 Long considered an ugly Nazi relic, a half-destroyed concrete fortress in Berlin now has become an addition to the German capital's tourist map.
Since April regularguided tourshave taken curious visitors into the vast World War II structure to see theturretinteriors and the effect of two failed attempts to blow it up after the war. It is a part of a growing trend in Germany to show a broader view of the war and include German suffering after years of sole attention to the evils of the Nazis. Tours pass thick walls that resisted bombs and Russianartillery, bare halls and staircases where civilians sheltered and deep shafts which carried anti-aircraft shells from the basement to the rooftop guns seven floors above. Visitors can also marvel at technology well advanced for its time. The gun steering, for example, was fully automated. A radar tower 300 yards away tracked enemy aircraft and fed signals along cables still visible clinging to the walls. The fortress is one of six that Adolf Hitler ordered to be built in the German capital to defend it from air attack. His command in September 1940 came just days after Berlin came under a three-hourbarragefrom Allied planes. Hitler himself sketched the form the defenses should take with 120-foot-high turrets and guns at each corner. Financial constraints eventually limited the number to three fortresses, completed by April 1942, although two further structures were built in Hamburg and Vienna. Eachcomplexcould hold around 15,000 civilians and their 8 foot-6-inch walls were deemedimpenetrable. The post-war Allied occupiers in Berlin decided to destroy most military structures. The British and Russians managed to bring down two of the complexes after several failed attempts. However, the French were unable to destroy the fortress in their northern Berlin sector, leaving two towers and 1.6 million cubic yards of debris. The latter was partlylandscaped, but the remaining structure has been largely untouched for 50 years. The Berlin Underworlds Association already runs tours of nearby wartime and Cold War shelters, but preparing the half-demolished air defense fortress for visitors was a task of a different order. It took thousands of hours of volunteer labor to ready the building for show. The bunkers may not be so well visited as the glass dome on the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building, but interest is growing. Last year 25,000 visited the site compared to 8,000 in 2001.
(agencies) | 柏林市內(nèi)有一座已經(jīng)損毀過半的混凝土堡壘，長期以來它一直被視作令人討厭的納粹遺跡，而如今它卻成為德國首都旅游地圖上新增的景點。 從四月份開始，導(dǎo)游團經(jīng)常將好奇的游客帶往這個巨大的二戰(zhàn)建筑物，參觀炮樓的內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)和戰(zhàn)后兩次想要炸毀它卻沒有成功的嘗試給炮樓帶來的影響。 在德國，人們漸漸開始用更寬容的眼光來看待那場戰(zhàn)爭，其中包括那些多年來專門關(guān)注納粹罪行而痛苦不堪的德國人。 參觀納粹堡壘時，會經(jīng)過用來抵擋炸彈和俄國大炮的厚墻，曾經(jīng)是市民們藏身之地的空蕩蕩的大廳和樓梯，還有很深的坑道，那是用來將防空炮彈從地下室搬到七層上的屋頂，供上面的槍炮使用。
游客們會很驚訝的看到那個年代相當(dāng)先進(jìn)的技術(shù)，比如全自動的射擊操縱裝置。300碼開外的一座雷達(dá)監(jiān)視塔能夠追蹤敵機，并能通過至今可見的固定在墻上的電纜反饋信號。 這是阿道夫·希特勒為了保護(hù)德國首都免遭空襲而下令修建的六座堡壘之一。1940年9月，柏林遭到盟軍長達(dá)3小時的空襲。幾天之后，希特勒發(fā)出了這條命令。 希特勒親自草擬了防御設(shè)施的結(jié)構(gòu)圖，圖中炮樓有120英尺高，而且每個角落都安有槍炮。 財政緊張最終使堡壘的數(shù)量縮減為3個，并于1942年4月完工，盡管此后在漢堡和維也納又修建了兩座同樣的建筑。 每座堡壘大約能容納15000名平民，8英尺6英寸厚的墻壁被認(rèn)為是難以穿透的。 戰(zhàn)后柏林的盟軍占領(lǐng)者們決定摧毀絕大多數(shù)軍事設(shè)施。在多次嘗試失敗后，英國人和俄國人終于推倒了其中兩座堡壘。 然而，在北柏林，法國人卻沒法摧毀這座堡壘，留下了兩座炮樓和160萬立方碼的殘骸。后者有部分被人為的修飾過，但殘存的建筑已經(jīng)有五十年沒有改變過了。 柏林的“大地聯(lián)盟”（Underworlds Association）已經(jīng)開發(fā)了新的旅游項目，景點就是附近那些戰(zhàn)時和冷戰(zhàn)期間留下的防御設(shè)施，但是想要把已經(jīng)毀損過半的防空堡壘呈現(xiàn)在游客面前是一項非同尋常的任務(wù)。這座建筑在準(zhǔn)備迎接游客之前，需要數(shù)千小時的義務(wù)勞動。 這座堡壘可能不會像德國國會大廈頂上的玻璃圓屋頂那樣吸引眾多游客，但人們對它的興趣正在上升。與2001年的8000名游客相比，去年有25000人參觀了這個遺址。
guided tours: 有向?qū)У挠斡[
turret: 塔樓，炮塔
artillery: 炮的總稱，炮兵
barrage: 攔河壩，阻塞，彈幕射擊
complex: 綜合性建筑
impenetrable: 難以滲透的
landscape: 加工，美化 （中國日報網(wǎng)站譯）
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Updated: 2004-07-16 01:00
