With the surrender of Germany in early May 1945, Berlin fell under the iron grip of the Red Army, which had claimed the city following a grueling and bloody battle. Beneath the Garden of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler's bunker was hidden, seized by the Soviets on the 2nd of May 1945. In their relentless pursuit of evidence of Hitler's demise for a skeptical Stalin in Moscow, and to extinguish rumors of his escape, Soviet officers sealed off the bunker from prying eyes, granting access to only a privileged few non-Soviet intelligence personnel.
Despite an agreement with the Western Allied powers to divide Berlin into four occupation zones, the Soviets deliberately delayed and obstructed efforts by the British, Americans, and French to penetrate Berlin through Soviet-controlled Eastern Germany and assume control of their designated zones. The first Western Allied troops finally set foot in Berlin on the 4th of July 1945, a full two months after the city had fallen to the Red Army. By then, the early stages of the Cold War were already casting long shadows. The newly arrived Allied troops were keen to explore the shattered Reich Chancellery, Hitler's former seat of power, and the Führer Bunker where he had met his dramatic end. However, the Soviets remained steadfast in their reluctance to grant access, particularly to the bunker, which had deteriorated drastically since its capture.

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