'Absolute madness': Row over plan to demolish Nazi bunker under Berlin

Berlin officials are considering demolishing a bunker that was part of Adolf Hitler's New Reich Chancellery, a move that has sparked controversy. Christian Gaebler, Berlin's Housing Senator, believes the site should not impede new housing developments and become a "place of pilgrimage."

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We are not standing in the way of new housing developments just to preserve a bunker that might then even become a place of pilgrimage.

However, preservationists strongly oppose the demolition. Dietmar Arnold, chairman of the Berlin Underworlds Association, called the plan "absolute madness." He emphasized the bunker's historical significance as the "power centre of Nazi Germany" and the last remaining structure of its kind. Arnold advocates for transforming the site into a museum and memorial, featuring an exhibit on the war's end.

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It would be absolute madness.

Arnold noted that the bunker, unlike the more famous Führerbunker where Hitler died, was used by Chancellery staff and later served as a hospital. He stated that approximately 1,200 square meters of the complex remain intact, with walls and ceilings 1.7 meters thick. He also suggested that construction could potentially occur on top of the existing structure without full demolition.

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It is a site of the perpetrators. It was the power centre of Nazi Germany, Hitler's New Reich Chancellery, and these are the last remains.