Not just phallic symbols of power; they actually served a practical purpose.
These concrete towers were unique AIR RAID SHELTERS of Nazi Germany, built to withstand the destructive power of WWII bombs and heavy artillery. Their cone shape caused bombs to slide down the walls and detonate only at a heavily fortified base.
Cheaper to build above ground than to dig bunkers, they were quite effective, as it was possible to cram as many as 500 people inside. Plus the "footprint" of such tower was very small when observed from the air, so it was very hard for the bombers to ensure a direct hit.
(photo credit: Ivo Schenk. This tower you can even visit)
First appearing in 1936, they were quickly dubbed "cigarette stubbs" or "sugar beet heads". Officially they were called Winkeltürme (Winkel Towers)- after their architect Leo Winkel of Duisburg. Winkel patented his design in 1934, and in the following years Germany built 98 Winkeltürme of five different types.
Hitler was quite impressed by Winkel's concept and blueprints, and ordered full engineering and production support. They were meant to be shelters for factory workers and railroad personnel, to be placed mostly in heavily industrial areas, such as Giessen. Here is a cut-away view:
"The Winkelturm in Stuttgart, a Type 2, is in the Feuerbach rail area. The cone shape was designed to defeat bombing attacks by deflecting bombs off the top and sides, toward a reinforced area around the base. However, a Winkelturm of this type in Bremen suffered a direct hit by U.S. bomb in October 1944, which exploded through the roof and killed five people inside."
Focke Wulf and even Daimler Benz factories got some towers, more than 34 were built around steel plants and rail centers, and quite a few were designated for the German Command itself.
Cone shaped towers were complimented by the "Dieter" towers, hexagonal or somewhat mushroom-shaped:
Some towers had a flat roof, which was used as a platform for anti-aircraft guns and powerful searchlights.
Today these towers are often considered an eyesore, so the locals turn them into town museums, or even bus stops:
or they try to paint them into something cheerful:
I personally think that their weird and haunted look (combined with a bizarre monumental nature) make them good, though ghastly, reminders of the WWII past.
Sources and further reading: Third Reich Ruins, Luftschutz Bunker, Michael Grube, Lost Places.De Photography by - "Fernaufklärer", Fotos Darmstadt - Alexander Gläsner, Fotos Duisburg-Wedau - Michael Foedrowitz, Berlin - Thomas K., Berlin, Fotos Zossen-Wünsdorf
Among your pictures is a tower in Vienna I live quite near by. I've always liked it for its gloomy, threatening look, and in summer it always gave nice shade to the people hanging out in the park it's in. Unfortunately, time has worn it down, and last year it threatened to collapse. While there had been plans by a company to turn it into a data-center, I don't think it'll last that long. Right now they are just trying to stop it from collapsing.
Check out this one. One huge ugly block. http://www.technik-kultur.de/wiki/index.php?title=Bunker_-_zweckentfremdet It held 18.000 people and is still maintained as an emergency shelter. It is across the street from where I live. It is now called the Mediabunker and is used by Photostudios, a music shop and bands for practice rooms. It also has a club at the top.
Dude great blog that architect Leo Winkel should of designed the World trade Center. I hope you can visit my website ONLINE SHOPPING MALL best regards John
We have couple of those towers in Sarajevo too, I know about them since I was a child but newer know the purpose of those old buildings. Looks exactly the same as those on pictures.
Hello, I recall seeing these in the railyards near Kaiserslautern too. I also remember seeing one in Vienna - I'm not sure if it is the one you posted, but it had building built around it. It was almost like they were mushrooms that had grown up around a tree or something
Hehe, the one they turned into a bus stop (with the Loto-Sign in front of it) is actually located in my hometown of Stuttgart in Germany (Stuttgart-Feuerbach). My father always told me how he had to hide there and in other shelters when the bomb alarm went off during the last months of war...
