A Hamburg investor plans to demolish a Nazi bunker in Berlin and replace it with an apartment building.
The plans, first revealed by the German newspaper B.Z., have sparked an outcry due to the site's historical significance.
The bunker is part of a subterranean complex constructed over a period of 10 years, which served as the headquarters of the Nazi regime until the last week of World War II. It was used to shelter employees of the Reich Chancellery and to house a military hospital.
The complex is situated near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Adolf Hitler used a separate bunker, some 100 meters away, named the Führerbunker. He moved into the Führerbunker on January 16, 1945, and committed suicide there with his wife, Eva Braun, on April 30, 1945. After a 14-year secret relationship, they were married in a brief ceremony on April 29 in the bunker. He was 56, and she was 33. The next day, she took a cyanide capsule, and he shot himself in the head.
Half of the bunker survived the war, entrance hidden in an empty lot
While the Chancellery buildings were destroyed after the war, at least half of the bunker remained. Its entrance is hidden beneath a mound on an empty lot in a prime area of central Berlin, located behind the offices of the federal states of Hesse and Brandenburg, within sight of the Brandenburg Gate.
Christian Gaebler, the senator for Urban Development, Construction, and Housing of the state of Berlin, told BZ that the city would not block the construction of much-needed housing units simply to maintain the bunker.
Berlin Senate building director Petra Kahlfeldt told BZ that heritage authorities do not believe the bunker must be preserved, adding that Berlin already has numerous underground historical sites open to the public.
However, historian and underground researcher Dietmar Arnold told BZ that he opposes the demolition, arguing that Germany should not erase physical traces left behind by the perpetrators of Nazi crimes, especially since the bunker remains in remarkably good condition.
State Monument Council opposes demolition
Meanwhile, Berlin’s State Monument Council has produced an internal recommendation opposing the demolition, saying that the New Reich Chancellery was both the planning center and operational base from which WWII was launched, and that it symbolically represents the catastrophic collapse of the Nazi regime.
“The New Reich Chancellery was the planning center and starting point of World War II and also symbolizes the catastrophic end of the Nazi regime,” the council said.
“In view of its potential significance as a historic monument, its state of preservation and its inclusion on the list of listed buildings should be assessed by the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments.
Architectural firm Blauraum (BLRM) from Hamburg has proposed building a seven-story residential building with 66 apartments, along with a six-story office building on the site.