I made it to Berlin over the summer (into the winter) break to visit my dear friend Rosie, two London dwelling friends joined me and it was grand! While we were there we went on a mission to Teufelsberg, German for Devil's Mountain. When Rosie and I visited Berlin in 2009, the lovely folk we stayed with told us of this place but we ran out of time to visit it- there is a lot to see in Berlin! So finally we went.
Wiki says:
It is an artificial hill with a curious history: it was built by the Allies after the Second World War from the rubble of Berlin during the following twenty years as the city was rebuilt. One estimate for the amount of rubble is about 12 million cubic meters, or about 400,000 buildings. It is as high as the highest natural hill (Großer Müggelberg) in the Berlin area.
The curiousness begins with what is buried underneath the hill: a Nazi military-technical college designed by Albert Speer. The Allies tried using explosives to demolish the school, but it was so sturdy that covering it with debris turned out to be easier.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) built one of its largest listening stations on top of the hill. "The Hill", as it was known colloquially by the many American soldiers who worked there around the clock and who commuted there from their quarters in the American Sector, was located in the British Sector. Prior to establishing the first permanent buildings there in the very late 1950s, Mobile Allied listening units had driven to various other locales throughout West Berlin hoping to gain the best vantage point for listening to Soviet, East German, and other Warsaw Pact nations military traffic. The station continued to operate until the fall of East Germany and the Berlin Wall, but after that the station was closed and the equipment removed. The buildings and radar domes still remain in place.
So that's what we went to see! We heard its a long walk from the train station, but it was lovely through the forest and then we had to find our way through 3 fences. Not going to lie, we were all a bit nervous about being chucked out but once we were in it was great and there were so many people there we figured looking around the place (at your own risk) can't be as naughty as we thought!
Anyway, enough natter. Here are some photos, including our Teufelsberg picnic, complete with triangle bread.
Wiki says:
It is an artificial hill with a curious history: it was built by the Allies after the Second World War from the rubble of Berlin during the following twenty years as the city was rebuilt. One estimate for the amount of rubble is about 12 million cubic meters, or about 400,000 buildings. It is as high as the highest natural hill (Großer Müggelberg) in the Berlin area.
The curiousness begins with what is buried underneath the hill: a Nazi military-technical college designed by Albert Speer. The Allies tried using explosives to demolish the school, but it was so sturdy that covering it with debris turned out to be easier.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) built one of its largest listening stations on top of the hill. "The Hill", as it was known colloquially by the many American soldiers who worked there around the clock and who commuted there from their quarters in the American Sector, was located in the British Sector. Prior to establishing the first permanent buildings there in the very late 1950s, Mobile Allied listening units had driven to various other locales throughout West Berlin hoping to gain the best vantage point for listening to Soviet, East German, and other Warsaw Pact nations military traffic. The station continued to operate until the fall of East Germany and the Berlin Wall, but after that the station was closed and the equipment removed. The buildings and radar domes still remain in place.
So that's what we went to see! We heard its a long walk from the train station, but it was lovely through the forest and then we had to find our way through 3 fences. Not going to lie, we were all a bit nervous about being chucked out but once we were in it was great and there were so many people there we figured looking around the place (at your own risk) can't be as naughty as we thought!
Anyway, enough natter. Here are some photos, including our Teufelsberg picnic, complete with triangle bread.
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