Useless knowledge? I find them to be a facinating and somewhat hidden aspect of the war. We all know about Londoners hiding in the tubes during the Blitz, but no one seems to remember how badly Germany was bombed. This goes to show Germany's way of protecting it's people.
i wonder if there was any specifical order in the position asignated to people. i mean, upper floors seems much more dangerous than base. and taking in account that if u come first, the latest people entering the tower would push you up, its a potetial crisis. what u think? anybody knows about behavior in shelters in WWII?
A tower of this type (locally known as "Spitzbunker") survives to this day in Bremen. It is located next to what used to be a car and truck factory up to the 1960s, so I suspect it was intended for the workers. Nowadays, it sports advertising for an oil company.
I have always liked this bunker, because it looks like a rocketship. Whereas the enormous concrete cubes scattered throughout the city are just ugly, even if they commission artists to paint the walls.
Most municipal authorities are not exactly happy about huge slabs of concrete occupying real estate that could be used for better purposes. But those bunkers were built to withstand bomb hits and often did, so they are very difficult to demolish.
Gravity is the only reason anything falls!! Cranes fall over primarily due to two major factors. The most important being improper set up the second being operator error which is due largely to a lack of quality training and a push in the industry to have these machines do more than they were designed to do. Ultimately these machines when properly maintained, inspected and operated in a safe manner by people who have been sufficiently trained will perform exactly as designed over and over again without mishap. It is not the equipement that is so fallible but the people who run them.
Irony (n).: The excavator arm sticking out of the hole in the ground like some kind of post-apocalyptic monument. Also, the bulldozer picture is funny in a Hitchhiker's kind of way.
i think most modern cranes are equipped with GPS reporting systems, that communicate back to the manufacturer where and when they were overloaded. so they can avoid the operator saying 'it was a light load....honest'!
of course they fall because of lousy opperators. cranes are great machines and makes things much easier. anyway, about gravity - curtains in the last picture hangs like in normal windows, not like it should, if it was'nt fake :)
First off great blog, it's one of the sites I visit daily!
But the pictures in this post of the hanger being filled with foam, are actuallly of the fire suppression system. It is designed to fill the hanger with fire retarding foam in the event of a fire.
I believe the first twelve pictures are fire-suppression foam tests / accidents. Then there's a shot of a pressure-rinsing system, a de-icing rig, and a flight crew scraping snow / ice off their aircraft.
Aircraft doused in fire-suppression foam aren't squeaky-clean. The stuff dries to a nasty film and can damage finishes, wiring, exposed bare metal, etc.
I've seen the photos of the fire-retardant foam incident before, but they're great photos and loved seeing them again. From memory the base is a USAF base in California and most of their aircraft were parked outside ready for training exercises. The day happened to be a fairly windy one as well. Also, the foam used is extremely corrosive. Naturally, most of the planes were touched by the foam, so all aircraft need at least a wash, and the ones closer to the hangar needed deeper maintenance.
I believe that the foam pictures are the result of fire-supressing foam. As seen in the pictures it suffocates the source before it can do any significant damage. I'm not sure how well it works as an aircraft cleaner, though I'm sure it takes quite a while to clean up.
Fun photographs, but from personal account (I am former USAF member), this is fire foam. "Bird baths" are more like a hose-rigged gantry that the jets drive through for their post-flight washes.
The very first photo happened like this: The hangar was equipped with a device for mixing soap concentrate and water for mopping the floor. The manager shouted to the man doing the work, "Don, turn off the machine." Don hears, "Don't turn off the machine." Thus, you get what we have here. It was a case study in the human factors course I got in the Air Force. There is also a picture of the hangar before it happened.
As for the string of photos from the hangar full of foam: That was a test, the intent was to operate the system momentarily to check its operation. Obviously, no-one planned that the system would refuse to shut off, hence the people on the maintenance stands climbing to save their hides. There is a video somewhere of it all happening.
