The Führersonderzug (“Führer’s special train”) was Adolf Hitler’s personal armored train that was completed in several stages in the late 1930’s and named “Amerika” upon it’s final completion in August 1939. It was later renamed the “Brandenburg” once Hitler reduced the use of his train primarily for meetings, serving as a Führerhauptquartier (mobile headquarters) up until the Balkans campaign. Hitler still continued to travel on it throughout the war between Berlin, Berchtesgaden (Berghof), Munich and other headquarters. The train was always followed by Hitler’s Mercedes and plane, and there were multiple decoy trains that would run up to 30 minutes ahead of or behind the Führersonderzug. Hoffmann accompanied Hitler on his special train’s extensive journeys throughout Europe, and thoroughly documented many peacetime diplomacy tours in Italy and Austria, as well as his critical wartime dealings in France and Poland.

Keeping Adolf Hitler’s train moving required regularly changing out of the engines. Hitler certainly couldn’t be left standing out on a train platform just waiting around as wood and water were loaded onto the train when it ran low. Instead, the train would pull into a station and railway workers would quickly swap out the nearly empty engine with fully fueled cars. The Führer could be back on his way in minutes instead of hours. The armored convoy consisted of fifteen cars. It was a fortress on rails that served as Hitler’s mobile headquarters for confidential meetings with Pétain, Mussolini and Franco. While the best Nazi engineers built the super train, it was Hitler himself that designed the luxurious interior of his special train.