By Madeline Chambers
25 August 2008
BERLIN (Reuters) - Three vast tunnels were opened under central
Berlin this month, giving a glimpse of
Adolf
Hitler's megalomaniac vision of a new architectural centre
for the capital of Nazi Germany. The 16-metre (50-foot) deep
tunnels were constructed in 1938 as part of an underground
transport network beneath a series of bombastic buildings
designed by Nazi architect
Albert
Speer, including the biggest domed hall the world had
ever seen.
The overground plans, never completed because of World War
Two, included boulevards, squares and huge buildings, such
as an arch dwarfing the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and the
290-metre high Great Hall, with room for 180,000 people.
Hitler called the concept, a symbol of the power of the Third
Reich, "Berlin -- the capital of the world" but
in recent times it has come to be known as "Germania."
The tunnels, between 90 and 220 meters long lying beneath
the Tiergarten park, would have accommodated roads and a railway
line.
"The tunnels -- which are in surprisingly good condition
-- were part of
Speer's
grand plans, what we now call 'Germania'," historian
Dietmar Arnold, head of the Berlin Underground Association
and bunker tour guide, told Reuters.
Last week, Arnold -- who runs an exhibition of
Hitler's
plans -- took journalists on a rare visit into the dank tunnels.
They are closed to the public most of the time because of
safety concerns, but visits can be arranged.
"The acoustics are incredible," said Arnold, who
likes singing a note and hearing it reverberate around him.
After the war, British forces in divided Berlin closed the
tunnels. They were rediscovered in 1969 but have remained
shut. In 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, they
were handed to the city of Berlin.
The Berlin Underground Association, set up in 1997, has seen
a surge in interest in tours of Berlin's remaining bunkers.
Although most were destroyed, some of the maze of 1,000 World
War Two bunkers are intact and serve as a reminder of the
city's violent history.
Propaganda posters and escape instructions on the walls convey
a sense of the past. In one bunker, suitcases, helmets, and
uniforms from various sites are on show.
"Interest is constantly growing -- we have about 150,000
visitors a year to the bunkers," said Arnold. "That
is partly why we want the bunkers to be protected -- they
are an important part of the history of Berlin."
By the end of the war, Germany's most heavily bombed city
could protect up to 800,000 people in its bunkers.
Other: WWII News
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(Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Copyright © Madeline Chambers.
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