Berlin flak towers
The Berlin flak towers were a total of six large bunkers that were built in the Reich capital during the Second World War as part of the “ immediate Führer program ”. The construction was ordered by Hitler after the air raid on Berlin by the Royal Air Force in late August 1940.
There were two anti-aircraft towers for defense against enemy aircraft : The L tower (guidance tower) recorded the aircraft using radar ( Würzburg-Riese ) and / or optical rangefinders ( triangulation ) and the so-called "conversion" calculated the reference values for the heavy anti-aircraft guns. These were transferred electrically to the assigned G-turret (gun turret).
In the zoo (zoo bunker) and the two Volksparks Friedrichshain and Humboldthain , a total of six towers were built, which were almost completely removed after the war.
Couple 1: Tiergarten
In April 1941, the large "Gustav" gun turret was completed on the grounds of the Berlin Zoo . There were anti-aircraft guns of various calibers on it - from the 2-cm anti-aircraft quadruple to large 12.8-cm twin guns . The associated L tower was built between 1939 and 1941 and was also the control center for the entire Berlin flak. In addition to the regular crew, Luftwaffe helpers and others were also employed from 1943 . a. High school students from Zwickau ( Saxony ), deployed on the flak tower, who had to coordinate the flow of Berlin residents seeking protection in the bunker (up to 16,000 civilians in the event of an alarm).
In the tower was the headquarters of the 1st Flak Division , most recently Major General Otto Sydow, and the Berlin Flak Headlight Group, under Colonel Paul Hasenfuß. In April 1945 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring stayed for a short time in the hospital of the large bunker before he left for Bavaria.
In May 1945 a Soviet trophy commission seized the art objects from the Berlin museums stored in room N 11 of the flak tower zoo, including the largest gold find from antiquity, the treasure of Priam (Schliemann gold), with 8,900 pieces. It ended up in the Soviet Union as a looted art and was considered lost. It was not until 1994 that the Pushkin Museum in Moscow revealed itself to be the owner.
The Tiergarten district was in July 1945 in the British sector of Berlin. In the summer of 1947, the occupying forces wanted to blow up both flak towers. The demolition of the tower on July 28, 1947 with 12 tons of dynamite was followed in August by the failed demolition of the battle tower with 25 tons of dynamite. A second demolition was not more successful. Only on July 30, 1948 was it possible to destroy the combat tower with 40 tons of TNT . The remains of the towers were grounded with rubble. The zoological garden had the mountain of rubble removed in 1955 and the remains of the bunker smashed by small explosions. To carry out the demolition work on the reinforced concrete , oxygen lances had to be used. After the approximately 412,000 m³ of rubble had been removed from the site, the zoo built enclosures for camels and rhinos as well as the bird house . This made the pair of flak towers in the zoo bunker the only one of which there are no remains.
- Geographical location of the turret: 52 ° 30 ′ 36 ″ N , 13 ° 20 ′ 9 ″ E
- Geographical location of the tower: 52 ° 30 ′ 42 ″ N , 13 ° 20 ′ 21 ″ E
Couple 2: Volkspark Friedrichshain
Michelangelo Caravaggio's
portrait of a young woman was one of the works of art stored in the Flakturm Friedrichshain |
In October 1941 the tower pair II was completed in the Volkspark Friedrichshain . On the first floor of the smaller tower, more than 700 m² of significant paintings from the Berlin Gemäldegalerie were stored, of which 434 were probably burned on May 6, 1945 under unexplained circumstances (see also war losses of the Gemäldegalerie ). 59 statues of the Bode Museum stored there were discovered in 2016 in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow .
The flak towers were blown up by the Red Army in May 1946 , but only partially succeeded. The bunkers damaged by the blast were then filled with rubble and covered with earth. The resulting hills, the large and the small Bunkerberg, now characterize the park landscape as mountains of rubble . On the top of the Großer Bunkerberg , a viewing platform was built on parts of the battle tower that are still visible today, but due to the surrounding trees that have now grown, there is almost no view in summer.
- Geographical location: 52 ° 31 ′ 35 ″ N , 13 ° 25 ′ 55 ″ E
Couple 3: Volkspark Humboldthain
From October 1941 to April 1942, another flak tower (including numerous forced laborers ) was built in Volkspark Humboldthain with an associated guide bunker. After the war up to May 1948, these were also blown up several times by the French troops and covered with rubble. Since the railway line of the Ringbahn running past the mountain was not allowed to be damaged, the northern part of the bunker is still visible today and as part of a tour of the Berliner Unterwelten e. V. accessible.
- Geographical location: 52 ° 32 ′ 50 ″ N , 13 ° 23 ′ 5.6 ″ E
Planned couple 4: Volkspark Hasenheide
According to the original plans, a fourth pair of flak towers was to be built in Volkspark Hasenheide to secure the city center from the south. Since this pair of towers would have been in the immediate vicinity of Tempelhof Airport , it was decided to leave the defense here to the Air Force . The couple projected for the Hasenheide was erected in Hamburg on the Heiligengeistfeld .
See also
Web links
- Association of Berliner Unterwelten e. V .: Bunkers and Air Raid Systems - The Berlin Flak Towers, accessed on July 23, 2018
- Ulrich Hottelet: Look into the Berlin underground. In: the daily newspaper , March 2, 2004
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günter Wermusch: The secret of the small bunker mountain. (No longer available online.) In: Zeit Online . March 6, 1992, archived from the original on July 15, 2012 ; accessed on August 17, 2020 .
- ^ ZDFinfo , September 8, 2012: The treasure in the bunker - The lost masterpieces of Berlin . Documentation, 2009 (434 valuable paintings mysteriously disappeared from a bunker in the Reich capital at the end of the war. Their value is estimated at several hundred million euros).
- ^ Sculptures from Berlin appeared in Moscow. In: welt.de , May 18, 2016
- ^ District office Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg , Berliner Unterwelten e. V .: Mont Klamott information board. In: Website Berliner Unterwelten e. V. Accessed August 17, 2020 .