through a large dome in the roof.
The next chamber after the Mosaic Hall was the Round Hall, which would grant one access to the even more impressive Marble Gallery. 145 metres in length, the Marble Gallery was twice the size of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, designed solely to impress visitors of the Chancellory. In the centre of the gallery was the door leading to Hitler's office. Almost 400 metres in square, the office, also, was designed to overwhelm its visitors.
After the war, the Soviet occupation force demolished the Chancellory and used parts of it to renovate the adjacent war damaged subway station U-Bahnhof Mohrenstraße .
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