The Luftwaffe Flak Towers

After the Royal Air Force bombed Berlin in October 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of several anti-aircraft to protect their cities from the air threat allied towers. The first three pairs of towers went up in Berlin in 1940, followed in 1941 by two other pairs in Hamburg and finally the three pairs in Vienna, which were built between December 1942 and January 1945. All sixteen flak towers were designed by architect German Friedrich Tamms, employing hundreds of forced laborers and prisoners of war in Europe.

The massive reinforced concrete structures were equipped with anti-aircraft guns ranging from 20 mm to 128 mm in size, which can fire 8,000 rounds per minute to enemy aircraft over 14 miles away. Also, present radar dishes that could be retracted behind a thick concrete and steel dome to protect them from damage during an air raid. The lower floors provide bomb shelters for civilians, for up to 10,000 civilians, and even a hospital room, inside.

Antiaircraft heavy bombardment from the tower at the zoo in Berlin, in April 1942. Photo Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org

With concrete walls up to 3.5 meters thick, flak towers were considered invulnerable to attack with conventional bombs carried by Allied bombers. The towers, during the fall of Berlin, formed their own communities, with a maximum of 30,000 or more Berliners taking refuge in a tower during the battle. These towers, as guardian of medieval castles were among the safest places in a city fought over, so the flak towers were some of the last places to surrender to the forces of the USSR, with eventually forced to capitulate as supplies were reduced.

Soldiers with anti-aircraft guns and a distance measurement device at the zoo in Berlin flak tower in April 1942.