Claims that Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, commissioned a 60,000-square-foot ballroom addition to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin in 1933 circulated online in late October 2025.
The Reich Chancellery was then the primary office of the chancellor of Germany, a position Hitler assumed in 1933 until he consolidated power, suppressed his political enemies and declared himself dictator (Führer) in 1934.
Users on social media sites, like X (archived), BlueSky (archived) and particularly on Facebook (archived, archived, archived), shared the claim along with a purported photograph of the ballroom and text that read, “August 1933: Newly-elected German Chancellor Adolph Hitler announces ambitious plans to add a 60,000 square foot ballroom to the Reich Chancellery.”
The claim gained traction amid news that U.S. President Trump demolished the entire East Wing of the White House in an effort to build a new ballroom, despite previous claims the new ballroom wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.”
There is truth to the claim that Hitler commissioned the building of a ballroom, but there are inaccuracies in the presentation of the information in the image shared online.
The first thing to note is that the building shared in the claim is not Hitler’s alleged ballroom, but rather Haus der Kunst (originally Haus der Deutschen Kunst) in Munich, “one of the first architectural showcase projects of the Nazi regime and a central venue for art policy and propaganda.”
In 1946, Haus der Kunst began to operate as a museum and exhibition space for contemporary art and in 2003 launched “the project ‘Critical Reconstruction,’ which reorients the examination of the structure’s architecture and history” as a way to discuss the building’s troubled history.
Second, Hitler was not elected chancellor but appointed “through Germany’s legal, constitutional process,” by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler was inaugurated as chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933.
Last, Snopes was unable to find documentation confirming the ballroom’s purported size of 60,000 square feet.
While the photo shared in claims is not the ballroom in question and Snopes was unable to verify the square footage size of the building, substantial chronicling exists of Hitler commissioning the building of a ballroom in the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
In the 2006 book “The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime,” which includes several photographs of the ballroom in question, author Steven Lehrer wrote:
Hitler played with the idea of constructing a large office building in the garden behind the Reichspräsidentenpalais [Palace of the Chancellor], but finally settled on renovation of the original buildings and the addition of a new garden ballroom. On July 21, 1935, Leonhard Gall submitted his completed plans for a ballroom with a capacity of 200 persons. The structure had two floors, with apartments for Chancellery employees upstairs. The building inspectors approved Gall’s blueprints July 29, for what was an unremarkable building.
(“The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime” by Steven Lehrer via the Internet Archive)
According to the Heritage Center, a conference and event space in Minneapolis, a space with a capacity for 200 people would typically be between 1,200 to 7,000 square feet. For reference, the White House is advertised as 55,000 square feet. While the German ballroom was “unremarkable,” according to Leher, “the cellar was the unusual feature.”
The author continued, “Gall placed it under the reception hall, and it was composed of ordinary-looking basement rooms. But 1 1/2 meters lower, Gall had situated a huge bunker. The bunker was called the Reich Chancellery Air Raid Shelter, then the Vorbunker, after the Führerbunker had been completed in 1943.”
The Führerbunker was the final headquarters of the Nazi regime and where Hitler committed suicide in 1945.
(“The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime” by Steven Lehrer the Internet Archive)
“The Vorbunker was so massive that its walls supported the entire weight of the ballroom above,” wrote Leher, and added, “Sven Felix Kellerhof, a German journalist who has studied the bunkers, writes that Hitler was probably much more interested in an impregnable air-raid shelter than another ballroom.”
Further, Leher reported that Hans Heinrich Lammers, chief of the Reich Chancellery, wrote in 1936, “Regarding the ballroom, Reich funds will not be used. But Reich funds will pay for the air raid shelter.” The author pointed out that “no private money paid for any of the construction,” but rather from “‘cultural funds,’ a black box of discretionary money.”
Leher reported communication between bureaucrats that confirmed only the residents of the Chancellery could use the Vorbunker in the event of an air raid. In practice, this meant only Hitler himself and the “guards, servants and orderlies” who lived onsite.
Essentially, the unassuming ballroom and its underground bunker “had become the first Führerbunker,” the author wrote.
(“The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime” by Steven Lehrer the Internet Archive)
Later, Hitler commissioned architect Albert Speer to build an expansion of the Chancellery, known as the New Reich Chancellery, as well as the Führerbunker, which was adjacent to the Vorbunker but significantly deeper underground.
The Old Reich Chancellery was severely damaged during the Battle of Berlin and its remains were cleared in the years that followed. Photographs of the rubble can be found on credible image depository Getty Images.
Snopes was unable to locate an archive with Gall’s original blueprints for the ballroom or a primary source confirming its size, so we have opted not to give this rating a claim. However, based on history texts and photographs available from the time, it’s clear that Hitler’s construction project was authentic.
