Kriegsspuren
@kriegsspuren
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Urban exploring (esp. WW2). Usually my photos (mostly iPhone). No historian but enthusiast. Just in case: bridgehead over at BlueSky (same handle).
Berlin, Deutschland
Joined August 2020
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Have you ever wanted to visit some of the places I am writing about but got lost in looking them up? Boy, do I have news for you! Here is a list of Google Maps links sorted by topic. Please note that this appears to work best on iOs and that this is a work in progress.
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@RRRDonner
Memorial for Arvid & Mildred Harnack, murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee in 1942/43, at Hasenheide 61 (Bln.-Kreuzbg.). “In their flat on the 4th floor, the couple organized antifascist courses (…). More than 130 members of the ‘Red Orchestra’ were arrested in 1942, 49 executed (…).”
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On 20 April 1945 Adolf Hitler ordered the execution of “Fall Clausewitz”, the code word for defense measures in the Battle of Berlin. In the following thread I am going to concentrate on the 50+ bridges that would have allowed access to the “Zitadelle”, the centre section.
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Russian tanks in front of St. Bonifatius Church on Yorckstr. (Berlin-Kreuzberg) on 30 April 1945 and the site today (B/W photo: )
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Physical snapshots of a fight 86 years ago (railroad bridge at Leibnizstraße, Berlin)
#Kriegsspuren
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One-man bunkers from WWII were only meant to protect from fragments and not direct hits. Even though many have been demolished since 1945, some have survived to this day, e.g. this one in a courtyard not far from Hermannplatz, Berlin.
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After being hidden for 29 years behind the signs of a restaurant, the 76-meter-long frieze “Die Presse als Organisator” (the press as the organizer, 1969-73) on the facade of the Pressecafé (Berlin-Mitte), popular among journalists in the GDR, was revealed in 2021.
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U-Bahnhof Siemensdamm is a subway station in Berlin-Spandau from 1980 that - hidden to the eye - doubles as an NBC shelter for about 4,000 people for 14 days with hidden gates, decontamination facilities, water tanks, ventilation systems etc.
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The air-raid shelter at the corner of Reinhardtstr. and Albrechtstr. (Berlin-Mitte) was built in 1943 for 2000 (2500? 3000?) Reichsbahn passengers. After WW2 it was used by the soviet NKWD (allegedly), for storing fruits from Cuba (“Bananenbunker”), and in the 1990s as a …
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Former air-raid shelter (Schöneberger Str. 23a, Berlin-Kreuzberg), used for food storage during the Cold War, that now houses an exhibition on the rise of the Nazis and WW2. Highly recommended - but plan several hours for you visit! Unfortunately no photography allowed inside.
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The b/w photo is from the book “Berlin 1945” with pictures by Valery Faminsky. Turns out the building in the foreground is the Dathe-Gymnasium, a high school at Helsingforser Str. 11-13 (Berlin-Friedrichshain). Look at the dent in the corner!!! Sorry, didn’t get the angle right.
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The unfinished Hochbunker Augustinerhof, an air-raid shelter in Trier (Rhineland-Palatinate) from 1941-43, was to resemble a building from the Middle Ages. It is now used for storage.
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Soon it will be 90 years that this railway bridge over Yorckstraße (here: Berlin-Schöneberg) was last painted. It is part of the Yorckbrücken, a series of originally 45 railway bridges built in the 1880s that would allow access to e.g. Anhalter Bahnhof, a former terminus.
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Instead of going on a shopping spree at Alexanderplatz, I went to have a closer look at Jannowitzbrücke station next to the river Spree! Here are two details I had not come across yet:
In the entrance area at ground level where there are stairs and escalators leading to the …
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Battle damage at the Invalidenfriedhof, a cemetery from the 18th century (one of the oldest cemeteries in Berlin) on Scharnhorststr. (Berlin-Mitte).
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Even an agnostic cannot deny the Holy Spirit: Shortly after WW2 the windows of the Church of the Twelve Apostles at the southern end of Genthiner Str. (Berlin-Charlottenburg) were repaired by using rectangular gin bottles from a nearby factory! Some of these windows still exist.
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If you have the chance, visit the Westwall (Siegfried Line) near Simonskall, North Rhine-Westphalia, site of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest (Oct. 1944-Feb. 1945)! Apart from plenty of Dragon’s Teeth in the area, there are several Regelbaubunker (= standard design bunkers/shelters).
