Thousands forced out in Berlin; 1,100 lb. bomb found
Likely dropped by British during Second World War
BERLIN — German police officers and firefighters went door to door Friday in a 1.5-kilometre area of downtown Berlin, telling workers and residents that they had to get out.
A 1,100-pound Second World War-era bomb was found last Saturday, and it was time to remove it.
The 70-year-old bomb, which Berlin police said had mostly likely been dropped by a British bomber during the war, was found during construction in the centre of the German capital, just north of the main train station, government buildings and major tourist sites.
As many as 12,000 people were told to leave, and two schools nearby were opened to the public to provide shelter for people while bomb experts worked to defuse it.
“It’s part of life,” said Norbert Benke, 61, who works in the affected area. “It’s still the impact of the Second World War.”
The area evacuated had a radius of one kilometre, with the bomb’s location at its centre. A government ministry building, the Museum of Natural History, an army hospital, the federal intelligence services, a canal and the central train station, among other important sites, are all located in the area.
Many offices in the area were closed for the day on what turned out to be a sunny Friday.
The evacuation of Berlin’s central train station — one of Europe’s largest — began in the morning, and by noon, all trains had been diverted from the station. Roughly 300,000 passengers use the station daily. Holger Auferkamp, a spokesperson for the national rail service, estimated that ten of thousands of trips were affected by the disposal operation.
The city estimated that there are still roughly 3,000 bombs in Berlin. Since 1947, 1.8 million explosive devices have been found and disposed of in the city, according to the police department, which runs its own bomb-disposal unit.
Some of the devices were aerial bombs, like the one that caused problems Friday; others were explosives used during the final battle of Berlin or unused munitions left by soldiers.
During the war, the area where the bomb was found was the site of a nowclosed major train station known as Lehrter Bahnhof, an inland port and warehouses. It would have been close to the Reichstag and other ministries involved in the war effort, said Peter Schwirkmann, head of the Berlin City Museum’s historical department.
“For a bomber, this would have been a strategically important place,” he said.
Unexploded bombs are so prevalent that the city offers a free service to landowners who are seeking to build: A team of researchers will examine old aerial photos and data to determine whether a property may have once been bombed.
In Berlin, police technicians started the disposal operation at 12:45 p.m. — the time and day were chosen to cause the least inconvenience to Berliners.