Shell-Haus nowadays

The postwar view of the Shell-Haus with the war damages, 1945–46

Shell-Haus, 1945–46

The Shell-Haus (Shell House) was designed by a German architect Emil Fahrenkamp and built in 1930–1931 for the oil company Rheania-Ossag, a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary. Despite Fahrenkamp being later active as an architect of various Nazi buildings, the Shell-Haus got a very negative judgement from Adolf Hitler, who said to Fahrenkamp: ”You're the man who committed the crime of the Shell-Haus”. In 1934, the German Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine moved into the building. During the war, the cellar of the building was also used as a military hospital. Despite the bombings, the building itself was not damaged severely during the war. On 2 May 1945, Theodor von Dufving, the chief-of-staff of the Berlin defence commander Helmuth Weidling, met the representatives of the 47th Guards Rifle Division on the Bendlerbrücke near the Shell-Haus to convey the surrender offer of the Wehrmacht troops in Berlin. A few hours later, Weidling, whose command post was in the Bendlerblock complex across the street, used the same bridge near the Shell-Haus to cross the Landwehrkanal and drive to the headquarters of Marshal Vasily Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, to sign the capitulation of the Berlin garrison. From 1946 to 2011, the Shell-Haus was occupied by various energy supply companies, and it became a listed building in 1958. Since 2012, the building is being used as a part of the Federal Ministry of Defence complex in addition to the Bendlerblock.