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Watching “The Man Within” (1953). Fascinating views of Berlin not long after WW2, e.g. Moritzplatz and the Wertheim ruin standing in for East Berlin.
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Kein Frieden auf dem Friedhof (No peace at the cemetery), Alter Luisenstädtischer Friedhof, Berlin
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Gedenktafel für Hans Rosenthal, der in der Kolonie Dreieinigkeit (nahe Landsberger Allee) von März 1943 bis April 1945 versteckt wurde
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Only seven years after the construction of the old terminal, construction of the new Tempelhof Airport terminal was begun in 1934, with its monumental design and its shell limestone façade giving a first impression of the Nazis’ plan for their idea of a new Berlin, “Germania”.
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One of the more subtle memorials - empty bookcases in the ground in remembrance of the Nazi book burnings at Bebelplatz (Berlin-Mitte) in 1933.
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Memorial at the former garrison church at Südstern (Berlin-Kreuzberg) for Garde Pionier soldiers fallen in WWI
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The former job centre at Friedrichstr. 34 (Berlin-Kreuzberg) cannot hide its origin: It was built 1938-40 as the Gauarbeitsamt des Gaues Brandenburg (Gau = administrative region under Nazi rule; Arbeitsamt = job centre) but was actually used by the Organisation Todt until 1945.
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2 May 1945
2 May 1945: The end of the war in Berlin (Schulenburgring 2, Berlin-Tempelhof) (B/W-photo: )
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Berlin resources that I often use:
- Aerial pics (1928/2015):
- Maps (c. 1935-43):
- Map of war damages (1945):
- Aerial pics (1954)
?
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Behind a parking lot on Ritterstr. (Berlin-Kreuzberg), in an area dominated by post-war residential buildings set in park-like surroundings (but more often than not in need of repairs) and drab post-war business and factory buildings, one comes across this gem.
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War damage at one of the barracks of the “2. Eisenbahn-Regiment und Luftschiffabtheilung” (2nd train regiment and airship division) at General-von-Pape-Str. 18 (Berlin-Tempelhof), built around 1900.
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The St. Marienkirche, a Protestant church originally from the 13th century next to the Fernsehturm near Alexanderplatz (Berlin-Mitte), is not only the oldest church still in use in Berlin, it is one of the few buildings that survived WW2 and the post-war demolition in this area.
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Where there‘s now a little park right next to the U-Bahn viaduct between the Oberbaum Bridge (50m to the left) and Schlesisches Tor station (150m to the right), this woman once sat in the ruins of the building at Oberbaumstr. 1 (Berlin-Kreuzberg). Of the three buildings in the …
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High denity of German history along Niederkirchnerstr. (Berlin-Kreuzberg/-Mitte): The former Ministry of Aviation (built 1935/36), the remains of the Berlin Wall, and the open-air exhibition in the former cellars of the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and the SS Reich Leadership.
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This former air-raid shelter on Friedrich-Karl-Str. (Berlin-Tempelhof), hardly to be seen from the street due to the foliage (a natural, post-war form of camouflage if you will) appears to be another M500 (a “Mannschaftsbunker” for 500 people).
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Karstadt (Hermannplatz, Berlin-Kreuzberg) in 2022 and in 1936 (BW pic: )
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Female statue from 1942, almost life-sized, at the St. Matthias Cemetery (Röblingstr., Berlin-Tempelhof) that was shot in the back at heart level towards the end of WW2, apparently because it was mistaken for a real person. The statue was placed near the war graves in 2008.
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War damage below the S-Bahn bridge at the corner of Voltairestr. and Dirksenstr. (between Alexanderplatz and Jannowitzbrücke station, Berlin-Mitte).
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This Reichsbahnbunker, an air-raid shelter right next to the Osnabrück railway station (Lower Saxony), was planned for 1,500 people, built in 1941/42 and had five floors. A tunnel connecting it to one of the platforms was filled in in 2015. ()
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S-Bahn station Blankenburg (Berlin-Pankow) - could this be war damage?
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Ruhleben, terminus of the U2 line, used to be the most important connection to Berlin-Spandau. Plans from the 1920s to continue the line eastward via Rathaus Spandau were put on halt when the U7 line was extended in the 1960s. Meanwhile the station has fallen into a deep slumber.
