Hitler chancellery bunker at risk in Berlin housing row

A bunker beneath the site of Adolf Hitler's former chancellery in central Berlin could be destroyed for a housing project, a heritage association warned Tuesday.

Berliner Unterwelten, which works to preserve the city's underground history, said the bunker is one of four surviving Nazi-era bunkers in the district around the Brandenburg Gate. The association's president, Dietmar Arnold, said the roughly 1,250-square-metre site “absolutely must not be destroyed.”

The nearby Fuehrerbunker, where Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves at the end of World War II, was part of the same complex. It has been partly destroyed and is not accessible.

Berlin's city government says new housing must take priority in a capital where residents often complain about high rents and scarce accommodation. The issue has become a campaign theme before next month's election for the city's state assembly.

Bild reported that the proposed project would create 66 apartments but would require the destruction of what remains of the bunker. Berlin deputy construction minister Christian Gaebler recently told the newspaper that the city would not oppose new housing to preserve a bunker that could become a pilgrimage site.

Arnold said Berliner Unterwelten was not blocking housing construction and argued that the remaining bunker could be built over. He rejected the pilgrimage concern, saying the association runs tours of underground historic sites, including a former Nazi bunker, and has not seen that problem in Berlin.