Exclusive: Inside the Fichtebunker (published on Exberliner Mag)

We already talked about the Fichtebunker (HERE the full article) almost one year ago, but at that time we're not able to show you the photos of the inside of the building.

Berliner Unterwelten is doing a great job in the rehabilitation of this bunker, giving those who visit it likely an impression of what has been its history, making sure that we can get a sense of place as it is passed through various stages of the city of Berlin.

What is immediately striking is a certain area of loss, a labyrinthitis for the rounded walls, while the temperature is radically different, whether it's hot or cold, with thick walls.

You can read the full article "Inside, we felt safe" by Sara Wilde on EXBERLINER  (Issue 119 - September 2013) on the experience of Regina Schwenke who was inside the bunker during the WWII.

Special thanks for this pubblication to Berlino Explorer, Sascha Keil, Erica Löfman and Nadja Vancauwenberghe.

© DarioJ Laganà | www.norte.it, Please do NOT use these photos without written approval from the author, Berliner Unterwelten or Exberliner Mag (for the published ones).

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Itinerary #11 - Schöneberg

Another middle-long itinerary for which I suggest to use a bike. Schöneberg, the home of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, but also of Erich Fromm and Einstein, as well as of buildings, the gay community, Kennedy and some nice squares and a final church from the Brick Expressionism.

Full map: http://goo.gl/maps/5N0yD

We begin from Tiergarten, where Schöneberg starts, with a very interesting building, the Shell-Haus (1), the white waves building just on the canal, built in 1932 as a prestigious new office block to house the headquarters of the mineral oil company. From here, following the canal you can spend some time at the Bauhaus Archiv (2), museum of the famous design school. Just following Budapester strasse you'll pass by the marvellous stone elephants statues at the entrance of the Berlin Zoo (3). Following the street and passing through Ku'damm you'll see the nice Hotel Concorde (4) with its interesting architecture in the Art Deco style reminiscent consists of bright Kirchheim shell.

If you pass by Wittenbergplatz (5), you'll notice the Kadewe, Kaufhaus des Westens (Department Store of the West) is the second-largest department store in Europe; trumped only by Harrods in London, built in 1907.

At the entrance of the U-bahn there's simple but strong sign as holocaust memorial with the names of concentration and death camps from the Nazi-era, which is in strong antithesis with the shopping mall.

Following the street you'll arrive to another square, Nollendorfplatz (6), where you'll find The Gay Pink Triangle, which commemorate the Gay Holocaust. The adjacent area in the south around Motzstraße is Berlin's most prominent gay village. It has a long history as being a gay area which dates back to the turn of the 20th century.

Just on Potsdamer strasse (7) you'll find a very funny building full of satellite dishes painted with the most kitch pictures. On the other side of the street you'll find a bridge shaped building and on one side of it there's a huge bunker from WWII. The building has been built around the bunker because it was too hard and expensive to destroy it.

Going down the road you'l find the 1780's Königskolonnaden (8) at the border with the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Park.  After the WWII the building in front of the colonnades was the seat of the Allied Control Council. After the reunification , it was returned to German administration and today there is the Berlin Court (the courtroom can be visited by groups after registration).

David Bowie (9) was living on the same street at the number 155 for three years from 1976, where he produces the albums Low and Heroes of 1977, which he makes together with Brian Eno.
Walking a bit more you'll arrive in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg (10), which was used as the seat of the state senate of West Berlin during the Cold War and from where the President John F. Kennedy held his famous speech on 26 June 1963, proclaiming "Ich bin ein Berliner".
The rest of the itinerary is more for having a look at the rest of the area, with the Bayerischer Platz (11), where all the streets have names from that area and where Erich Fromm and Albert Einstein were living.
Leading nord you'll arrive at the Viktoria-Luise Platz (12), a very pleasent square with its fountain and surrounded by old style buildings. All the area is very quite and residencial, sometimes very far from the idea which we have of Berlin.
Last stop can be the Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz (13), made by dark brown bricks with a very interesting massive bell tower and a very nice interior, built in 1934 as part of the German Expressionist architecture (from the same architecture studio of the Chilehaus in Hamburg).

