7. As the Soviets advanced, the Chancellery wine cellars were emptied and the booze flowed like water in the Bunker
Famously, Hitler liked to boast of his strict vegetarian diet. He also didn’t smoke – in itself relatively rare for the 1930s and 1940s – and was never a fan of alcohol. Even if he wasn’t completely tee-total as some historians insist, he certainly was no heavy drinker, only ever having an occasional glass of wine or beer, usually to steady his nerves before a big speech. However, he recognized the importance of alcohol to his underlings and turned a blind eye as the inhabitants of the Bunker drank themselves into oblivion as the Red Army advanced.
In her account of Hitler’s downfall, Brunhilde Pomsel, the head secretary of Joseph Goebbels, revealed that she was specifically instructed to “continuously supply alcohol to the Nazis in their final hours”. Since traditional German beer was hard to come by, most people in the Bunker got drunk on schnapps or other cheap, strong spirits. She also noted that even Hitler himself recognized that booze was “urgently needed in order to retain the numbness” of the skeleton crew of staff left underground. Pomsel even suggested that Hitler got drunk with Goebbels right at the very end, though most historians disagree.