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A high-tech industrial site
now lost to dense forest.

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Without that production,
Hitler's war machine

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00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:10,960
would simply grind to a halt.

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A giant chimney stack that became
a towering inferno over Baltimore.

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It's really, really sturdy, almost
over-built walls, because they

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were afraid of a collapse from
wind or some other natural disaster.

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An abandoned tower consumed
by a bizarre force of nature.

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It's a very strange picture,
because what was there before

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is no longer there now.

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And a mysterious installation
that waged a cold war in Berlin.

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It was so brazen, it must have
been a giant middle finger to the ussr.

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Once they were some of

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the most advanced structures
and facilities on the planet,

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at the cutting edge of
design and construction.

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Today, they stand abandoned,
contaminated and sometimes deadly.

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But who built them, and how
and why were they abandoned?

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00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,880
♪ ♪

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On the baltic coast of Poland,
near the village of police,

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is a 450 acre fenced
off area of forest.

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Smashed concrete structures
litter this overgrown site.

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Skeletal buildings riddled

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with collapsing walls, underground
shelters and a network of tunnels.

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Hidden under the trees in
northern Poland is this labyrinth of

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concrete structures.

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It's quite clearly something
that was industrial.

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That kind of thing does not

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happen overnight, and not without a
vast investment of time and money.

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A group of mangled structures

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are clustered together
at the heart of the forest,

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flanked by the pulverized
remains of tower blocks

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and a strange brick coloured
tower that soars over the trees.

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When you look closely, there
are clues to tell you exactly

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what happened there.

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On the side of one building is
marked in German 'coal bunker 4'

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and then not far away, there's
the remains of what was, quite

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obviously, large storage tanks
and right there, those two elements

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are the core of the story that
tells you what happened there.

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What was the
purpose of this site?

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What events took place here
and why was it abandoned?

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00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:23,760
In the 1930s, the town of
police was part of Nazi Germany,

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and would play a major role
in Adolf Hitler's plans for war.

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Germany had already been
rearming in secret for years,

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when Hitler openly announced
his policy of rearmament in 1935.

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Hitler, however,
faced a critical obstacle

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to building up
his military forces.

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Very few people know that Germany
really lacked the natural resources

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required to fight a major war.

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Apart from coal and water, at
the time, pretty much everything

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else was imported, and that

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critical lack played a huge role
in Hitler's preparations for war.

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One crippling energy shortage

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outweighed all others,
and that was fuel.

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Without it, not a single
aircraft could fly, ship sail

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or tank roll across
the battlefield.

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The Germans suffered from
real constraints in all of their

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operations from fuel.

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Through world war
ii, the prime mover,

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the main transport was the
m1a1 horse, pulling a wagon.

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Germany had almost no
fuel, and was therefore heavily

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reliant on imports.

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In the drive to
become self-sufficient,

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they set out to
create their own.

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The modern equivalent
of almost 1 billion pounds

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was spent on this site -
the politz synthetic oil plant.

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In 1937, construction started
on the huge industrial complex.

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This was no ordinary refinery,

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but rather a state-of-the-art
facility that used a revolutionary

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new process called hydrogenation
to turn Germany's coal into oil.

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The Germans

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used methods to make fuel
out of coal that were developed in

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the early 20th century
on to the mid 20th century.

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They produce beautiful
fuels, but they produce fuel

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that is very, very pure but
mindbogglingly expensive.

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The synthetic fuel

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is created by liquifying
powdered coal.

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In a reactor, a mixture
of heavy oil, hydrogen

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gas and a catalyst is heated
to almost 400 degrees celsius,

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and subjected to the incredible
pressure of 10,000 pounds

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per square inch.

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This dangerous process made politz
a lethal environment for its thousands

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of slave labourers.

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The economics of
it really don't add up.

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It's said that it takes 6 tonnes
of coal to produce 1 tonne of

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synthetic oil and that's before
you consider the amount of coal

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it takes to ship
everything around.

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And whilst, for Hitler, that may
have served a purpose of Nazi

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Germany, in any other
economy that just won't fly.

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After four years of construction,
politz finally began fuel production

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in 1941.

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At the heart of the
plant was the coal mill.

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Packed around it were numerous
storage tanks, distillation plants,

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pressure chambers and
hundreds of miles of piping,

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needed to carry the vital fuel to
waiting trains and tankers offshore.

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Politz had gone into production
just in time to help fuel the 3,000 tanks

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00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:21,200
and 2,500 aircraft that took
part in operation barbarossa,

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Hitler's colossal attack
on the Soviet union.