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

(1) Shell Haus

(2) Bauhaus Archiv

(3) Berlin Zoo Entrance

(4) Hotel Concorde

(6) The Gay Pink Triangle

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Itinerary #4 - Friedrischstrasse

This time we're going into a more central and typical Mitte itinerary, but with some special elements in that it was part of the Jewish quarter of Berlin before the WWII.

Full map: http://goo.gl/maps/XlKCu

Starting from the S-bahn station, on the south side of it you'll find a statue of children from the Kindertransport, the name given to the rescue mission that began nine months prior to the outbreak of WWII . The UK took in nearly 10.000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and  Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, and farms.

On the north side of the station, you'll find the well known Palace of Tears - Tränenpalast (2), which was the central terminal for travellers between East and West Germany.

Leading north on Friedrichstrasse and then left, you'll find the Sammlung-boros Bunker (2), which is not a private art gallery (tours by appointment).

Not far from here it starts the Humboldt University Campus (3), with very interesting buildings immerses in a park. There are different exits but you'll be simple able to go back on the main street and leading east on Oranienburger Strasse.

Here you have the Tacheles (4) building (which has been a famous art building, but now is closed and they're going to demolish it soon) and on the same street the Neue Synagoge (5), suvived to the Nazis, with its characteristic golden dome.

Here you can walk a bit in the district, which once was the Jews district and now it's a renovated area full of touristic restaurants and art galleries.

On Große Hamburger Strasse you'll find the Alter jüdischer Friedhof (6), which is the oldest jews cemetery, small and surrounded by buildings, but very interesting, with some old graves and a statues group at the entrance.

From here you can go at Hackescher Markt (7), but before having a rest, you can have a look at the Hackesche Höfe, a notable courtyard complex consisting of eight interconnected courtyards.

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Fichte-Bunker

The Fichte-Bunker is a 19th century gasometer (gas was used for street lighting) in Kreuzberg, that was made into an air-raid shelter in World War II and subsequently was used as a shelter for the homeless and for refugees.

The Fichtebunker has been realized starting from a gasometer in stone , built in 1874 when Berlin was expanding and needed to feed the gas street lamps . It's a round structure 56 meters high which holds 30,000 square meters covered with gas. When then there was the passage lighting with electricity, the gasometer was abandoned until 1940.

There is an important point of no return in Berlin and its citizens during the Second World War when the war expanded to bombing on the capital. The first of these attacks takes place on the night of 25 August 1940 and were bombed the area near the airport Tempelhof and Siemensstadt ( industrial area to the north west). Unexpected and unplanned, were feared and from that moment it was necessary to seek shelter with a run to the construction of air-raid bunkers and fortresses which will last until '43 .

Fritz Todt (German engineer , as well as SA- Obergruppenführer) then decided to turn the structure into a bomb shelter. Made of 6 levels with the addition of interior walls and ceilings reinforced concrete often up to 3 meters, took advantage of the work of prisoners of war and Zwangsarbeiter (forced laborers).

Originally designed for 6,000 people in need of protection, during the bombing of 1945 about 30,000 people were made ​​to enter . Even the local police, to prevent escapes, he transferred the prisoners in the bunker and some rooms were converted into cells. Despite the significant bombing the bunker survived the war virtually unscathed.

After the war, the former gasometer was initially used as a retirement home , then as a juvenile detention center and later as a homeless shelter until 1963. During the Cold War was then used for the preservation of part of the reserve of the Senate , able to cram something like 7,000 tons of goods in the event of war with Germany.

The building was forgotten again after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but then in 2000 Berliner Unterwelten began to rearrange the place and arrange tours within the structure.

More infos: WIKI
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/QVPlq

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Humboldthain Flakturm

The Flak tower of Humboldthain is one of the 3 towers on Berlin, built during the WWII by order of Hitler to defend the city after 1940.

It has been used also civilian shelter, with room for 10,000 civilians, and even a hospital ward, inside.

According to the end of the war, the tower was partially demolished; as most of these huge concrete structures, it has not been possible to fully demolish them (the interior walls can be of 3,5-4 meters).

Today the tower is fully inside the Humboldthain Park and one side of the tower has been filled with debris from the WWII collapsed buildings and is now a hill to access the highest point of the tower.

The interior can be visited (infos: Berlin Unterwelten)

Thanks to Berlino Explorer (http://www.berlino-explorer.com)

More infos: WIKI
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/X5JO9

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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