Teufelsberg

The Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain) is a non-natural hill in the locality of Berlin-Grunewald. It is 120 metres tall and is the second highest hill of the city. Originally, the site was used to build a monumental Nazi military-technical school, the Wehrtechnische Fakultät, which was designed by Albert Speer in 1937 and was supposed be a part of a huge university district in Hitler’s Welthauptstadt Germania. The cornerstone ceremony was held by Hitler personally. By 1939, two floors of the school building were erected. However, by 1940, the construction works were already stopped. The building was never completed and remained a shell construction.

In April 1945, the forest area witnessed heavy fighting between the remainder of various German units and the Soviet 55th Guards Tank Brigade. After the war, the Allies made several failed attempts to demolish the construction with explosions and eventually decided to cover it with war debris. Following the Berlin Blockade in 1948, there was no possibility to store any war debris the debris outside of West Berlin, as it was surrounded by the Soviet territory. Consequently, approximately 26 million tons of debris were dumped at the site, which was finally closed and covered with natural sand in 1972, creating the modern Teufelsberg.

The NSA also discovered the advantages of the hill and built one of its largest listening stations on its top in 1963. The station became a part of the ECHELON programme and was operational until the fall of the Berlin Wall. After the fall, the equipment was removed and the building was abandoned. Nowadays, the hill is used as a place for various sports and leisure activities, while the former station is a street art gallery. A commemorative plaque installed in 2013 serves as a reminder of the role of the Teufelsberg in the Cold War.