| Teufelsberg | |
| Photo Size: | 250 |
| Elevation M: | 120.1 |
| Map: | Germany Berlin |
| Label Position: | right |
| Translation: | Devil's Mountain |
| Language: | German |
| Location: | Berlin, Germany |
| Coordinates: | 52.4975°N 13.2411°W |
Teufelsberg (pronounced as /de/; German for Devil's Hill) is a non-natural hill in Berlin, Germany, in the Grunewald locality of former West Berlin. It rises about 80m (260feet) above the surrounding Teltow plateau and 120.1m (394feet) above the sea level, in the north of Berlin's Grunewald Forest. It was named after the Teufelssee (Devil's Lake) in its southerly vicinity. The hill is made of debris and rubble, and covers an unfinished Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät). During the Cold War, there was a U.S. listening station on the hill, Field Station Berlin. The site of the former field station is now fenced off and is currently being managed by an organisation which charges 10 euros for public access.
Teufelsberg is a non-natural hill, created in the 20 years following the Second World War by moving approximately 75e6m3 of debris from Berlin.
After the Communist putsch in the city parliament of Greater Berlin (for all four sectors of Berlin) in September 1948, separate parliaments and magistrates (German: link=no|Magistrat von Groß-Berlin; city government) were formed for East and West Berlin. This also ended much of the cooperation between West Berlin and the state of Brandenburg, surrounding West Berlin in the North, West and South.[1]
While part of the rubble from destroyed quarters in East Berlin was deposited outside the city boundary, all the debris from West Berlin had to be dumped within the western boundary.[1] Due to the shortage of fuel in West Berlin, the rubble transport stopped during the Berlin Blockade.[2]
Although there are many similar man-made rubble mounds in Germany (see Schuttberg) and other war-torn cities of Europe, Teufelsberg is unique in that the never completed Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät) designed by Albert Speer is buried beneath. The Allies tried using explosives to demolish the school, but it was so sturdy that covering it with debris turned out to be easier. In June 1950 the West Berlin Magistrate decided to open a new rubble disposal on that site.[1] The disposal was planned for 12e6m3.[1]
With the end of material shortages after the blockade, an average of 600 trucks deposited 6800m2 of material daily.[1] On 14 November 1957, the ten millionth cubic metre arrived.[1] The site was closed to dumping in 1972, leaving approximately 26e6m3 of debris, and to a lesser extent construction waste. The Senate of (West) Berlin opted to plant greenery on the hill as a beautification project.
Teufelsberg was originally thought to be 115m (377feet) high, which placed it at the same elevation as Großer Müggelberg (the summit of Müggelberge), and was the highest point in West Berlin.[3] New measurements show that Teufelsberg is actually 120.1m (394feet) high,[4] [5] making it higher than Großer Müggelberg.
In February 1955, a 24m (79feet) ski jump opened on the hill, designed by the ski jumper and architect Heini Klopfer.[6] A larger ski jump opened March 4, 1962, offering space for 5,000 spectators.[6] Ski jumping ceased in 1969, allowing the ski jumps to fall into decay. The jumps were removed in 1999.[6]
Teufelsberg has been a location for several recent movies and television programmes, such as The Gamblers, Berlin Station, Covert Affairs (second-season episode titled "Uberlin") and We Are the Night in which the finale takes place on Teufelsberg.
As in the whole of Grunewald Forest, wild boar frequently roam the hill.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) built one of its largest listening stations atop the hill in 1963, supposedly as part of the global ECHELON intelligence gathering network.[7] [8] "The Hill", as it was known colloquially by the many American soldiers who worked there around the clock and who commuted there from their quarters in the American Sector, was located in the British Sector. In July 1961, mobile Allied listening units began operations on Teufelsberg,[4] [9] having surveyed various other locales throughout West Berlin in a search for the best vantage point for listening to Soviet, East German, and other Warsaw Pact nations’ military traffic. They found that operations from atop Teufelsberg offered a marked improvement in listening ability. This discovery eventually led to a large structure being built atop the hill, which would come to be run by the NSA (National Security Agency). Construction of a permanent facility was begun in October 1963.[9] At the request of the US government, the ski lifts were removed because they allegedly disturbed the signals. The station continued to operate until the fall of East Germany and the Berlin Wall, but after that the station was closed and the equipment removed. The buildings and antenna radomes still remain in place.
During the NSA operations some other curious things happened: It was noticed that during certain seasons the reception of radio signals was better than during the rest of the year. The 'culprit' was found after a while: it was the Ferris wheel of the annual German-American Volksfest Festival on the Hüttenweg in Zehlendorf.[10] From then on, the Ferris wheel was left standing for some time after the festival was over.
While there were rumors that the Americans had excavated a shaft down into the ruins beneath, that was never proven, and was likely based on reports that those who maintained equipment in one of the first enclosed antenna structures accessed the upper levels of the inflated dome via an airlock that led to a "tunnel" that was embedded in the structure's central column. Speculation as to what might have existed within the highly restricted area frequently gave rise to rather elaborate but false rumors; one theory stated that "the tunnel" was an underground escape route, another that it housed a submarine base.In the 1990s, as Berlin experienced an economic boom after German reunification, a group of investors bought the former listening station area from the City of Berlin with the intention to build hotels and apartments. There was talk of preserving the listening station as a spy museum. Berlin's building boom produced a glut of buildings, however, and the Teufelsberg project became unprofitable. The construction project was then aborted. As of the early 2000s, there has been talk of the city buying back the hill. However, this is unlikely, as the area is encumbered with a mortgage of nearly 50 million dollars. The site has been heavily covered in graffiti since the company abandoned the project. Since 1996, the site has been privately owned and is currently fenced off from the surrounding forest.[11] In the summer of 2016, landlord Marvin Schutte opened the site to visitors who are able to climb the listening station towers and admire the ever-evolving "street art gallery" that fills the site's abandoned buildings.[12] The site and buildings have uneven surfaces, broken glass, and building debris. Accessing the main dome involves ascending a pitch dark stairwell in the centre of the building. As of April 2017, entry to the site is €8 payable at the main entrance gate and a sign informs visitors that it is open from 10am to "one hour before sunset."
Following the announcement of plans to raze the facility and reforest the hill,[13] talk of preserving the facility resurfaced in 2009, spearheaded by the Field Station Berlin Veterans Group, which hopes to have the memorial named in honor of Major Arthur D. Nicholson, the last military Cold War casualty, the U.S. Military Liaison Mission tour officer who was shot and killed by a Russian sentry near Ludwigslust on March 24, 1985.[14] After no further construction was done after 2004, in 2006 the hilltop was categorised as forest in the land use plan of Berlin, thereby eliminating the possibility of building.[15]
In September 2013, U.S. Army Teufelsberg veterans marked the fiftieth anniversary (1963-2013) of the construction of the permanent buildings for Field Station Berlin atop Teufelsberg with a special commemorative issue of Cinderella stamps, and with the dedication of a commemorative plaque. The designer is T. H. E. Hill, the award-winning author of two novels about Field Station Berlin.[16]
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