detective work in Rummelsburg

Last Saturday I was wandering around Rummelsburg, a locality in the borough of Lichtenberg, and I came across some intriguing notes covering the side of an old building. The area has many former factories which have been restored or converted to housing, artist studios and even a (great) club. This building was empty though and I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the historic detective work which was underway. 

I sent along the photos to Jamie, our resident archaeologist, and this is what he had to say.

It seems like an investigation as prelude to the restoration of the building. It's protected as a Denkmal, which means when it is restored it needs to maintain its historical appearance. The types of mortar and paint used in the restoration are required to conform to the original mortar and paint. This looks like an investigation to establish which paint and mortar are the earliest ones used. They have exposed different paint layers that have built up over time in order to see which one was the first. Alternatively they might be aiming to restore the structure to the appearance it had at a particular point in time (eg 1920s).   

 

Once restored, it might look like a similar building just down the road: http://www.perlon-labor.de/en/

From this photo I was able to do some research about the former factory, and it seems it was producing chemicals used in the dying of fabrics. 

https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/73MP6KTKZHM7RMYZBRY2T4V6LCOCKW75

Pergamon Preview with Jamie

In just a couple of short weeks Insider is premiering a brand new public tour. The guides have been busy doing research in Berlin and Turkey, and have already hosted a student group on a Pergamon Museum tour. Enjoy a sneak peak of what Jamie's Pergamon tour looks like. Jamie, a professional archaeologist and part-time lecturer at Berlin’s Humboldt University, has been excavating the city’s past for more than a decade and is thrilled to introduce Insider guests to this exceptional collection of artifacts and architectural structures.

Pergamon ruins, photographed during Insider guides' research trip to Turkey

Introducing the history of the collections in the museums of Museum Island

A basalt basin for cultic purification from Assyrian Assur, and an explanation of why the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may not have been in Babylon!

Interpreting the building inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II next to the Ishtar Gate.

Explaining the purposes of the Market Gate of Miletus

Columns from Baalbek and the question of why the temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus was the biggest in the Roman world

 Contrasting iconography in the Orpheus Mosaic.

Describing the journey made by the pink granite columns of Baalbek from Aswan to Lebanon and finally to Berlin.

Showing images of the bombastic Roman temple precinct at Baalbek

Revealing the synthesis of craftsman's skills required in the making of the mihrab from the Bey Hakim Mosque, Konya, Turkey

Last stop, next to an astrolabe, a product of the Islamic Golden Age

Have we perked your interest? Reserve a ticket to experience this tour for yourself! 

http://www.insidertour.com/tours.php/cat/27/id/50/title/Pergamon_&_New_Museum_Tour

Insider goes to Küstrin/Kostrzyn and the Seelower Heights

a postcard from Küstrin, prior to WWII

T-34/85 Tank

Insider guides are constantly doing research. The thrust of this day trip was to uncover more about the German army's defence, Henrici's three line strategy with the focus on the 9^th Paratrooper division, and their strategy as they retreated towards the Gusow palace. Insider guides also studied the Soviet assault on Küstrin/Kostrzyn, the construction/defence of bridgeheads and the detail the Soviet attack from Zhukov command post.









Discussing the difference between traction profiles on mass-produced T-34s compared to the Tiger or Panther









Katyusha rockets, otherwise known as Stalin's organ

An array of military hardware

Unknown soldier

Seelower Heights Soviet memorial statue

Setting the scene...

The battle begins, Heinrici's defence plan

The encircling of Berlin, and the Western Allied forces position

On the Polish side of the Oder discussing the Soviet preparations for the assault on the Küstrin/Kostrzyn fortress

Entering what once was the bustling old town of Küstrin/Kostrzyn

Discussing the total destruction of the old city

Walking down the main street of the old city towards the site of the former city palace. Between the street signs are the ruins of schools, homes, churches, shops, the whole town...

