It’s raining cats and dogs and I’m walking somewhere in the woods in Berlin’s southwest. Two locals couldn’t help me in my quest to find what I’m looking for. The construction worker told me that I must have been mistaken. Eventually, an elderly lady (who really did not understand why someone would be interested in such a thing) told me how to get there.
The construction of the Hochbunker Heckeshorn started in 1942. Already in the next year, this six stories high bunker was finished. The walls and roof were up till five meters thick and that’s reinforced concrete. The Hochbunker Heckeshorn served as the central command post for air-defense above and around Berlin. Fighter pilots and Flak (Flugabwehrkanon, or: air-defense artillery) in a 250 kilometer range were commanded from here. Besides, the moment when to alarm Berlin’s population for air-raids was decided here in the Hochbunker Heckeshorn.
After the War, the area around the bunker was used as a radio station for nearly 20 years. In 1985, 5 million D-Mark was spent to turn the bunker into an emergency hospital in an atomic war. According to the plan, 700 people (patients and medicall staff) could have lived here for 50 days. The atomic war never came, but still it was money well-spent! That’s because re-purposing the bunker was twice as cheap than blowing it up with dynamite. In 2001, machinery was given to hospitals in the Czech Republic and former Soviet-Union. The bunker now is an empty place. On demand, the Berliner Unterwelten can do a tour in and around the building.
Histories from the capital of the 20th century 