What is Teufelsberg? We didn't really know, other than it was a former Allied Spy Station that you can now visit and it was in West Berlin. We don't often go to West Berlin (well, not the West-West Berlin because its a bit of a hike from where we are in East Berlin), and there's not much around still of the Allied infrastructure particularly with regards to spying - most of the East German spying stuff is around, but I guess a lot of the West stuff might still be used by the current German government. We made the trek out on the S-Bahn as far as we could, and then began the walk - which started taking us up a hill. Hills are not common in Berlin, and when they do exist they are usually made up of the former rubble of bombed-out WW2 Berlin. As we climbed the hill, we could see very easily from the bricks embedded in the dirt and being uncovered by the roots of trees that this hill was also WW2 rubble. When we got to the top of the hill, it was a flat plateau - and there was quite the view across West Berlin into the East, our first view of Berlin with both the East and West TV towers visible, as well as a lot of Kite's being flown up on the hill. In fact it was a bit of a struggle to make sure you dodged the kite strings!
So Berlin is an interesting city steeped in history, a lot of it recent history. You might have thought our big day out to the Rakotzbbrücke might have been enough for that particular weekend, but the weather was so nice we decided to go out to Teufelsberg on the Sunday afternoon. What is Teufelsberg? We didn't really know, other than it was a former Allied Spy Station that you can now visit and it was in West Berlin. We don't often go to West Berlin (well, not the West-West Berlin because its a bit of a hike from where we are in East Berlin), and there's not much around still of the Allied infrastructure particularly with regards to spying - most of the East German spying stuff is around, but I guess a lot of the West stuff might still be used by the current German government. We made the trek out on the S-Bahn as far as we could, and then began the walk - which started taking us up a hill. Hills are not common in Berlin, and when they do exist they are usually made up of the former rubble of bombed-out WW2 Berlin. As we climbed the hill, we could see very easily from the bricks embedded in the dirt and being uncovered by the roots of trees that this hill was also WW2 rubble. When we got to the top of the hill, it was a flat plateau - and there was quite the view across West Berlin into the East, our first view of Berlin with both the East and West TV towers visible, as well as a lot of Kite's being flown up on the hill. In fact it was a bit of a struggle to make sure you dodged the kite strings! Eventually we found the entrance to Teufelsberg. We knew it wasn't a museum, but we did know it would have an entry fee. There was also a charge for a photo permit if you were to use an actual camera to take photos on the site - but you could use your cellphone camera for free, so we decided to do that. We then began wandering around the site and discovered what it was about. In a nutshell - Teufelsberg was stripped of any spying equipment by the US Forces, and the building remains sold to a developer who has not done anything with it. For a long time it was a squat for homeless people, but last year the developer decided to allow the squatter-artist community who reside there to open it up as a sort of grunge-graffiti Art Gallery. It is surprisingly a neat place to visit - the spraypaint murals are in many cases very good, even sometimes realistic as well as thought provoking. Basically - the building structure and its walls (whatever remains) provide the canvas for the art. Also, you can climb up to the roof of the multi-store building and visit the former Radome bubbles - some at the lower roof level have had the canvas cut away so you can see through them, while the big one at the top of the tower roof (the sides are not made of canvas on this one) is now a space with echoing acoustics and I believe they hold performances in there some times. From the main roof, you can also get sprawling views across Berlin - and over into Potsdam and beyond, you can get a real sense why the location was ideal for the Spy Station - from up on top of this rubble hill, it is the ideal place to spy over the former East Germany. Its also incredible to think this rather high hill is still just formed of rubble from ruined Berlin - it covered an under-construction Nazi Technical College and was piled so high here because in the Western sections of Berlin there was nowhere else to pile the rubble after the falling out with the Russians. Unable to spread outwards, the rubble had to go upwards. Definitely worth a visit if you have time and the opportunity, but definitely go on a nice day. The art seems to change and evolve, however I do wonder about the long term structural soundness of the buildings and the safety of them long term - many of the bigger ones are stripped of their exterior non-structural facades, but exposing the core steel structure that was otherwise protected. I guess that's not really a question anyone is asking at the moment, unlike in NZ where a huge amount of risk-assesments and H&S laws apply in order to protect those who are not the brightest, in Germany it does seem for a lot of things common sense still applies. Maybe with the income being generated it will help secure the long term future of this artists commune and the base and its buildings itself, or perhaps this is a transitory phase in the history of the place and one day it will be shut down or turned into a high-class exclusive hotel (as was the developer's original intention). One can only see what happens in time - however whatever the case, I'm glad to have gone and visited!
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
About Me
A Kiwi out travelling in the UK and surrounding countries Archives
August 2019
|