Berlin plans luxury apartments on site of Nazi New Reich Chancellery bunker, sparking preservation outcry
A developer intends to build office and residential towers on a vacant Berlin lot that contains the last surviving bunker of the New Reich Chancellery, drawing criticism from heritage groups.
A Hamburg investor aims to erect a six-storey office tower and a seven-storey residential complex with 66 apartments on a central Berlin site that hides the Great Bunker of the New Reich Chancellery, the last pre-war Nazi government bunker still accessible. The lot on Vossstrasse, next to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, has been vacant since the Cold-War death-strip era. Heritage advocates, led by Reiner Janick of Berliner Unterwelten, urge the city to list the bunker as a protected monument and suggest moving the housing or building atop the bunker’s roof, citing its robust construction.
The Regional Council for Cultural Heritage recommended preservation, but the Berlin Senate, with Senator Christian Gaebler, prioritises luxury housing, referencing an urban plan approved by the regional parliament in 2006. Officials require the landowner to document the bunker before demolition. The dispute underscores Berlin’s tension between remembering its Nazi past and meeting modern real-estate demands.
Why it matters
The clash decides whether Berlin preserves a rare Nazi-era bunker or yields to lucrative housing development.
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