Discussing the construction of bridgeheads

As the German forces abonded the Küstrin/Kostrzyn fortress the bridges were destroyed in their wake

The wall of the Küstrin/Kostrzyn fortress

War damage on the Rotwein church

The ruined Rotwein church

At Zhukov's and Chuikov's command post, overlooking the battlefield

Gusow palace, amazing untouched villa, used by both German and Soviet forces. Now includes a small restaurant serving great food including fine schnitzels

It also hosts a most eclectic museum of curiosities

Those BRIXMIS boys got around the DDR

SS uniform next to a pink cocktail dress

Werbig by fading light – a tactically important rail crossing, this was the site of some of the heaviest fighting for the Seelower Heights

The Battle for the Seelower Heights was the biggest military barrage in world history. Approx 1.2 million shells were dropped on the first day, April 16^th 1945. The Soviets managed to get the 1^st Belorussian Front, approx. 768.000 troops and 3.000 tanks across the Oder in 14 days. The Soviets suffered about 30.000 deaths in the 4 day battle. German casualties are estimated at 12.000. After this battle the road to Berlin was open.

Battle of Berlin! with Mike and Michael

Insider guides, Michael and Mike, meet to discuss the plan of attack for the Battle of Berlin, following the lines of the 8th Guards Army from Seelower Heights in to the "Zitadelle" the name given to the heavily fortified government quarter. The race is on. May 1st is the deadline, the Reichstag must be taken by then!  

Lines of German defence. The Teltower canal was a tough obstacle for the Soviets to get through. Michael in full flight here discussing the artillery attack on the 23rd of April, or was he explaining the origins of his original basque beret „it is a soft, round, flat-crowned version, usually of woven, hand-knitted wool or crocheted cotton“.

Get up to the top floor of the Ullsteinhaus for a better appreciation of the importance of the building for German defences, radio communications and 360 degree visuals for the defenders.  It was harder than we thought to get up there, after pushing a few door bells, a computer company on the top floor let us in......briefly.

After the soviets broke through the defensive position of Teltower canal it was off to the second co-centric line of German defences, the S-Bahn (city train/overhead rail) ring around Berlin. "The dogs head" had to be broken. First through the Tempelhof Airport, artillery on the roof, interlocking fields of machine gun fire, dug in tanks on the southern and eastern flanks, and approximately 2 kilometers of open terrain to navigate before the airport itself! 

Artillery started hitting the airport on April 22nd, but the battle proper for the airport started on the evening of the 25^th, continuing on to about noon on the 26th. With the soviets taking the airport it was now on to the next obstacle, the landwehr canal. Mike and Michael head to the front of the Tempelhof airport, still a bombastic and imposing building today. Also, this airport was pivotal for the Berlin airlift in 1948/49.

A bit of fire damage from the war still can be seen on the facade of the airport.

This eagle's head was cut off its 4.5 meter high body, and given to the United States military academy at West Point NY, who then returned it to Berlin in 1985.

The surrender of the Berlin garrison took place on the 2nd of May 1945 in this house.  General Weidling signs the surrender, in the same apartment where the current Mayor of Berlin grew up, his dad still lives there today.

On to Anhalter train station to discussed the air raids, and the shelters in Berlin. Gotta love the art on the wall of the bunker - "those who build bunkers drop bombs"!

Then the Bendler Block, site of the OKH where Hitler informed the army on February 3rd 1933 the Nazi case for "lebensraum" and the Germanistaion of Eastern Europe. It was from this site that Weiding left to sign the surrender of Berlin forces in 1945. Here also many German army officers who plotted to assasinate Hitler in 1944 in Operation Walküre were executed.

Then off to the Reichstag........

Next up, Seelower Heights.

Espionage, Superpowers and their Spies: Insider goes Undercover!

The Bridge of Spies, Glienicker Brücke

Battleground Berlin, from 1945 to 1989, countries with opposing ideologies honed their espionage skills in this geopolitical hub. From the turning of individual informants, to hoovering up information en mass, the two superpowers, and their satellites, vied to get the edge on the other – knowledge is power. From the mundacity of sifting through shed loads of correspondence, to daring missions behind enemy lines, no stone was left unturned in the struggle for world dominance.

