It was already lunch hour when we arrived at Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair), and we were greeted with a long line of cars and buses leading into the entrance, not the best start.
We stopped and used one of the small outside tables to eat something, before starting our visit.
This was Adolf Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia, and the place where he spent nearly half of WWII, and although we expected some visitor’s given the history behind this place, the truth is we didn’t anticipate these many. Things changed once we were inside the compound, it feels much like a park with lots of space and unless you are with a guided tour you can feel like you are all alone, just use a map and information leaflet to choose your own path.
Because we had our son we decided to go our own way and avoid the crowds as much as possible and this turned out to be great.

What to expect?

You can expect to be around a part of WWII history, surrounded by the remains of bunkers and reinforced concrete walls. It’s quite the sight actually and there are many interesting stories around every building.
My favourite was the story of the attempted assassination on Hitler, but there are many other’s that haunt this place to this day.
Looking at most of the buildings you can see the results of Hitler’s order to destroy the compound and avoid its use by the Red Army.
It’s a dark moment of world history and one that the forest is slowly reclaiming making it feel and look quite dark and mysterious.
It’s a great visit if you like WWII history, of course, it’s hard to show on video or in pictures just how large these bunkers are, it’s an impressive feat of engineering to build these structures. It’s hard to understand the forces that destroyed 60 x 25m slabs of reinforced concrete 7m thick.

Our Recommendations

Go early. It gets very busy mid-morning and afternoon.
Get a guidebook as none of the bunkers has information on them at all.
Personal guides have stories so you might consider it if you have time and you like in-depth info.
Take water with you, you won’t find it easily and the area is quite large.
Options for military vehicle tour on the sites across the road from the main area
2 signed walks, red and blue. Take your time to soak up the history
A small torch is really worth taking.

Prices

Normal ticket – 15zł
Children under 6 free
Parking (car)- 5zł

Opening hours

From April to September
Everyday 8:00 – 20:00

From October to March
Everyday 8:00 – 16:00

Website (only in Polish)

http://www.wilczyszaniec.olsztyn.lasy.gov.pl/

Where is it?