So from across the Pacific we return to Berlin and my last day in my favourite city. We begin at an aviation site with considerable history; located in the north west of the city is Staaken, one of Berlin's most important historic airports. Established in 1915 by the Zeppelin company as a factory site, rigid airships and aeroplanes were built here; development of the giant Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeugen that raided Britain during the Great War took place at Staaken. Post-war the airfield came into use as a passenger port for DZR, Deutsche-Zeppelin Reederei, the Zeppelin run airline serviced by airships, and was the headquarters of Deutsche-Lufthansa AG until the mid 1930s, when the firm moved to Tempelhof.
In 1935, Adolf Hitler announced the unveiling of the Luftwaffe to the world during a ceremony at Staaken on 1st March. The site rose in importance as the principal airfield of the Abwehr (German Intelligence) run Aufklärungsgruppe Ob.d.L., the secretive strategic reconnaissance unit that utilised a variety of different types to covertly photograph strategic sites around Europe under the guise of Lufthansa passenger flights. Run by Theodore Rowehl under the governance of Wilhelm Canaris from the Bendlerblock, this was one aerial unit that Goering in the RLM building on Wilhelmstrasse had little control over. During the war, the Junkers concern had a servicing facility on site and a concentration camp was run there housing foreign forced labour engaged in the overhaul of Junkers engines and airframes.
After the war, the site fell under Soviet control, although part of the land was located in British territory, so a deal was struck where land that fell under Soviet jurisdiction at Gatow was given to the British in exchange for Staaken. Used as a fighter station with Yak-3s for a period, Staaken closed in 1953. A few remains still survive, including the Zeppelin headquarters built in 1915, which is now on private land and leased to Netflix for use as a film set. Surrounded by trees, access is easy, although my presense was noted and I was allowed to stay and take a few snaps before being helpfully told what else remains around the site. This is the rear of the Zeppelin headquarters - the front is virtually invisible behind foliage. The car wrecks are Netflix set dressing.
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This is the end of what used to be a taxiway looking out across the main runways. Hard standing still exists under the solar farm. On 10 August 1938, Lufthansa Fw 200S-1 Condor D-ACON
Brandenburg took off from Staaken and flew to New York, being the first aeroplane to cross the Atlantic from Germany, and landed at Floyd Bennett Field on the 11th, having flown a distance of 6371.302 kilometers (3,958.944 miles).
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This road was the principal taxiway from the hangars that branched off perpendicular to the taxiway to the left and right of it. Zeppelin factory hangars, then the Junkers buildings sat to the left of the taxiway and the enormous airship shed, within which 11 Zeppelins were built sat parallel to the taxiway on the right. The land is now an industrial park and the hangars no longer exist.
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On the southern edge of the airfield was the watch tower and another row of hangars, one of which the tower, seen here was attached to. These were managed by Zeppelin and were where the big Riesenflugzeugen were operated from on their completion in the factory sheds on the north side of the aerodrome. The tower is unoccupied, although is currently a protected site.
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Evidence of Soviet occupation post WW2. On 5 April 1948, over the south west of Berlin, a Soviet Air Force Yak-3 collided with a British European Airways Vickers Viking airliner, all 14 people aboard the Viking and the Yak pilot lost their lives; the wreckage falling not far from the RAF airfield at Gatow, where the Viking was on approach to land when the Yak struck it from behind. The result was an international incident that lent weight to the tension that all parties felt at the time that led to the blockde of entry points to the West from Berlin by the Soviets after the introduction of the Deutsche Mark as currency in the West, which in turn gave rise to the Berlin Airlift. The Yak took off from Staaken and was stationed here.
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Evidence in the window of the building's original occupants; LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin visited Staaken in 1928 and began transatlantic services from here; the first airship mooring mast in Germany was built on site to handle airship operations, as well as the big shed on the northern side of the field, where the Zeppelin could be housed. The 11 Zeppelins built on site were LZ 37, the first completed in November 1916, L 41, LZ113, LZ 47, L 50, L 52, L 54, L 56, L 59, L 60 and L 64. These were the 'ships' military designations and were different to the Zeppelin assigned construction numbers, which were prefixed as LZ. What has lent confusion to the mix is that the German army prefixed its Zeppelins with LZ, so the designations cause confusion. The navy operated Zeppelins were prefixed with the letter L.
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The watch tower from the rear, on the right side was an aircraft hangar. Without a doubt the giant R type Riesenflugzeugen were the most remarkable aircraft constructed by the Germans during the Great War. Although other firms, such as AEG, Linke-Hoffman and Siemens-Schuckert built their own giants, it was Zeppelin at Staaken that led the research and development effort, and had built the largest number of them. Initially based at Gotha-Ost, where the first Zeppelin R type was built, the VGO I, Zeppelin tranferred the research team to Staaken in the summer of 1916 and constructed the R IV, R V and the first of the R VI types there, and the subsequent R XIV and R XV onsite. Of the 18 R VIs, which was the most numerous of the R types built, the first was built at Staaken, six by Aviatik, four by OAW and seven by Schutte Lanz.
