A visit to Hamburg

The Hasselbrook shelter rises from the trees (author's photo)

As regular readers of this blog will know by now, I've been visiting the city of Hamburg on a fairly regular basis since the late 1980s and over that period of time have come to know and love the city as well as building a great liking and respect for the people of that great Hanseatic port on the River Elbe.

On my most recent visit to the city, I had a little more free time than usual and so took a day to seek out and photograph some of the surviving relics of the Second World War, mainly but not exclusively in the shape of air raid shelters.

I wrote about one of the surviving shelters in February 2013 when I was lucky enough to visit the Shelter Museum at Hamm and would highly recommend a visit to anyone who has the chance to do so. This type of shelter is the conventional (to the British at least) underground type and is known in German as a Rohrenbunker or literally Tube Bunker, consisting as it does of four parallel tubes, linked by a connecting passageway and each, in theory, capable of housing fifty people, although in practice, considerable more than this number were crammed in each night of the 'Gomorrah' raids of July and August 1943. 

A view along one of the tube shaped bunkers at the Hamm Shelter (author's photo)

Unlike the British, who began their Civil Defence preparations in 1938, albeit on an inadequate scale, Germany did not seriously start thinking about arrangements to protect civilians from air attack until after the Blitz on British cities in 1940-41, at which point it began to dawn on the authorities that German cities were highly vulnerable to air attack and that Reichsmarschal Goring's words, uttered in 1939, that "No enemy aircraft shall fly over Reich territory" rang somewhat hollow. Construction of the Rohrenbunker was achieved in 1940 and many of these structures were built across Hamburg and other German cities. Most of these are now derelict and in many cases have filled with water but the one in Hamm was restored by a dedicated team of volunteers and is well worth a visit.

Many of the German shelters took the form of above ground bunkers, extremely sturdy structures built of brick and concrete, of which large numbers still survive. These were known as Rundturm, literally Round Towers and were quite elegant looking buildings in their own way, built of concrete clad in brick with conical roofs designed to deflect incendiary bombs. These were typically built at or near public transport hubs, such as S-Bahn or U-Bahn stations and because of their stout construction, many survive to this day, sometimes derelict but more often than not, in use for more peaceful purposes.

Baumwall Shelter - now in use as a Portuguese Restaurant (author's photo)

The shelter pictured above is conveniently located adjacent to Baumwall U-Bahn Station as well as being withing easy walking (or running) distance of Landungsbrucken on the S-Bahn and today serves as a Portuguese restaurant, although I have yet to sample their wares. The building was built in 1940 and like all of the Rundturm, was built with a nominal capacity of 600, although during the great raids of 1943, would have undoubtedly held many more than this. It also has the remnants of a Nazi eagle or Reichsadler embossed above the main entrance, although as the Swastika understandably remains an illegal symbol in modern Germany, this has been removed and replaced by a blank panel.

The Nazi eagle above the Baumwall shelter - minus Swastika (author's photo)

I paid a visit to a few more of these shelters which remain dotted across the city and two of the more interesting examples can be seen below. The first, immediately adjacent to Sternschanze S-Bahn Station, has been attacked over the years by graffiti vandals. This does seem to be a serious problem in Hamburg and hasn't been tackled with as much vigour as in London but on this occasion and for this structure, the graffiti has softened the warlike appearance of the structure, although as it is still partially in use by a local football club, the occupants may take a different view!

Sternschanze shelter (author's photo)

There is no graffiti on the Hasselbrook shelter, which once again is located adjacent to the S-Bahn Station but like the Baumwall example mentioned earlier, this tower has a Nazi eagle above one of the entrances, albeit of a simpler, perhaps more stylized design. Of course, the swastika has been removed and in this instance, has been replaced by a simple panel showing the year of construction, in this case 1941. The other entrance is adorned by a representation of the City of Hamburg coat of arms.

The Nazi eagle and year of construction at Hasselbrook shelter (author's photo)

 

Hamburg coat of arms at Hasselbrook shelter (author's photo)

There are other similar examples of this type of shelter at Berliner Tor, Barmbek (which has a 1939 date embossed above the door) and Billhornerbrucke Strasse (dated 1940) all of which seem to be in varying uses today. There are other shelters surviving which I will try to visit and photograph on my next visit. 

The final type of shelter still very much extant in Hamburg, as well as other German cities, is the Flakturm or Flak Tower. These massive structures doubled up as shelters and defensive positions, armed (as the name suggests) with heavy anti-aircraft, or flak guns. There are two of these to be seen in Hamburg, one at Heiligengeistfeld, close to FC St Pauli's Millerntor Stadion, which is now in use as a nightclub and music school.

Heiligengeistfeld Flakturm (author's photo)

These vast structures had concrete walls in the region of 3.5 metres thickness and contained air raid shelters with accommodation for a staggering 10,000 persons, gas proof rooms (the fear of poison gas attack dominated thoughts on both sides), hospital facilities and were surmounted by gun emplacements for heavy 128mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as lighter 37mm and 20mm cannon, although these latter would have been next to useless against the high-flying British and American bombers. The second Flak Tower in Hamburg is located south of the River Elbe, at Wilhelmsburg and has been converted into a most interesting peacetime use, being today known as the Energiebunker, a renewable energy power station which supplies power to the local power grid as well as providing an exhibition space, cafe and spectacular views across the city.

The Energiebunker (iba-hamburg.de)

There are many more relics to be seen in Hamburg but alas, time ran out for me on this visit as I had to meet some friends for lunch before leaving for the airport for my return flight to London. My next visit won't be too far delayed and hopefully, I will get the chance to visit and photograph some more Hamburg history.

All photos used in this article are © Steve Hunnisett, with the exception of the Energiebunker photo which is duly credited.