The foam pictures are actually from an Air Force base just east of Rapid City, SD. You guys are right in that they were running a test 'fire' on the newly automated system when the system wouldn't shutdown. There are also pictures of one of the cameraman's truck parked outside that had his windows down, and after they opened the hangar doors to let the foam pour out it filled and covered the truck. I have the full set of pics on an external harddrive somewhere.
Haha! When did the incident happen at Ellsworth? I'd lived there 14yrs and hadn't heard of it. Love the B-1 very much. :D
I collect nose art of the b-1b lancer, trying to find images of all the various work. So when I saw the b-1b in the first image, I tried to determine which one it was. :P
Great article, but just for clarity's sake it should be stated that the ship in the last two pictures is clearly a hydrofoil, which is nothing at all like the ground effect aircraft the majority of the post describes.
The ekranoplan program and other commercial WiG (Wing in Ground-effect) projects were effectively scuttled by the discovery that rogue waves were not only real but much more common than had been believed, rendering cargo or passenger WiG vehicles at risk of destruction due to their inability to climb out of ground effect, where either a ship or a true aircraft would be able to survive/avoid the wave.
The photo of the Orlyonok carrying "2 tanks" is looks like a BTR-60, an Armored Personal Carrier (APC, a battlefield taxi). The important distinction being that an APC is smaller and weighs about a quarter what a tank of that era weighed (10 tons vs 40). Important when considering the Orlyonok's carrying capacity.
Pet peeve of mine when people call every rolling metal box a "tank".
This has been your Internet Pedant comment for the day.
I am still baffled by the lack of interest in these sort of craft...
The ability to increase shipping efficiency by unheard of numbers through the use of some large scale WIG would have a very profitable effect. Also, Russia achieved these feats during the Cold War, and mostly through their great insight into aeronautics. Despite what many may want to believe, Russian aircraft have generally always surpassed their western counterparts, only finding themselves beaten in ability when financial situations become involved (that being something the U.S. never had a problem with).
As for the crashes of ekranoplans that may cause many to hesitate their development, the poor avionics (something that Russia, during the Cold War, severely lacked) can be a good reason of crash. A western avionics system, I would imagine, could greatly improve the safety and performance of ekranoplans.
In the end of it all, it just leaves me confused as to why ekranoplans suffer this fate, I suppose this money people would gain just isn't enough to break down those West-East cultural boundaries. The Cold War is over people, please, get over it for the sake of much of scientific progress...
I'd never heard of these! They are so cool! I wish someone would start a line of plastic models (like the cars and airplanes I put together as a kid) of all of these - I'd certainly get into them (age 59, female, yes - geek). What an opportunity to provide some history and background with the model building instructions...
They are so adorable. I should know. I breed hedgehogs. So baby hedgehogs are a common sight in my house. YOu can visit my hedgehog website at hedgehogs4u.com. I am located in NC and I do not ship, so if you are interested please do not ask me to ship my hedgies. Thankyou!!!
I've never seen them when small before!! they like ugly no-fur dogs ^^
well, I'm from the north of Spain and i've hosted some hedgehogs at my garden, most of them as big as a hand or more. They never stayed with us mora than a few weeks but returned many times, no meaning about our german Shepard dog (they ate his food!!)
Once we found a really small one, not so bigger than the displayed on the article but with developed spikes. He probably was left by his mom. We tried to feed him but he died in 2 weeks.
The are wild animals; can´t hold in a place and have to live on their own, doing what they want, going where they feel like to.
Nice article! Wonderful site! I follow you daily.
PS: nice trick to touch them: rub them from head to back, they will relax spikes. And remember, no snails or slugs at home with a hedgehog around!
Hey Avi, what part of Canada are you from? I, myself, am from Vancouver. As far as blogs are concerned, I think I have some material on my blog that might be of interest to you every so often (I think you know that already, though). And it is exciting that you're getting 50,000 pageviews a day. I believe, of course, that if you simply provide good content, people will know where to get the goods.