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By 1943, the plant was producing

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00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:35,280
a staggering 7,000 tonnes
- 15% of all Germany's fuel.

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The synthetic fuel plants
kept Germany in the war.

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That was Germany's only reliable

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00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:50,120
source of fuel and so they were
quite dependent on those plants.

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00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:54,720
Without that production coming
out from politz, Hitler's war machine

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would simply grind to a halt.

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00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:03,960
Whilst pivotal to Hitler's war
machine, it came at a terrible cost.

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00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:08,920
30,000 slave labourers were
brought in from across occupied Europe

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and the Soviet union to operate the
complex and dangerous machinery.

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Nearly half of these prisoners died
from the brutal treatment and toxic

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working conditions at the plant.

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13,000 slave labourers
gave their lives at politz alone,

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and that's something that
should never be forgotten.

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As allied forces gradually
gained the upper hand, synthetic

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fuel from plants like politz became
ever more vital for Hitler's armies.

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The Germans are really dependent
upon these synthetic fuel plants,

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and when those plants are attacked,
then there will be a huge drop off

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in the capability, for example
there is no fuel to train pilots.

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They're producing air planes but

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there's no fuel and it will
become progressively worse.

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The critical weakness of
synthetic oil was now exposed.

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It relied on coal to make it, but
coal was desperately needed by

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other industries - power stations
and even the trains and ships that

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were taking the oil
away from politz itself.

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There simply wasn't
enough fuel to go around.

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The German war effort

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has got to expend a lot more
resource on burning 1l of high

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test aviation gas than the British
or the Americans or the Russians.

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The Germans are fighting a much
more expensive war, because they

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haven't got key resources.

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By late 1944, politz was within
reach of allied bomber fleets

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operating from
britain and Italy.

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And in January, 1945, they unleashed
a devastating 14-minute air raid.

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More than 1,600 bombs
pulverised the plant.

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This hammer blow mortally
wounded the German war machine.

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Once the campaign gets going,

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you see a dramatic drop
in German oil reserves,

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and in the supplies available for
the German army, and this impacts

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the German operational
effectiveness quite severely.

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By February 1945, the
red army was closing in.

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The chemists and engineers
running operations fled west for safety,

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and after the war, the Soviet union
looted the remaining equipment,

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leaving the ruins
of politz abandoned.

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Today, the remains of this once
high-tech refinery are accessible

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and can be explored with care.

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They are a forgotten monument
to oil production, the achilles' heel

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of Hitler's third reich.

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The allies pulled out

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all the stops to try and bring
production to an end, and if you

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visit politz today, there's
evidence of that everywhere.

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Huge craters in the ground,
roofs, all these building destroyed,

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some buildings
completely turned over.

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The devastation there was
phenomenal, because it was

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so important for the allies.

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That was their means of
bringing Nazi Germany to an end.

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Politz reminds us of the horror
of death, it reminds us of mass

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enslavement under cover of war,
and it reminds us of the Nazi idea

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that cruelty and enslavement

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could create fuel
where there was none.

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Over 4,000 miles away in the
heart of Baltimore, Maryland,

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looms an incredible yet
largely unknown structure.

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Hemmed in by office blocks,
this tower is from a bygone era

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00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:29,200
and is, to many of the
city's inhabitants, an enigma.

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So, if I was just randomly driving
through the middle of Baltimore

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and I saw this massive
brick structure in front of me,

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I think I'd be pretty confused to
be honest, because I would think,

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"is it a chimney for a factory,
is it part of a power plant,

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is it even for storage?"

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It was the tallest structure
in the United States.

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Not only was it made of brick,
but it was made of so many bricks.

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00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:57,480
The tower reaches
a height of 215 feet.

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Pierced only by a few

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deep set windows, it soars high
above the surrounding streets.

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00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:06,280
At the base of the
tower is an iron door

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that leads through the 4.5 feet
thick wall, and into a hollow shaft.

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Jackson gilman-forlini is an
historic properties coordinator

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00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,680
and works for the preservation
of the city's historic buildings.

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It is quite a climb.

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I mean going 215 feet, you
know, it's over 13, 14 stories high.

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00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:36,200
It really is an engineering
masterpiece and this really

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was untrodden ground.

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Wooden beams rise up out of
sight, supporting bizarre zig-zag

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00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:49,720
shaped iron brackets.

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00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:55,520
Around the walls, a creaking
staircase leads to the summit.

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00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:01,120
The smooth
surface of the tower's

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00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:03,760
interior is testament to
the skilled workmanship

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00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:08,040
in laying the kiln
fired Clay bricks.

