The Humbolthain Flak Tower (der Flakturm)

[Special Note: When my whole family went to Berlin in August, 2022, 14 years after the rest of this write-up, we got to go on an amazing tour of the huge bomb shelter underneath this very falk tower. It was huge beyond belief -- quite an experience. I took pictures, but it was too dark for them to be any good.]

This flak tower is in the Volkspark Humboldthain, in the Mitte district of Berlin, and in what was formerly the Gesundbrunnen district.

Originally, Berlin was protected by three flak towers (die Flaktürme): in Tiergarten, Friedrichshain, and Humbolthain. The Humbolthain flak tower was paritially destroyed in late 1945 by the French using dynamite, but it was close to a major railroad line, which needed to be protected, and the French gave up the difficult task of bringing down such a massive structure. The other two towers were destroyed completely.

I was taking a trip on the S-bahn around the entire ring (recently completed). As the train neared the Gesundbrunnen station, I saw the two towers high on a hill to the south. (As you can see in the first picture, although my initial view was not as close as this.) The next day I make a trip to see them. The Humboldthain park turns out to be beautiful, with huge trees and a beautiful formal garden, which was formerly the Himmelfahrtskirche (Ascension Church), destroyed during the war. It also has a swimming pool. There is a significant hill, which was used for the flak tower.

Of the four original towers, only the two to the north remain. The towers were made into a site-seeing location, with sturdy fences to prevent anyone from falling or jumping.

The very last picture shows a sign in the park. Part of the sign says Grillen verboten, which means in German, "No barbecuing" or use of a "grill" is "forbidden". It's clear in this sign, since there is a picture of a barbecue grill with a red circle and red strike through it.

When I first saw one of these signs, it didn't have the picture with it, but just the words. My German vocabulary is sort of old-fashioned, and missing some current and common words. But long ago I learned the word: die Grille, which means "cricket" in German, the only word for this little noisy black bug. Grillen just means the plural, "crickets". So on my first encounter with the sign, I thought it must mean "No crickets" or "Crickets forbidden". Of course this doesn't make sense, so I thought it meant perhaps, "Don't make noise like a cricket", or "Don't make love like a cricket".

A German friend living in the U.S. told me a similar story:

During my first year here, my parents visited for Christmas. They stayed in a friend's apartment which was close to my place, and conveniently my friends (Liz & Craig) were out of town and needed a cat sitter. Now, Craig had stayed in Germany/Austria for a year or two and knows German pretty well. So, he figured he could write instructions for my parents (on what to do and look out for in the apartment) in German. Most of it made sense. With the exception of him stating that they have a "Entenproblem". He went on about how they have "Enten" running around in the apartment and that one should spray them with Windex which would kill them. My dad was reading this and had absolutely no idea what this was about. At about the same time, ironically, my mom discovered a lot of ants in the kitchen. But then, doesn't "Ente" sound similar to "Ant"? Indeed -- they had an ant problem in the kitchen....