We're from Calgary, and visit Vancouver quite often. Please write to the email provided, we'll stay in touch. I'd like to provide a place where people can submit and enjoy simply the best content in the universe ;) (... not counting digg and reddit, of course)
The Iranian women's air force rocks my socks off. As far as the "Women Keep Your Virtue" video is concerned, I'm posting that tonight. That's bloody awesome.
"QUANTUM SHOT" #48
|
Most recent DRB-SF site update
20 Comments:
Strange, architecture reminds me somewhat of the anthroposophical buildings like the Goetheanum...
As always interesting finds
Among your pictures is a tower in Vienna I live quite near by. I've always liked it for its gloomy, threatening look, and in summer it always gave nice shade to the people hanging out in the park it's in. Unfortunately, time has worn it down, and last year it threatened to collapse. While there had been plans by a company to turn it into a data-center, I don't think it'll last that long. Right now they are just trying to stop it from collapsing.
Check out this one. One huge ugly block. http://www.technik-kultur.de/wiki/index.php?title=Bunker_-_zweckentfremdet
It held 18.000 people and is still maintained as an emergency shelter.
It is across the street from where I live. It is now called the Mediabunker and is used by Photostudios, a music shop and bands for practice rooms. It also has a club at the top.
Someone should have put these towers up hitler's ass.
Very interesting. I am surprised someone hasn't turned one into a house of some kind.
Dude great blog that architect Leo Winkel should of designed the World trade Center. I hope you can visit my website ONLINE SHOPPING MALL
best regards John
As a child i was always interested by the german bunkers in the channel islands such as these
http://www.festungguernsey.supanet.com/Fortification.htm
cheers for the post
NTS
http://notstraight.wordpress.com/
We have couple of those towers in Sarajevo too, I know about them since I was a child but newer know the purpose of those old buildings. Looks exactly the same as those on pictures.
Hello,
I recall seeing these in the railyards near Kaiserslautern too. I also remember seeing one in Vienna - I'm not sure if it is the one you posted, but it had building built around it. It was almost like they were mushrooms that had grown up around a tree or something
Hehe, the one they turned into a bus stop (with the Loto-Sign in front of it) is actually located in my hometown of Stuttgart in Germany (Stuttgart-Feuerbach). My father always told me how he had to hide there and in other shelters when the bomb alarm went off during the last months of war...
A tower that is used for antiaircrfat guns and searchlights would not seem to be a safe refuge in an air raid...
They look like rocket ships skyward pointed, poised to lift off. But they are the opposite; heavy, not light, built to stay, not go.
I like the analogy...
I often went passed the one in Feuerbach, but I never could figure what it was. I'll have to go and look again... Thanks!
Wow those things are interesting. That is definitely a fun bit of useless knowledge.
Useless knowledge? I find them to be a facinating and somewhat hidden aspect of the war. We all know about Londoners hiding in the tubes during the Blitz, but no one seems to remember how badly Germany was bombed. This goes to show Germany's way of protecting it's people.
i wonder if there was any specifical order in the position asignated to people. i mean, upper floors seems much more dangerous than base. and taking in account that if u come first, the latest people entering the tower would push you up, its a potetial crisis. what u think? anybody knows about behavior in shelters in WWII?
A tower of this type (locally known as "Spitzbunker") survives to this day in Bremen. It is located next to what used to be a car and truck factory up to the 1960s, so I suspect it was intended for the workers. Nowadays, it sports advertising for an oil company.
I have always liked this bunker, because it looks like a rocketship. Whereas the enormous concrete cubes scattered throughout the city are just ugly, even if they commission artists to paint the walls.
Most municipal authorities are not exactly happy about huge slabs of concrete occupying real estate that could be used for better purposes. But those bunkers were built to withstand bomb hits and often did, so they are very difficult to demolish.
Excellent! Could we also see the existing Fascist architecture that was built in Italy by the Fascists?
Did Franco build any in Spain?
Post a Comment
<< Home