Nazi-era Berlin bunker transformed to luxury penthouse

Hindustan Times ^ | December 1, 2005

[nickcarraway]

A five-storey Nazi-era bunker in the German capital is being transformed into a luxury penthouse suite, complete with swimming pool and gardens.

Equipped with three-foot-thick ceilings and walls and narrow window slits, the building has been acquired by a German businessman who plans to move in early next year.

Situated near the Friedrichstrasse, close to the famous Deutsches Theater, at the junction of Albrecht and Reinhardtstrasse, the bunker is one of more than 30 huge pieces of Nazi wartime architecture that still remain in Berlin.

It has been acquired by Christian Boros, a German entrepreneur and contemporary art collector who plans to move from Wuppertal, in western Germany, to Berlin with his family once work on the penthouse, swimming pool and roof-top garden is completed early next year.

Boros is having the interior totally revamped, floor by floor, by a team of architects.

If his plans work out, he will move his extensive contemporary art collection - of more than 400 works - by artists Franz Ackermann, Dirk Bell, John Bock, Uwe Henneken, Sergej Jensen, Jonathan Meese, Manfred Pernice, Daniel Pflum, Katja Strunz and Thomas Zipp - into the premises in 2007.

The bunker, which offers magnificent across town view from its top, was built in 1942 as a refuge for 2,500 German railway workers at a time when massive wartime British and US bombing raids were taking place.

Each of its floors was divided into eight chambers with seating space for over 3,000 people, and 50 beds. By the end of the war, vast areas of Berlin had been destroyed and people were desperately seeking shelter. The Achillesstrasse bunker served as a refuge for some of the homeless in 1945-46.

The bunker became a heaving Techno-Disco haunt for a spell in the 1990s.

Many bunkers - both above and below surface were ordered built by Hitler during the war in a futile bid to reassure citizens their city was "indestructible". Following the Nazi defeat, the Allied forces blew up most of them.

[Prime Choice]

How cute. A little Nazi love nest.

I think I'm gonna puke.

[BunnySlippers]

There is nothing to indicate that this guy is a Nazi. If the city felt it had historical significance then they should have preserved or developed it.

It's real estate, no more no less.

[Prime Choice]

It's a Nazi bunker. Hello?

[BunnySlippers]

Well should we preserve it for posterity? Life goes on ... this site will be here forever.

You want to hang onto it! Why?

[Paulus]

I think it is a great idea... I would buy one.

[robinsonjeffers]

Will someone explain Germany to me? This is the land that gave birth to Goethe...did it all start disintegrating after the Franz Ferdinand assasination fiasco? Why did this amazing powerhouse of a country turn sour?

[kb2614]

There is nothing indicating that the business man buying it is a NAZI.

On that note, living there would be bigtime creepy.

[Prime Choice]

It should have been either been destroyed or kept in its historic condition. Turning a Nazi stronghold into a penthouse does nothing more than make that festering boil on humanity's ass less disgusting than it truly is.

[endthematrix]

"During the last ten years, a large number of these examples of Nazi ideology have been destroyed due to extensive building. Criticism arose on their destruction: The Berlin Underground Association, which has been fighting for the survival of these underground shelters since 1997, regards the bunkers in Berlin has authentic examples of Germany's terrifying past. Examples which should therefore be left, as a reminder and a warning."

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,339896,00.html

[endthematrix]

[Berlin_Freeper]

Right across the street from me is a whole Nazi building complex that is mostly still standing.

It's about 10 buildings, a few long garage buildings and even a flak tower (the huge cement base) and a gate house. The center building was blown to bits but you can still see the foundations and in it's place the local Germans built garden plots each with a little garden house. A building next to it has blast scars and some of the top floor window frames are there but the original roof is gone.

The buildings house families and businesses. One of the buildings has a small plaque that reads: On this site Nazi terror occurred.

They should make that rich idiot put a plaque next to his doorman that makes clear this was a Nazi building and let his visitors be reminded of that every time they are invited to come kiss his ass.

And another thing, I want to know exactly how he got his money to begin with. In case we need to take it and distribute it to Nazi war victims.

[Rockingham]

Sounds like it will be a good place to hold out against rampaging Islamo-fascist hordes in about ten or fifteen years.

[oyez]

I'd heard that Prinz-Albrecht-Straße-8 was going to be reconstructed.

[SpaceBar]

Here is a link to a far more notorious building. Not merely a bomb shelter.

[SpaceBar]

And some additional background regarding the company that used the building.

[PLMerite]

"Nazi stronghold."

It was a @#&(*$ air raid shelter. If it was the flippin' Fuhrerbunker I might agree with you.

[Schweinhund]

Specialists still argue about the evaluation of current events, now that the bag of Nazi has fallen over in Berlin. Contact to our correspondent could not be established up to now, as he seems to have fallen unconscious due to a drinking contest with some 14 year olds in the neighbourhood.

[VOA]

Well, I guess it's just "Springtime For Hitler" all over again,
only the bunker is under new management.

I'd actually like to visit after the renovations are completed...
so I could be amongst the first to say:
"I really love what you've done with the bunker!"

[109ACS]

It's a Nazi bunker. Hello?


I was stationed at Tempelhof Airport with the USAF from 1973-75 (1946th Communications Squadron, Heavy Radar). This building was designed by Albert Speer. It was, at the time, the third largest building in the world in terms of volume. The building was part of Hitler's grand vision for Berlin. It was also the site of the Berlin Airlift. Are you saying we should have just blown it up? How about Saddam's palaces? If they have a function, use them. If not, plow them under and build something else. Just because some sick Fascist or IslamoFascist ordered them built doesn't mean we should tear them down out of spite.

Just my opinion...