Wolf's Lair replica from Tom Cruise movie bound for museum

Movies News

Nov 12, 2007, 15:33 GMT

Potsdam, Germany - A replica of Hitler's long-destroyed Wolf's Lair headquarters near the Russian Front is bound for a German museum after being used in a controversial Tom Cruise movie. Actors perform during the shooting of the film 'Valkyrie' in front of the Ministry of Finance in Berlin, Germany, 18 August 2007. EPA/STEPHANIE PILICK

Actors perform during the shooting of the film 'Valkyrie' in front of the Ministry of Finance in Berlin, Germany, 18 August 2007. EPA/STEPHANIE PILICKCruise has just finished shooting Valkyrie, the true-life story of an aristocratic German Army colonel who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with a bomb on July 20, 1944. Babelsberg Studios, co-producer of the movie, handed over Monday the sets and props, which would otherwise have been scrapped after filming. Set carpenters created the replica of the oak table that protected Hitler from the force of the bomb and the room in a wooden shed in a forest in what is now Poland. Cruise, who plays the colonel, faced hostility in Germany on account of his beliefs: he is an advocate of the US-based creed of Scientology. The German government initially barred the film crew from the monument marking the spot where the assassin, Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, was shot by firing squad. But Berlin later relented. The colonel is hailed in today's Germany as a hero of conscience. The sets and props were donated to the German Armed Forces' Museum of Military History in the eastern city of Dresden, which plans to show some in time for the premiere of Valkyrie next year. The museum said it would integrate the rest of the sets into displays when the museum completes a round of renovations in 2010. Hitler commanded the latter stages of the war from the heavily guarded Wolf's Lair and was mostly absent from Berlin. The headquarters was partly underground. Its above-ground buildings, like the shed, were concealed in the trees. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Your Talkback on this Story

Note posts made on our older Talkback system will still show below. However, new posts can only be made via the new system (above). We will export the old comments to the new shortly. You can still comment as a guest on the new system but it also allows you to login using various social network and other accounts.

Other features coming soon.

Talkback

page: 1

TerryeoNov 12th, 2007 - 15:55:05

Instead of criticism and controversy shoehorned into the article at nearly every paragraph, it would have been nicer to have read that the oak table was used in Poland, rather than in Germany, because that would put a context to the controversy. I'm trying to say, rather than writing ABOUT controversy, write about the SUBJECT. Then, as the reader sequentially meets the information, introduce the controversial aspect that prompted the Polish filming.

Report this comment

page: 1

Movies

Wolf's Lair replica from Tom Cruise movie bound for museum

Movies News

Your Talkback on this Story

Talkback

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in Movies

Valkyrie

Related Articles

External Links

From Sites We Like

Latest PopEater News

Latest Cinema Blend News

Latest Tech Herald News

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print