held in the bunker under the Reich Chancellery in Berlin as the Soviet Red Army battled to take the city; even under those circumstances, Hitler would frequently spend hours in the basement of the Chancellery looking at the scale model of the proposed rebuilding of Linz, which centered on the cultural district around the Fŭhrermuseum. Nine days after his birthday, Hitler married Eva Braun, and they committed suicide together the following day. Führer-Reserve In the first weeks after the Anschluss in March 1938, which brought Austria into the German Reich, both the Gestapo and the Nazi Party confiscated numerous artworks for themselves. In response, on 18 June 1938, Hitler issued a decree placing all artwork that had been seized in Austria under the personal prerogative of the Führer: As part of the seizure of assets hostile to the state– especially Jewish assets – in Austria, paintings and other artwork of great value, among other things, have been confiscated. The Führer requests that this artwork, for the most part from Jewish hands, be neither used as furnishings of administration offices or senior bureaucrats' official residences nor purchased by leading state and party leaders. The Führer plans to personally decide on the use of the property after its seizure. He is considering putting artwork first and foremost at the disposal of small Austrian towns for their collections. The intent of the order was to guarantee that Hitler would have first choice of the plundered art for his planned Führermuseum and for other museums in the Reich. This later became a standard procedure for all purloined or confiscated art, and was known as the "Führer-Reserve." Sonderauftrag Linz On 21 June 1939, Hitler set up the Sonderauftrag Linz ("Special Commission Linz") in Dresden and – at the recommendation of art dealer and Nazi Party member Karl Haberstock – appointed Hans Posse, director of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ("Dresden Painting Gallery"), as a special envoy. A few days later, on 26 June, Hitler signed a letter intended to give Posse the authority he would need to do this job. He wrote: I commission Dr. Hans Posse, Director of Dresden Gallery, to build up the new art museum for Linz Donau. All Party and State services are ordered to assist Dr. Posse in fulfillment of his mission. Posse had a checkered relationship with the National Socialists. His wife had joined the Nazi Party in 1932, but