The devils in the details

A group of friends and I went for a tour to the old US listening station at Teufelsberg a few weeks ago. I've been out there before but now its being run by a collective of creative types with tours happening on a regular basis. More here. I was curious to see what has changed. The place has been cleaned up a lot and looks far less like a refugee camp.

   The name Teufelsberg means devils mountain in German and its actually a really nice area of Berlin. Its a large collection of rolling hills covered in forest, a few small lakes and lots of trails to bike or walk through, great in summer. Its when walking that you get a idea of how appropriate the name of this forest and "mountain" is. Even with a casual glance either side of the trail, you spot bricks, bits of metal, glass and other construction debris. This was the dumping place after the war for all the bomb damaged houses of Berlin. A mountain of dirt, debris and sad memories is birthing a forest of renewal.

  So for our tour of the listening station, we all biked out there and climbed the hill to the front gate. Despite it still being early March it was great weather for the trip. Its getting quite popular and a large crowd had developed by the time we set off.

  The first stop inside the perimeter fence was a large building that once housed the mess hall of the site. I didn't catch much of the guides comments as she didn't seem all that enthused about the place or was just tired that day, rather disappointing for a guide. Unfortunately we didn't go inside.

  Next up was the main tower complex with the large radar domes. The first two floors are now impromptu graffiti art galleries.

To the left is one of the piles of debris, now covered in people flying kites, model airplanes or hang gliding.

 In the shot above is a view over the much larger building, never made it very far inside that one, most curious though. On the roof there is now a large painting of a triangular cat/dog creature. Sadly this is not an improvement in my opinion as there used to be a great drawing of a cosmonaut monkey in that same spot, see below.

Inside the highest dome. It feels much more like a gallery now rather than a abandoned facility as it did before, see below.

The veils of secrecy removed.

The stamp of gentrification

 A few shots from years past,

  So, for the time being, that is my last visit to the Teufelsberg station. And yes we forgot to get the group shot for the end, next time:)

Andy

Evidence of past conflict.

The past is present if you know where to look. More often than not, Berlin has loads of evidence to its recent battles. Solid evidence, in stone and steel.

  In Kreuzberg there used to be a train station called Anhalter Bahnhof. It was bombed into rubble 70 years ago and now the field of tracks has been turned into an historical park. Under that park are about 8 train bridges that pass over what is now Yorkstrasse. These are rusting hulks, some of which have been replaced for the current Sbahn commuter trains. One of the old bridges is gone, taken out by a bomb perhaps. Another clearly has a story...

Easy to miss, look closer.

  I've biked past this numerous times without noticing. That's a massive steel I-beam with 4 layers of riveted steel, built 70 years ago, now bent.

Not from a collision.

  Traffic passes by here but this isn't from a collision, its on the wrong side and direction to be that.

  The white paint is new but this grey paint is original. It has this odd spatter of chips in it. And some of those chips are gouged out of the steel as well. Some of the rivets have a chunk missing.

  This clearly was a large powerful bomb blast that was capable of tearing steel apart like butter. Perhaps it was a cannon shell from street fighting or an allied bomb. If it did this to metal, what happened to the people that were here back then...

One of the 4 layers of sheet steel has been partially pealed away.

Easy to miss, hard to forget once you know.

  This continent was torn apart by hatred and prejudice 70 years ago. The wounds are being cleaned up but the human capacity that created them is still busy. Right now in many other parts of the world, desperation, greed or hatred of those who are different is creating more of these scars. I'd like to think its possible to learn form others mistakes...

Andy

Update: I just found this Russian blogger who's searching out the location of old photographs from the war. Its mostly Russian locations but also a few from Berlin. Included is this first shot on his page
http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/10193.html

  That Soviet tank is passing a church that is about 4 blocks from the damaged bridge above. Perhaps it was a Soviet tank shell that did the damage...

Day trip to Leipzig

  I went on a day trip to Leipzig with a group of photograph buff's recently. We got there about 12 and wandered around, found a good example of Art Nouveau architecture with a very obvious Japanese influence:

 

Nearby is a gallery mall from about 1900 called Specks Hof

Unfortunately I didn't have much time to check this out and it looks like most of the classic details have been removed. This ceiling section was an exception.

Nikolaikirke with great columns.

The most impressive site is the memorial to Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig, Volkerschlachtdenkmal. It is huge...

I walked from the old city centre and you definitely see it from a long way off.

See the people?

Rather humbling sense of scale and loss when you think of all who died to make this necessary.

With all this stone it feels like the Mines of Moria and here's Gimli.

Walking into the interior crypt of this massive monument felt a bit like a set from an Indiana Jones film or perhaps Dune.

No matter where you go in Europe, somethings always being cleaned.

I expected Salah to poke his head out and quip about the tomb full of "asp's"

If you are only slightly claustrophobic, DON'T climb the spiral staircase.

Great doors in this place.

Almost at the top

  Once at the very top you can't see any of the monument just a great view of the city, a nearby castle and Nuclear power station belching out steam. I forgot to stretch out and hang the camera over the edge to see if I could see these great figures from the top down. Next time.

Andy