An abandoned Cold War listening station in the forests outside Berlin will now receive state protection. The site has become a popular destination for more adventurous tourists.
Image: Martin Roemers
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A former NSA spy station outside Berlin will receive state protection as a historical monument, authorities confirmed on Saturday.
The iconic buildings on the western edge of Berlin, as well as the hill called Teufelsberg that they stand upon, will be placed under a preservation order, state curator Christoph Rauhut confirmed to the Tagesspiegel newspaper. A spokesman for the Senate Cultural Administration also confirmed the news to the DPA news agency.
The step will be officially announced on Monday.
Authorities said the order does not mean the site will have to be reconstructed as it once was but will instead ensure its preservation in the current state.
There's a long history of US spying in Berlin. During the Cold War, secrets weren't gleaned off phones but ran through surveillance centers known as "listening stations." The Devil's Mountain bears witness to that past.
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Listening beyond the Iron Curtain
In Berlin, the revelations that the NSA may have listened to Chancellor Merkel's cell phone have created a wave of protest. During the Cold War, American allies established an elaborate espionage system called Echelon to eavesdrop on communication activities in the Eastern Bloc. Back then the German government was aware of US-spying tactics from places like the Teufelsberg in Berlin.
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'Devil’s Mountain'
Teufelsberg, or "Devil's Mountain," offered Americans an ideal vantage point over the divided city of Berlin. After World War II some 25 million tons of war rubble were heaped up in a forest on the edge of Berlin to form the city's largest hill at 120 meters. Underneath the debris lies a never completed Nazi military technical college. Today, all that's left of the spy station is a ruin.
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Spying on top of war debris
After dumping the debris of some 15,000 war-damaged buildings onto the site, the Berlin government covered the hill in vegetation and turned it into a winter sports paradise. Shortly afterwards, the US military discovered the hill provided a perfect elevation point for monitoring flight paths to West Germany and radio and telephone networks in East Germany.
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The Americans' hill in Berlin
Part of Teufelsberg was turned into a military zone in October 1964 and the construction of the large listening station began. The project was only referred to as "The Hill" by American soldiers. Several secluded buildings as well as five powerful antenna domes were built. It is estimated that more than 1,000 people worked on the project at its busiest time.
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Twice the spying
The spy station was part of the global Echelon intelligence gathering network created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War. It was located in the British Sector, but the Brits and Americans didn't trust each other. So they split up the area in two, built everything twice and double-eavesdropped on their enemies.
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Surveillance of entire Eastern Bloc
Almost the entire Eastern Bloc was under surveillance, from the governing party in Eastern Germany to Soviet military facilities. Conversations in German, Czech, Polish and Russian were meticulously recorded, transcribed and translated. In a three-stage evaluation system only the most important information was forwarded. The surveillance reached up to 700 kilometers to the east.
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Radar domes now empty shells
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the listening station was abandoned. In 1992, the Americans took their electronic devices and left the radar domes behind as empty shells. The site was used for civil air surveillance for a short time before being bought by private investors. Their plan was to build apartments and hotels on the hill, but nothing resulted from their preparations.
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Enter at your own risk
The abandoned spy station soon became a popular target for vandals. Now windows are broken, old computers smashed, the interior is in ruins and even old pipes were stolen to be sold as scrap. With rusty fences and weathered iron gates, it's clearly stated that visitors enter at their own risk. Holes in the ground, missing railings and unsecured stairwells do not make exploring the area any safer.
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Grafitti and party haven
What was once a major building site for Nazis and then a surveillance center during the Cold War is now a popular spot for enjoying a view over the German capital and surroundings. Since 2011, the site has been open to the public. The Teufelsberg Community of Interest organizes an open-air electro festival on the premises. The only question left is whether the US is still watching.
Image: DW/A. Brändlin
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What is Teufelsberg?
During the Cold War, US intelligence wanted to build a listening station in West Berlin to intercept Soviet radio communications. Testing throughout West Berlin revealed Teufelsberg, a manmade hill in the Grunewald forest, had ideal conditions for such a center.
In 1963, the Americans built Field Station Berlin atop the hill. The station consisted of a series of white towers, buildings and domes. What exactly happened inside is still classified — until at least 2020 — but operations to intercept and jam Soviet communications continued until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The station was then shut down and stripped of its equipment.
Since then it has stood in ruin outside Berlin, becoming a thriving hub for graffiti artists and an offbeat site for tourists. Various efforts to redevelop the site have fallen through. The current owner charges tourists to enter the site, but in 2015 one of the prime drawcards of the site, the main listening tower, was shut down for safety reasons.
The hill itself is of interest, too. When Hitler came to power, he wanted to build a university faculty for military technology on the site. It never came to fruition and was demolished during the war. The area was then used as a dumping site for rubble from the ruins of Berlin after the war. It eventually reached 120 meters (400 feet) and was covered with dirt and trees to give it a more natural appearance.