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“R. Barthol/Flügel/Pianoforte(fabrik?)” - after Rudolph Barthol’s death in 1935 his company that produced pianos was sold so this sign at the building at Manteuffelstr. 81 (Berlin-Kreuzberg) is at least 88 years old. Unfortunately the other words are illegible.
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On 25 April 1945, Karstadt at Hermannplatz (Berlin-Kreuzberg), Europe’s biggest department store from the 1920s, was blown up by the SS. The part of the building on Hasenheide Str., with its shell limestone facade on one side, is all that remains of the original building.
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Plaques on two neighbouring houses on Ohlauer Str., Berlin-Kreuzberg, constructed after WWII - ten years apart - as part of the reconstruction program (Aufbauprogramm).
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You just cannot combine Imperial Germany, the destruction of WW2, East Germany, and Germany after 1989 in one photo! It‘s impossible.
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In 1947, the photographer Harry Croner took the S-Bahn between Jannowitzbrücke and Zoologischer Garten and documented the ruins of Berlin which we can see in this video published by the
@StadtmuseumBLN
:
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A forced labor camp run between 1942 and 1945 by several (church!) congregations was situated at the corner of Netzestr. and Grüner Weg (Berlin-Tempelhof), at the western end of a cemetery. The memorial site which includes the foundations of a potato cellar (the camp’s only …
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Noticed this weekend that Hüttenweg (Berlin-Dahlem), a street between Clayallee and the AVUS, is made of slabs of concrete - highly unusual for streets in Berlin. Is that because of the U.S. tanks stationed at Turner Barracks on Hüttenweg between the 1950s and the 1990s?
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The M500 air-raid shelter (a “Mannschaftsbunker” for 500 people), built in c. 1940 at the corner of Zwieseler Str. and Viechtacher Str. (Berlin-Karlshorst), belonged to the Pionierschule I of the Wehrmacht nearby.
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Mohrenstraße underground station (originally “Kaiserhof”, after 1950 “Thälmannplatz”), severely damaged in 1945, rebuilt after WWII, allegedly using marble from Hitler‘s New Reich Chancellery nearby.
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The former site of the Friedrichstadtpassage, originally a department store from 1908, only damaged in WW2, partly demolished in the 1980s by the East Berlin authorities and squatted in 1990 by an artists‘ initiative, has been turned into a capitalist temple devoid of any life.
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GDR memorial plaque at Warschauer Str. 60 (Berlin-Friedrichshain): “In this house lived the antifascist resistance fighter Heinrich Thieslauk/Born on 23 March 1888/Murdered by the fascists on 4 March 1937/Honour (to) his memory”
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If there is no other hole, can this be the entry point of a bullet? To me it clearly looks like an exit point.
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Screenshot from the first German movie after WW2: “Die Mörder sind unter uns” (The murderes are among us, 1946). The statue was originally located at Andreas Sq. (Berlin-Friedrichshain) which does not exist anymore. It can now be found across the street near Andreasstr. 21.
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Possibly the remnants of a mortar shell explosion at Köpenicker Str. 16 (Berlin-Kreuzberg). See the blast patterns on the sidewalk slab and the scars in the wall to the left which suggest that the shell came from the right side (E/NE) so it may have been Soviet mortar fire.
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Görlitzer Bahnhof, an U-Bahn station of the U1 line (Berlin-Kreuzberg), in 1953 and 2024 with the Emmaus Church in the background. Note how the staircase on the left (the only access) has switched sides and that (among others) kiosks have been added below the station.
#OTD
1953: Blick auf den U-Bahnhof Görlitzer Bahnhof. Im HG ist der Turm der Emmaus-Kirche zu sehen.
#sammlungonline
#mitGoetzedurchBerlin
#Kreuzberg
Bild: © Rolf Goetze | Stadtmuseum Berlin
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I think this has the potential for a new thread: “Worn Tiles at House Entrances”, no. 1 (Manteuffelstr. 105, Berlin-Kreuzberg): Look how two tiles from the edge were saved by repurposing them towards the middle.
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Detail of the war damage at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, an art museum on Niederkirchnerstr. (Berlin-Kreuzberg) that had opened in 1881. The building was severely damaged in WW2 but not torn down because of Martin Gropius’ well-known grandnephew Walter Gropius, also an architect.
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Female statue near the entrance of the cemeteries on Mehringdamm (Berlin-Kreuzberg). If it wasn‘t for the edges, it looked as if a bullet *entered* from the front and caused a dent from the inside on the back. However, it looks as if the bullet *left* through the front?
