There are plans in Berlin to demolish one of the last remnants of Adolf Hitler’s center of power.
Apart from the bunker, almost nothing remains of the building from which the Nazi leader ruled.
Now plans have emerged to demolish this space and build apartments and offices in its place.
The new Reich Chancellery, designed by Hitler’s favorite architect Albert Speer, was badly damaged at the end of World War II and then demolished by order of Soviet forces in 1949.
However, it can still be seen on one part of the abandoned land.
Christian Gelbler, a member of parliament from the ranks of the Social Democrats, believes that it is time for the facility to disappear.
“We will not stand in the way of residential development just to preserve a place that can even become a place where people come to worship,” he told BZ newspaper.
But others believe the bunker should be preserved.
Dietmar Arnold, president of the Underground Worlds of Berlin association, said it would be “absolutely insane” to destroy the bunker.
“It is a place of criminals.”
“It was the center of power of Nazi Germany, Hitler’s New Reich Office, and these are the last remnants,” he said.
He wants the Holocaust Museum to turn the site into a museum and place of remembrance, with an exhibition of items about the end of the war.
“So much history has been destroyed here in Germany, both Communist and Nazi history, we can’t keep doing that.”
Arnold last visited the bunker in 2007, and it was in very good condition then, he says.
This is not Hitler’s most famous bunker, that is, it is not the one where Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide, which is located 120 kilometers away, he explains.
The bunker in Berlin was used by people who worked in the Reich Chancellery.
Towards the end of the war, a hospital was also installed inside.
Arnold says that 1,200 square meters of this space remained untouched.
The walls and ceiling are 1.7 meters thick.
He even believes that it is possible to build above the bunker without the whole thing collapsing.
Last year, the Council for State Monuments in Berlin criticized plans to demolish the bunker, saying it “has significant historical value”.
“The new Reich Office was the planning site and starting point of World War II.”
“It also symbolizes the terrible end of the Nazi regime,” the Council stated.
“Given its potential importance as a historical monument, its preservation and inclusion in the list of protected objects should be assessed by the State Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.”
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