Hitler’s flak towers were fortresses of Nazi military might

Now they’re just ghosts

The G-Tower at Augarten, Vienna, in 2009. (Urs Schweitzer/Getty Images)

Though its ideology has shown signs of resurgence lately, the physical vestiges of German Naziism are all but faded from sight. Prominent exceptions can be found, however, in a curious spattering of brutal spires still looming over neighborhoods in Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna. These concrete monoliths were so well made that demolishing them has proven more trouble than its worth. As a result, most remain empty and unused—silent reminders of a time when militant pragmatism took precedence over architectural legacy.

The flak towers were constructed during World War II as staging sites for the Luftwaffe’s anti-aircraft artillery. To this end they were effective in protecting cities from allied bombers. Meanwhile their impenetrable concrete innards doubled as air raid shelters for thousands of German civilians.

Berliner Zoo combat flak tower in use in April, 1942. (Wikimedia)

Each flak tower complex involved two separate towers: a large Gefechtsturm or “combat” G-tower for gun mounts, and a smaller Leitturm or “leadership” L-tower for fire control and command. Together, the two outposts could communicate efficiently during combat and coordinate with other defense complexes in the area. Like besieged medieval castles, the flak towers also proved effective in consolidating some of the last Nazi garrisons resisting the Red Army as it took Berlin in 1945. Eventually, the holdouts ran short of supplies and surrendered.

When Hitler ordered the construction of the initial Berlin flak towers in 1940, he expedited the process by adjusting national rail schedules around the delivery of building materials. The towers were erected in just six months. After the war most of the smaller L-towers were demolished or buried. Seventy years later, the remaining flak towers are slowly being converted for other uses. A tower in Esterhazy Park in Vienna, for example, houses a public aquarium and a climbing wall. Hamburg’s Heiligengeistfeld G-tower is now a complex of nightclubs and businesses, while plans are afoot to crown it with an elaborately tiered public garden.

Hamburg’s Wilhelmsburg G-Tower in 1943. (Wikimedia)

Vienna’s Augarten G-Tower, in disrepair but still standing in 2006. (Wikimedia)

Demolition blast of a Berlin flak tower on February 28, 1948. (ullsteinbild via Getty Images)

Vienna’s Augarten L-Tower in present day (left) and with radar dish after completion in 1944. (Corbis via Getty Images)

Gun mounts on the Berlin Tiergarten combat tower in 1945. (Wikimedia)

Remains of the G-Tower at Humboldthain, Berlin. (Wikimedia)

(left) Combat tower seen from above. | (center) Berlin Zoo G-Tower rampart during WWII. | (right) Aerial view of a Hamburg flak tower after surrendering to the British in May, 1945. (Wikimedia)

Hamburg’s Heiligengeistfeld flak tower in 2006. (Wikimedia)

Vienna’s leadership tower now houses the Haus des Meeres aquarium (left). | The same tower was abandoned following the war in 1945. (Corbis via Getty Images)