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00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:12,960
The intricate wooden framework
lining it reveals the complex

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00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,200
engineering that went
into its construction.

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00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:22,280
But what was the purpose of
this mighty building and why

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00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:23,800
was it abandoned?

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00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:32,320
Decades after the
war of independence,

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00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:37,080
the American military was
again in conflict with Great Britain.

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00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:41,080
During the war of 1812, when
the British set fire to the white

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00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:45,640
house, the American military were
still reliant on imported ammunition

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00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:47,920
from France, Holland and Spain.

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00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:54,080
Unable to manufacture the
huge quantities of ammunition

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00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:58,800
they needed, it was a crucial
weakness in their defences.

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00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:02,376
The United States, at this
time this was built, was still

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00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,960
a relatively young country,
that was trying to come onto

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00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,880
its own on the world stage,
and therefore, it needed a way of

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00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,760
producing military armaments
quickly and inexpensively.

200
00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:26,240
In 1828, Charles carroll III, a
surviving signatory of the us

201
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:30,080
declaration of independence,
laid the foundation stone for this,

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00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:33,240
the Phoenix shot tower.

203
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:39,680
This vertical factory
made lead musket balls

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00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:42,880
and round bullets called shot.

205
00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,400
It was designed to
produce 100,000 bags

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00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:50,800
of shot every year, each
bag weighing 25 pounds.

207
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,640
To construct this impressive
building, it required the production

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00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:57,880
of well over a million bricks.

209
00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:00,800
This presented a
potential problem.

210
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:05,440
The limitation of the structure

211
00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,840
was probably due to the
compressive strength of the brick at

212
00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:11,096
the bottom, right, you can only
make it so high before the weight

213
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,240
of the structure above just
crushes the bricks at the bottom.

214
00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:22,000
Despite this, the extraordinary
new building began to take shape.

215
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,760
Yard after yard, it
reached farther into the sky.

216
00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:31,520
The need for such
height lay in the science.

217
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,760
The time when the shot
tower was constructed,

218
00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,520
guns would shoot spherical,
basically, lead projectiles

219
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:42,520
out of 'em, and the most
efficient way to do that is to

220
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:46,760
pour molten lead from a height,
which, as it falls, the molten

221
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,520
lead coalesces into a sphere,
almost like a perfect sphere.

222
00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:58,760
The process was invented by
William watts of Bristol in 1782,

223
00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:02,120
the same year he built
the first ever shot tower.

224
00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,560
The technique relied on an
ingenious use of physics to

225
00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,560
achieve the
perfectly round bullet.

226
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:13,080
Tonnes of lead were
hauled to the top of the tower

227
00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:17,920
and heated to nearly 330 degrees
celsius to create molten lead.

228
00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:21,600
This was then poured
through a copper sieve.

229
00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:25,560
The combination of surface
tension and friction with the air

230
00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:29,600
turned the folding drops of
molten lead into perfect spheres

231
00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:33,760
before they hit a cooling pool of
water at the bottom of the tower.

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00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:35,800
You're basically using gravity,

233
00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:40,080
you're using physics, to create a
sphere, so it makes perfect sense.

234
00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:42,800
But clearly what you need
for that is a lot of height,

235
00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,800
and how do you get height? It's
by building a massive brick tower.

236
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:54,400
Building a 215 foot tower
presented major challenges.

237
00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,440
They didn't really know
entirely what they were

238
00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:02,480
getting themselves into.

239
00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:07,320
Incredibly, no scaffolding was
used to build this, it was built

240
00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:11,960
entirely one level at a
time, slowly building bricks

241
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:13,680
as they went up.

242
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:18,600
It's really, really sturdy, almost
over-built walls, because they were

243
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,680
afraid of a collapse from wind
or some other natural disaster,

244
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,240
and so, this tower
is really strong

245
00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:28,840
as a rock, because of those super
thick, load bearing masonry walls.

246
00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:32,520
But with no scaffolding,

247
00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,760
the tower's sheer height
made working conditions

248
00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:37,680
extremely dangerous.

249
00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,680
This led to the introduction of
one of its most distinctive features.

250
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:44,040
That cast iron

251
00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,960
metal track, it looks
kind of strange and a lot

252
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,840
of people ask what it is but
it's actually a early braking

253
00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:54,600
system for a kind of
elevator. They didn't just put

254
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:57,040
any old elevator in, they
thought about, "well, what

255
00:18:57,080 --> 00:18:59,280
happens if a rope
actually snaps?"

256
00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:04,440
There was a terrible accident
in which workers fell to

257
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,360
the bottom, but
thankfully survived.

