The centrepiece of the ground floor was the grand entrance hall, furnished with ornate Teutonic furniture that had been shipped over from Europe a few months earlier. A gigantic black marble fireplace dominated the area and a number of silver-framed pictures, featuring the Führer in a variety of animated poses, were displayed on the mantel. Directly above the fireplace hung a watercolour, set in an ornate gold-leaf frame, that Hitler himself had painted. Two heavy oak doors led through to an enormous study that boasted light pine-panelled walls, broken up by rows of bookshelves. Bormann’s meticulous eye for detail had ensured that Hitler’s personal library had been replicated in the new surroundings. The Führer owned an impressive collection of first editions, and they had been carefully transported from Bavaria.

However, the showpiece in the study was the free-standing Zenith Console Radio Phonograph. It was Hitler’s prize possession, as it allowed him to enjoy his favourite recordings. He was a huge opera fan and owned a large collection of vinyl records. The Führer was obsessed with Wagner’s works and he claimed the composer’s 1842 production of Rienzi was the inspiration for his politics. It featured a medieval Italian folk hero who led the people in a revolt against the nobility.

Another door off the hall led to a staircase that went straight down to a huge basement area that was home to a small group of live-in staff who Bormann had vetted remotely. They included a housekeeper, a cook and a maid who shared the accommodation along with the four guards. The cook had been sent recipes for some of the Führer’s favourite meals, including a traditional Austrian broth with liver dumplings and an apple cake strewn with nuts and raisins, known as “Führer Cake”. The industrial fridge in the basement was heavily stocked with imported bottles of Möet & Chandon champagne, Braun’s favourite drink. The bottom two shelves housed fifty small bottles of Methamphetamine, the Führer’s go-to recreational drug. Theodor Morell, Hitler’s personal physician for the previous nine years, had shipped out the stimulants on Bormann’s orders.

For years, Morell had personally injected Hitler with the drug on a daily basis, always immediately after breakfast. He knew that administering it intravenously produced an immediate rush that would go on to create an intense energy boost for at least eight hours. During the three months they were incarcerated in the bunker, Bormann instructed Morell to teach Hitler how to safely self-inject. As ever, the Führer’s private secretary was obsessed with forward planning.