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This is an accommodation block across the road from the southern boundary of the airfield. The stucco finish defies dating at first glance, but the red brick chimneys betray similarities to the Zeppelin buildings of 1915.
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To the east of the airfield site was a circle of barrack blocks that were built by the Nazis. Their original purpose is lost to me, but at one stage they were used to house Eastern European forced labour workers who were brought in by the Junkers Flugzeugbau. They are currently on private land and are earmarked for refurbishment. We were given permission to photograph the buildings, as long as we didn't linger for long as building work was going on around us.
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The first of the refurbished accommodation blocks has opened to the public, but we had to drive across the building site to get this photo.
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A derelict building undergoing development with the sign Frauen ABTLG (Abteilung); Women's Section.
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After lunch at McDonalds Staaken (!) we drove to the centre of Spandau district, to the Kaufland supermarket and parked the car on the grounds of the former Spandau Prison. Constructed in 1876 as a military detention centre with cells for 600 inmates, the distinctive red brick fortress block was infamous for its role post-war in housing the highest ranking Nazis serving their prison sentences after being convicted during the Nuremberg Trials. This is the main entrance to the Kaufland supermarket car park, which used to be the entrance to the guards and admin staff facilities that bordered the prison's southern barricade wall. Directly to the left is what used to be the warder's accomodation block.
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This image was taken from the Kaufland car park and would have been within the walls of the prison proper. Standing with our backs to the outer wall, with the guardroom and main entrance to our right, we would be looking at the main administration block, which adjoined the crucifix shaped cell block. On 18 July 1947, after landing at RAF Gatow, seven forlorn looking individuals were hurried aboard a blacked out bus and transported to the prison in the centre of Spandau district, which had survived the Soviet assault on Berlin largely intact. Their names were Prisoner No.1, Baldur von Schirach, sentenced to 20 years inprisonment, Prisoner No.2, Karl Donitz, sentenced to 10 years, Prisoner No.3 Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath, sentenced to 15 years, Prisoner No.4 Erich Raeder, sentenced to life inprisonment, Prisoner No.5 Albert Speer, sentenced to 20 years, Prisoner No.6 Walther Funk, life inprisonment, Prisoner No.7 Rudolf Hess, life inprisonment. Of these, Prisoners No.1, 2 and 5 served their sentences, Prisoners No. 3, 4 and 6 were released early due to ill health and Prisoner No.7, the last inmate, committed suicide in 1987.
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This is what used to be the guards' replacement mess and accommodation that flanked the prison's guard tower and main entrance. Although located within the British Sector, management of the prison and its seven inmates was the responsibility of the four powers in control of the city, each country's military would guard the facility for a month at a time, with the rotation being British during the months of January, May and September, French in February, June and October, Soviet in March, July and November and American in April, August and December. These four monthly cycles ran for the next 40 years from August 1947 until August 1987 after the last inmate's death. Publicity surrounding the prisoners was strictly controlled and photographs of the facility were strictly verboten, although the changing of the guard each month was initially a publicised affair, with interest waning as the years wore on. Apparently the inmates hated the Soviet months the most, citing the worst food and demeaning guards.
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This is a section of what was the Allied guards accommodation and is a good representation of the prison block's construction and design, being built to represent an impenetrable fortress. Our seven Nazis were housed together in one wing of the prison, with 32 exterior guards manning six machine gun armed watch towers evenly spaced between one another around the perimeter wall, with 18 warders and ancilliary staff making up the facility's occupancy of 78 staff overall at any given time; a ratio of more than 10 staff to each prisoner. Ther routine was as follows, from the Wikipedia page on the prison: "Every day, prisoners were ordered to rise at 06:00 hours, wash, clean their cells and the corridor together, eat breakfast, stay in the garden until lunch-time at noon (weather permitting), have a post-lunch rest in their cells, and then return to the garden. Supper followed at 17:00 hours, after which the prisoners were returned to their cells. Lights out was at 22:00 hours. Prisoners received a shave and a haircut, if necessary, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; they did their own laundry every Monday. This routine, except the time allowed in the garden, changed very little throughout the years, although each of the controlling nations made their own interpretation of the prison regulations."
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Taken from within the Kaufland supermarket car park, within the outer wall and on the prison grounds, this building is the original guards accommodation from when the prison was built in 1876. The remaining former prison buildings are all used by local businesses and serve as shops and offices. Following Rudolf Hess' death in August 1987, the prison block and all other buildings within the boundary walls were demolished to prevent the site becoming a shrine to the Nazis. Afterwards the British built an armed forces service centre called the Britannia Centre, which included a NAAFI - Naval Army, Air Forces Institute, a general store for the needs of the armed forces personnel and families and a cinema named the Jerboa, a reference to the Desert Rats. In typical British humour, the facility was nicknamed Hessco's after the Tesco supermarket chain back home. After a string of German occupants, including an Aldi supermarket, the property is now run by the Das Kaufland supermarket chain, which also owns the Lidl supermarkets. Apart from these eminently attractive red brick buildings linking the site to its intriguing past, there is nothing that tells the masses that visit on a daily basis that this ordinary suburban shopping district was once the site of the notorious Spandau Prison and its seven peculiar inmates.
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Next, the site of the XI Olympiade.