5 of Berlin’s darkest chapters show that the capital is not only known for freedom, tolerance and peace, but also for its darker side. Violence and crime are still part of the cityscape today. And these places are primarily reminiscent of the terrible, violent events of Germany’s past – from Nazi crimes to the Cold War and the repressive GDR regime. However, cases of particularly gruesome crimes for which individual perpetrators are responsible have also made history. In the following, we present 5 of Berlin’s darkest chapters: from lost places and memorials that document historical state crimes to real individual crimes that have also gone down in history.
1st Teufelsberg: popular lost place with dark secrets
Teufelsberg, now an impressive open-air art gallery, was once a symbol of war – and not just the Cold War. It is now common knowledge that the 120-metre-high elevation in Grunewald forest was used as a listening station by the US occupying forces during the Cold War. The artificial mountain was created from the ruins of the Second World War and lies on the shell of the Nazi military engineering faculty. In 1937, Adolf Hitler ordered the establishment of a military technology university there. The faculty was to conduct research for armaments and war and at the same time create a central location for his planned world capital Germania. The building project was discontinued in 1940. In 1946, the shell of the building was finally used as the foundation for the war defense dump, on which the US Army’s listening station was built at the end of the 1960s.
2 Hohenschönhausen: Stasi prison, one of the darkest chapters of the GDR
The Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen is also one of the 5 darkest chapters. You can feel the oppressive atmosphere of its past as soon as you enter the site. In the GDR, the prison served as a central instrument of state security to monitor and suppress the population. Today, the much-visited memorial site provides insights into the fates of politically persecuted people, opposition activists and escape helpers. The prisoners were subjected to various forms of violence: brutal interrogation methods as well as physical and psychological torture were part of everyday life. Anyone who resisted the GDR regime always had to reckon with imprisonment by the Stasi.
3 Beelitz sanatoriums: lost places of history and legends
The Beelitz-Heilstätten are among the most famous and eerie lost places around Berlin. Dilapidated buildings, long dark corridors, old medical equipment and rampant nature give the place a spooky atmosphere. The complex was built at the end of the 19th century as a tuberculosis sanatorium. During the First World War, the building served as a military hospital – among the patients was Adolf Hitler, who was still unknown at the time. After 1945, the Soviet occupying forces took over the sanatoriums and ran them as a military hospital until the early 1990s. There are also countless legends and true events surrounding the sanatoriums. One crime from 1991 is particularly notorious: the “Beast of Beelitz” murdered the wife of a Soviet doctor and her child in a nearby forest. It was the serial killer Wolfgang Schmidt, who wrote one of the darkest chapters in the history of the town with this crime.
4. the murderer of women in Friedrichshain
Another of Berlin’s 5 darkest chapters took place in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district. This one is about Carl Großmann, one of Germany’s most notorious serial killers in the post-war period of the First World War. Between 1918 and 1921, he killed at least 23 women in the area. Bodies were repeatedly found in the Engelbecken and Luisenstädt Canal that could be traced back to him. The former butcher’s assistant lay in wait for poor women and prostitutes around Schlesischer Bahnhof. Under the pretext of offering them work or a hot meal, he lured them into his small apartment. There he raped and killed them and then dismembered the bodies. On August 21, 1921, Großmann was finally caught in the act after a neighbor alerted the police to loud screams.
5. the most dangerous serial killer of recent times
Thomas Rung is considered one of the most dangerous serial killers and is emblematic of one of Berlin’s five darkest chapters. Between 1983 and 1995 , the man from Spandau killed 7 people – 6 women and his own stepbrother – in gruesome and different ways. While many serial killers follow fixed patterns, Rung varied his methods considerably. He was finally arrested in 1995 and sentenced to two life sentences followed by preventive detention. His offenses included not only murder, but also manslaughter, rape, robbery and other acts of violence. Today, Rung is in Tegel Prison, where he even almost killed a fellow inmate. His crimes and his life behind bars have been documented several times – always linked to the question of what drives people to commit such cruel acts.
You will soon be able to explore this universally moving question in the unique exhibition about the world’s most notorious serial killers. If you are interested in the topic of “true crime” and want to learn about even more disturbing cases, visit the Serial Killer Exhibition, starting September 6 in Neukölln. This immersive experience will give you an unprecedented insight into the psyche of the perpetrators, their motives and methods. Over 150 original artifacts, re-enacted crime scene scenes, storytelling and more provide moments that get under your skin and make you think.