Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 7th of August, 2004

- HIDDEN UNDERNEATH OF TEUFELSBERG, LIES THE NAZI TECHNICAL FACULTY OF WEAPONS

- The huge "Devil's Mountain" is such a symbolical place, that the idea of living there, just seems very strange. Living in "Devil's Mountain" or in German, Teufelsberg, would mean that you are living in a mountain, that's made out of huge amount of ashes and crushed rubble of the Berlin metropolitan area. Right next to my feet, is a small perfume bottle, that's come out of the mountain due to the resent rains. The bottle has melted in the fires, that followed the incendiary bombs that Allies dropped into Berlin. I really don't understand how anyone would have liked to live here, says a nearby hiker at the gates of the construction area. The view is great, but it's many kilometers to the nearest shop. At the moment, it does look like that the lavish apartments will not be constructed, along with the four star hotel, spa and a museum, dedicated to spying. The construction area, where tens of millions of euros have been poured, is now empty. The apartment house that was constructed as an example, is now chopped to pieces like the rest of the buildings behind the fence. The nightly vandals have been very busy here, after the construction company left the area and ceased to guard their property. However, life still continues and people who arrive by car to the area, are taking away the items that are still useful, like lamps and shelf's. A lady, who has arrived to salvage the area, demands that we destroy her pictures in the name of privacy. I don't trust your promises she says, while persistently demanding the destruction of her picture.

- This kind of incident would seem strange elsewhere in Berlin, but here in Teufelsberg, it just completes the symbolic meaning of this place. Teufelsberg really doesn't look that unique hill from the rest of the hills. It rises about 80 meters from the plain of Brandenburg. Even the fact, that the hill is made out of rubble from the buildings, that the bombs destroyed isn't the fact that makes this place unique. Germany contains many hills, that after the second world war, were made out of rubble from the destroyed cities. But among the rubble hills, this is the one, to which Adolf Hitler with his own hands, bricked the foundation stone. That is the reason, why little Teufelsberg, reminds the mountains, which are well described in the old German fairy tales. However, inside this mountain, there's no lost King sleeping his eternal sleep, but certainly a part of the might of a ruler is hidden there.

- Inside the rubble mountain, is the technical faculty of weapons, that belonged to the technical department of Berlin University. Hitler himself started the construction work in November 1937. The new departments were called modestly just technology faculties, but the architect Albert Speer and the builders, were ordered to do their utmost best in the construction effort. The new buildings would be a memorial to the German culture, science and to the German strength. This is how Hitler himself described the new construction efforts. The buildings were included to the plan, that Führer had for Berlin, after the war would be won. From here on, the symbolic meaning of Teufelsberg started to develop rapidly.

- The huge buildings were only partly constructed, when the war between Hitler and Stalin broke out. Completing the construction was not possible due to the shortage of raw materials and there really was no need to finish the buildings, as the war ended to German defeat in 1945. Destroying the sturdy buildings proved a very problematic and it was decided to bury them under the rubble, that Berlin contained a lot. Some 400 000 buildings were destroyed in Berlin, due to the air attacks from British and American planes. According to some estimates, Teufelsberg contains the remains from some 80 000 buildings. The level of five million cubic units of rubble was reached in 1955 and ten million cubic units in 1957.

- Teufelsberg was the culmination point of the so-called "Ruins Theory", in which the architect Albert Speer argued the huge construction efforts to Adolf Hitler. The purpose was to build such a pretentious buildings, that even after centuries, just the ruins, would tell the might of the builders. In the fifties, the hill was populated by many hundreds of people, who were digging up the hill, in search of precious metals and other items that they could sell. There's a story in Berlin, that some people were able to dig up silverwares and a packed series of Leica cameras. The hill was named after the people living there, Monte Klamotte, meaning a rag mountain. Later plans for developing Teufelsberg into a winter sport centre were discussed, but in 1963, United States and Great Britain needed the mountain for their own plans. 

- A "switchboard" and a radar station were build to the mountain. The main job however, was to listen the telecommunications in East-Europe, including Soviet Union. The huge antennas were hosted by the NSA, which was concentrated on spying the electronic equipments and communications. The ski lifts were moved away, as they disturbed the monitoring area. The foundation of the huge antennas, is said to be on the roof of the Nazi buildings. According to a German engineer, the command centre was located in the Nazi bunkers, which were build for the faculty. The monitoring station was abandoned after Germany united again into a single nation in 1989- 1990. When looking at the destroyed cables, there's no doubt that this place was full of electronics. The antenna hoods are now empty. 

- To reach the biggest antenna hoods, you have to climb a very huge stairs, containing 270 steps. The diameter of the antenna hood is 15 meters and inside of it, it echoes very nicely. When Berlin Wall came down, sporty people were waiting to get back the mountain for their use, but instead the city sold five hectares from the mountain to investors in 1996. The price, 2,5 million euros was very cheap. However the actual construction effort was delayed, because more new buildings were constantly constructed to Berlin, which had no use at the moment. At the moment, there's still some 140 000 apartments and 1,5 million square meters of office space, standing empty in Berlin. The city is now most likely thinking about buying the mountain and construction permits back, but the price will be the issue here, as Berlin currently is near of bankruptcy. The cold war relic, the monitoring station would be left to the mountain, which would be covered by a forest. It hasn't disturbed anybody before, says the representative from the green political group.