#XFiles
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If you look carefully, you may notice places in Berlin where you feel sth was planned and at least partly built but has been swallowed by the sand dunes of time. One example can be found while travelling along the city‘s Autobahn, for example next to the S-Bahn station Messe (…)
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In order to deal with the demands of a growing city, the “Radialsystem” was devised by James Hobrecht in the 19th century: twelve sections that would send sewage to irrigation fields mostly north and south of Berlin. During an excavation a few years ago, a part of the (…)
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Whereas many buildings in former East Berlin have been renovated since 1989, the house at Ackerstr. 168 (Berlin-Mitte) still has this morbid charm.
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The Kaiserliches Postfuhramt (imperial mail delivery office), a post office from 1881 at the corner of Oranienburger Str. and Tucholskystr. (Berlin-Mitte), was severely damaged in WW2. Restoration began only in the 1970s and service ended in 1995. Beginning in 2006 it was …
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Deutschland 83: Ha! They filmed a scene in what appears to be the colonnades of Tempelhof Airport - and digitally added Kudamm and the Gedächtniskirche in the background!
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Battle damage in a building on Am Kupfergraben (between Dorotheenstr. and Hinter dem Gießhaus, Berlin-Mitte)
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On 23 April 1945 the Wehrmacht blew up the middle section of the Oberbaumbrücke, a bridge between Berlin-Friedrichshain and -Kreuzberg, to slow down the advancing Red Army. The tree in the old photo appears to have survived - it now blocks the view from the exact same position.
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The northern walls of the courtyard between the impressive clergy house on Glogauer Str. (Berlin-Kreuzberg), which lost its two church-like steeples in WW2, and the Protestant Martha Church behind it (finished in 1911 and 1904 respectively) show a diagonal blast pattern (E to W).
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Obscure Berlin
#1
: The geographical centre of Berlin (1996) at 52° 30’ 10” N, 13° 24’ 15” E (Alexandrinenstr., Berlin-Kreuzberg).
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Lidice massacre 10 June 1942
#OTD
Heute vor 80 Jahren verübten deutsche Polizisten das
#Massaker
von
#Lidice
, einem Prager Vorort.
Das
#Kriegsverbrechen
galt der Vergeltung für das Attentat auf Heydrich.
Alle Männer wurden erschossen, Frauen & Kinder deportiert, die 93 Häuser geplündert und in Brand gesetzt.
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Air-raid shelter from 1940/41 on Eiswaldtstr. (Berlin-Lankwitz), north of the barracks of the Flakregiment 12 on Gallwitzallee. Note the almost civilian design. Some background information:
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The Berliner Funkturm, a radio tower from the 1920s (no longer used for broadcasting), and the ICC, a modernistic conference centre from the 1970s (also no longer used for its original purpose), mark an utterly fascinating area in Berlin-Charlottenburg reshaped many times.
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Collection of the bomb disposal team of the Berlin police (Kampfmittelräumdienst der Polizei Berlin) at Ruppiner Chaussee in Berlin-Schulzendorf: “Hier lauert der Tod” (death is lurking here).
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The Trains to Life Memorial for the 10,000 Jewish children who were allowed to leave Germany in 1938-39 and the British foster parents that took them in can be found on Georgenstr. (Berlin-Mitte), south of Friedrichstr. railway station where the first Kindertransport started.
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“General Chuikov, commander of the 8th Guard Army, had his command post in this building. Here on 2 May 1945 General Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defence Area, signed the order for the German troops in Berlin to stop any combat action. This marked the end of war for Berlin.”
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A thread on German air raid precautions: More than 76 years after the end of WWII, these three vertical lines on a wall on Lehderstr. (Berlin-Pankow) still show that water could be drawn here in case fire hydrants are no longer working after an attack.
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Bullet holes in the railway viaduct at Georgenstr. 187 (Berlin-Mitte), many of them with a diameter of 4-5 centimetres (up to about 2 inches).
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The ruin of the Görlitzer Bahnhof can be seen in the movie “Funeral in Berlin”, a thriller from 1966 starring Michael Caine. In this scene the building stands in for a place in East Berlin and the protagonist is arrested by the East Berlin police.
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Wondering why the tracks (only) on the NE side of Hackescher Markt station do not align with the shape of the building. Was the building not planned properly or did the tracks layout have to be changed during construction?
