WW2 GERMAN BUNKER

[daviddunlop]

Hi Tony.

I watched the same show several times and spent the better part of an evening reading up on the Berlin Flak Towers on the internet. They were amazing!

Although the one most people identify with is the partially destroyed one, off to the southeast of it in Berlin, there is apparently one completely intact survivor, which can be spotted on Google Earth is you know exactly what little park to look at.

If you recall the scene in the documentary where the host and his guide were climbing up a walking trail on a wooded slope and they walked over and stuck a shovel into the ground and found bricks etc., that was part a a HUGE pile of Berlin City rubble used to bury the last Flak Tower. At the top of that walking path there is a small section of concrete wall exposed which was part of one of the curved corner gun platforms at the top of the tower. There are some pictures on the Google Earth Site of this wall, covered in graffiti. Very deceptive as it appears to be nothing more than a typical heavy machine gun bunker.

As I recall the postwar story, each of the Allies got a piece of the Berlin pie to control after the war and one Tower was in each sector. I may have the players confused a bit but think it was the Russians who spent a HUGE amount of time, manpower and explosive resources to completely destroy and level the tower in their sector. The French then tested some newer explosives on their tower with no effect at all and then the Americans took a crack at it which resulted in some partial interior collapse. They too then walked away and this is the Tower current exploration is possible in.

Having sat and watched all this effort, the British simply decided to hell with it and chose to just bury their tower with the rubble they needed to clean up from their sector. It is now a small public park with a very large treed hill in one part of it. That would be an absolute gem to get permission to gain access to and explore!

If I can remember the name of the park I will post it.


David


UPDATE:

Just found my notes. Flakturm 1 was in the Tiergarten Park and was completely demolished after the war. Flakturm 2 was in Friedrichshain Park and is the one completely buried in rubble today. Flakturm 3 was in Humboltain Park and is the one now partially accessable to the general public.

D.

[tiger205]

hi david
            thanks for that, i will go and have a look, those documentries are great, i love all that stuff, if i had a passport i would be off to berlin with my shovel and pickaxe .it would be awesome to excavate the one buried by us brits, what a tourist attraction it would make!!!

              Tony