Insider guides took some time to retrace the sites of these operations, and the fascinating stories behind them, in and around Berlin.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church – post WWII, Berlin becomes the world's spy capital.

George Blake's residence on Platanenallee.

Charlottenburg Palace – site of the KGB defection of Alexai Myagkov in 1974.

ECHELON on Teufelsberg. British Military Hospital in the foreground, location of Hess's autopsy in 1987.

 

The Teams

British

MI (Military Intelligence) 6 / Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) a.ka. Box 500

BRIXMIS

French

Deuxieme Bureau (until 1982) & Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE)

FMLM et al.

Soviet

KGB (Commitee for State Security) and GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) et al.

U.S.

Strategic Services Unit (SSU) then (from 1947) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

C.I.C. (until 1961), A.S.A. (until 1977), then A.S.A., INSCOM, USMLM, FCA et al.

East Germany

Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) and Hauptabteilung II

West Germany

Organisation Gehlen and (from 1956) Bundesnachrichtendienst

Bundesverfassungsschutz

'London House', British Military Sector HQ and counter intelligence hub.

A spy

Mission House, BRIXMIS liaison location in Potsdam.

KGB Forbidden City, Potsdam, 3rd Directorate military counter intelligence

First CIA HQ location in Dahlem

Allied Museum Dahlem

Hastings TG503 bomber used in the Berlin airlift

Former Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science. Site of the the first nuclear fission by Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann and Lise Meitner.

Site of Allied Control Council walkout 1948.

Him again!

Site of the La Belle Disco bombing 1986.

Looking for Operation Stopwatch Gold.

Found it!

Karlshorst, site of German unconditional surrender in May 8th, 1945.

HQ of the KGB/GRU/SMAD, residence of Marshal Zukov.

KGB prison '45-'63.

 

The Players

Lavrenty Beria – Petrov
Robert Bialek – Bruno Wallman
George Blake – Diamond

Anthony Blunt – Tony/Johnson
 Alexei Myaglkov – n/a
Guy Burgess – Mädchen/Hicks

John Cairncross – Liszt Jeffrey
Carnney/Jens Karney – Kid/Uwe
Nigel Dunkley – Hotspur

Allen Dulles – Mr. Bull
Musbath Eter – n/a
James Hall III – Paul

William 'Wild Bill' King Harvey – n/a
Gennadi Titov – n/a
Donald Maclean – Homer

Adjutant Chef Philippe Mariotti – n/a
Erich Mielke – Fritz Leissner (1936-39)

Major Arthur (Nick) Nicholson – n/a
Harold (Kim) Philby – Sony/Stanley

Geoffrey Prime – Rowlands
Alexander Schalk Golodkowski – Schneewittchen

Manfred Severin – Hagen/Canna Clay
Wolfgang Vogel – Eva
Huseyin Yildirim – Blitz

Marcus (Mischa) Wolf – Michael Storm (1945-49)
Günter Guillaume – Hansen

Rainer Rupp – Mosel/Topaz
Anne Christine Bowen – Turqoise
Gabriele Gast - Leinfelder

George Blake

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11472573/Revealed-Grim-fate-of-the-MI6-agents-betrayed-by-George-Blake.html 

Mission House and Glienicker Bridge http://www.brixmis.co.uk/early-years.html 

KGB Potsdam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_Prison,_Potsdam

Allied Museum http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/en/home.html

Dahlem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlem_%28Berlin%29

La Belle Disco Bombing  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Berlin_discotheque_bombing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/5/newsid_4357000/4357255.stm

Operation Stopwatch Gold http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/berlin_tunnel.asp

Karlshorst http://www.museum-karlshorst.de/en.html

Marshal Zukow http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/1900s/p/zhukov.htm