#OCD
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Tired of Berlin‘s tourist attractions? Want to tumble down a different rabbit hole? Turns out just east of Alexanderplatz you can! (Beginning of a thread that I promise will develop slooowly! And may include some reposts.)
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Memorial from 1987 for Rosa Luxemburg, a communist who was murdered by right-wing Freikorps soldiers on 15 Jan. 1919 and whose corpse was dumped into the Landwehrkanal nearby (Lichtensteinbrücke, Berlin-Tiergarten).
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A dilapidated lamp post in the middle of the forest? My spider sense is tingling again!
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Karl-Marx-Allee (1949-1961 Stalinallee), a socialist boulevard in former East Berlin, designed in the wedding-cake style of the Soviet Union and built between 1952 and 1960.
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Gert Fröbe leaving the police headquarters (Polizeipräsidium) in a scene from “The Return of Doctor Mabuse” (1961) - in reality it is the German Patent Office at the corner of Gitschiner Str. and Alexandrinenstr. (Berlin-Kreuzberg).
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The Hamburger Bahnhof on Invalidenstr. (Berlin-Mitte) was originally a railway station that was opened in 1846 but already in 1884 service was ended. It is now a museum for contemporary art.
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The railway bridge on Schlüterstr. (Berlin-Charlottenburg) shows its own share of war damage, mainly on the southern sides of the columns (left pic) but in a few instances in an east-west orientation (pics on the right) as if the fighting took place right below the bridge.
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Ok, had to reduce the size. So this is what I meant to post.
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Wow! Check out this video on Germany in the 1930s! There‘s about 1.5 minutes of Berlin before the war starting at the 0:40 mark.
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If you were wondering why the U-Bahn station “Bundestag”, part of the extended U5 line starting at Hauptbahnhof station and going to Hönow station at the NE edge of Berlin, looks familar …
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Would this structure that is part of the U-Bahn viaduct at the corner of Bülowstr./Frobenstr. (Berlin-Schöneberg) be considered a support, a column or a pillar? Anyway, it has a lot of impressive holes in it.
#wardamage
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Ghost sign on Lübbener Str. (Berlin-Kreuzberg): “Moderne Polstermöbel” and “Anfertigung” (= “modern upholstered furniture” and “production”).
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Wealth and prosperity is what Heidelberger Platz station, a U-Bahn station from 1913 in what is now the district of Wilmersdorf, exudes.
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The U-Bahn station Jungfernheide (Berlin-Charlottenburg) was opened in 1980 and has two levels. One track on each was planned for a U-Bahn connection to Tegel airport of which only about 600 metres have been built so they are fenced off. The other tracks are used for the U7 line.
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In 2005 an art installation at the Brandenburg Gate made it possible to see the Pariser Platz the way it had looked sixty years before at the end of WW2.
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Unlike its neighboring twin, the facade of the residential building at Große Hamburger Str. 29 (Berlin-Mitte) is still riddled with bullet holes from WWII on three sides, apparently as a form of a memorial.
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“The Day the Wall Came Down” (Clayallee, Berlin-Zehlendorf), a gift from the USA to Germany, dedicated in 1998 by former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and showing horses jumping over the remains of the Berlin Wall, is certainly among the most ridiculous sculptures ever.
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Memorial plaque on Eichborndamm (Berlin-Reinickendorf): “In memory of the resistance group Uhrig in the German weapons and ammunition factory. From 1933 until their arrest in 1942, German men and women, together with resistance groups from other companies, fought against NS …
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Memorial plaque at Potsdamer Chaussee 87 (Berlin-Nikolassee): “Between 1946 and 48 this building was part of the Düppel Center which the US Army founded as a transit camp for the survivors of the Shoa. For tens of thousands this was a place of hope and a new behinning (…)
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This water tower on Mittelweg (Berlin-Neukölln, east of Hermannstr.), built in 1893/94 and holding 2500 cubic metres, was in use until 1999. Apparently it was damaged in three spots in WW2 - two repaired ones (on its S side) can be seen in the photo. What an unexpected find!
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One more week till Christmas (don‘t say I didn‘t remind you). Here‘s St. Nicolas, one of the oldest churches (now a museum) of Berlin that was built in the 13th century but got its twin towers only in the 19th century. Severely damaged in WW2, it was rebuilt only in the 1980s.
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