Climbing Devil's Mountain

On our last full day in Berlin, we decided to take a bus to Grunewald forest, which is the largest green area in Berlin. It's really an amazingly large area, 3,000 hectares! We spent a few hours walking around the numerous lakes in the forest, and visited an old hunting lodge (Jagdschloss Grunewald) that was used by Prussian royalty as a base to hunt deer and wild boar.

Anne and I walking through Grunewald forest

Jagdschloss Grunewald

In the north of the forest is Teufelsberg (Devil's Mountain). Before the mountain was there, it was a Nazi military-technical college. After the war, the Allies tried to destroy the college with explosives, but this didn't work because it was too well built. As there was a lot of rubble left over from the bombing of Berlin during the war, they decided to pile it all up on top of the college to create a man made mountain. It's estimated that the rubble of over 400,000 buildings was used to create the mountain. The mountain soon became infested with ZOMBIES that escaped from the old Nazi military college!!

Actually, the US built a sophisticated (for the time) listening station on top of the mountain, which was operated by the NSA during the cold war. The listening station is still there, but has been abandoned since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

NSA listening station

As we were walking past the three barbed-wire topped fences that surround the listening station, we spotted a guy climbing out from a small hole in the fence. He told us that the station is not guarded anymore, so we decided to take a look.

Squeezing through the hole in the fence

We spent the next couple of hours exploring the listening station, and it was amazing! The old antennae and buildings were spectacular. Much of the station has been vandalised or burnt, and there is a lot of graffiti, but from the top of the large centre tower you will find the best view in Berlin.

In the listening station, the biggest antenna in the background

Anne holding up one of the antennae

Plants growing out of the walls. Does anyone know what kind of plant it is?

After venturing into one of the unlit buildings, we found some very dark stairs and bravely climbed up about seven floors to the top of the tower. The view from the level just under the antenna was fantastic. Some of the handrails had been removed or had fallen off, so we stayed away from the edges. Up at the very top inside the antenna was cool too.

There was also an interesting area at ground level where some people had put together some pretty cool sculptures from bits and pieces of metal.

A winged, metal beast

It was an awesome experience, and I recommend checking it out if you are in Berlin. I should say that the area has not been made safe for the public. There is lots of sharp, rusty metal, broken glass, lack of hand rails and an open elevator shaft. It is VERY dangerous so explore at your own risk.

After our hike we settled into a beer garden near the zoo in the city for a well earned beverage.

Cheers!