After the Second World War, Berlin was in ruins... So what do you do with rubble and ruins of thousands upon thousands of buildings? Well in Berlin, there's a place called Teufelsberg (Devi's Mountain). This mountain is a man-made mountain in the west of the city. It's one of the highest points in the city and it is where they stored some of the war's debris. It was created in the 20 years following the war, with over 75,000,000 cubic meters of rubble. Underneath all this was a Nazi-military college that was still under construction, and on top of this mountain? A US NSA listening station called Field Station Berlin, built during the Cold War. After the war, the building was abandoned and eventually taken over by a group who takes care of the place, and it has now become a huge street art/graffiti exhibit.
It's a pretty amazing place with so much history, though most of it is not visible on its surface. The debris was covered with greenery to try and mask/beautify the area, and without knowing what the buildings were, you would have no idea that they were an American spy station.
It's quite a long walk to get there, but it's definitely worth it. This is such a different thing to visit; very typical of Berlin in a way: it's quite hidden, not very advertised, not exactly beautiful in any way, but full of history and you can spend hours there, wandering and wondering.
Rather than try to explain it, I'll just show you. Here are some pictures of Teufelsberg!