258
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:10,000
After that, they installed
this track so that the box for

259
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:13,840
the pulley system had spokes,
which would fit into the track.

260
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,360
So if there was a breakage,
it would very slowly kind of

261
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:21,920
shift its way down to the bottom
of the tower and hopefully no-one

262
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:23,680
would get hurt.

263
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:29,400
Just a year after the first
brick was laid, the Phoenix

264
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:34,600
tower went into
production in 1829.

265
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:38,760
Probably one of the most effective
ways that the United States had of

266
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:42,240
making shot, it was a huge
production facility that created

267
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:44,760
hundreds of thousands
of bags of shot.

268
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:55,200
For over 30 years, the Phoenix
shot tower successfully produced

269
00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:57,520
spherical bullets for muskets.

270
00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:01,840
Then, on the Eve of the American
civil war, more advanced rifle

271
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,240
ammunition was developed.

272
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:07,720
New, conical-shaped
bullets that spun on exit,

273
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,520
offered greater
range and accuracy.

274
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:14,000
This contributed to the
staggering casualty rates seen

275
00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:18,200
on the battlefields of
america in the 1860s.

276
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:20,200
The shot tower no
longer had a role

277
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,320
to play in america's
military production.

278
00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:25,080
So, the tower
created bullets for

279
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,720
the nation's civilian
game hunters instead.

280
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:34,160
Yet production was brought to a
dramatic halt in September 1878,

281
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,400
when the wooden
interior caught fire.

282
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,560
The flames were shooting
out so much that the fire itself

283
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:42,200
could be seen from miles away.

284
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:45,000
The fire burnt out all of the
internal structure of the shot

285
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:48,640
tower, but the bricks itself
remained intact, due to their

286
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,480
inherent resistance to fire.

287
00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:56,200
Well, brick is actually a really
good insulator. What that means

288
00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:00,520
is it doesn't get very hot or very
cold very easily, and because of

289
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,440
the thickness of the brick it
actually contained the fire.

290
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:08,120
The heat just couldn't penetrate
through this massive wall of Clay,

291
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,200
and, also, remember that this
Clay has actually been fired to much

292
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:14,560
higher temperatures already than
the fire would have been producing.

293
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,320
The tower Rose from
the flames like a Phoenix.

294
00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:24,960
Just a month after the fire,
it reopened for business.

295
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,440
Towards the late 1800s,
more efficient methods

296
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,400
for making round lead bullets
resulted in the tower's demise.

297
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,640
Hauling tonnes of led up a high

298
00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:44,200
tower was increasingly seen
as too hazardous and inefficient.

299
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:50,960
The Phoenix tower closed
its iron doors for good in 1892.

300
00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:02,800
Today, the Phoenix shot tower
stands as a monument to a bygone era.

301
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,040
It helped de-shackle
the American military

302
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,440
from its reliance on
foreign-made ammunition.

303
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,440
Yet, without a concerted effort,
this abandoned vertical factory

304
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:16,760
would have vanished
without trace.

305
00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:23,520
The tower had been purchased
by a gas and oil company,

306
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:25,720
which did propose
tearing the tower down.

307
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:29,480
However, the citizenry of Baltimore
loved it so much and cherished it

308
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,920
as a landmark, that they
rallied together and raised

309
00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,840
the money to purchase the
tower and then donated it to the city

310
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:37,720
government for safe keeping.

311
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,880
Now open as a museum,
the Phoenix shot tower

312
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,160
is more than just a symbol
of outdated technology.

313
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,480
Not only did this incredible
brick factory help to revolutionise

314
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:55,320
the production of ammunition,
it was also a vital stepping stone

315
00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:59,000
towards the nation's
world-leading military industries.

316
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,040
Across the Atlantic
ocean, in western Berlin,

317
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,040
a battered shell of a building
looks over a tree-covered hill.

318
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:25,600
This hill is called the
teufelsberg, or devil's mountain.

319
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:28,600
The name adds a sinister touch

320
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:30,640
to the strange structure
rising out of the trees.

321
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:38,560
At first sight all you're thinking
is, "I don't know what this is,

322
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,240
but it's an eye-sore."

323
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,640
It looks almost like an
ancient prussian castle,

324
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:49,840
then suddenly it turns into
a bizarre modern facility,

325
00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:54,800
strangely perched on a peak,

326
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,080
overlooking the
modern city of Berlin.

327
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,640
Towering 260 feet above

328
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:08,800
the surrounding plateau is a central
tower topped by a mysterious dome.

329
00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:16,040
Two more tattered domes

330
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:21,440
flank the tower, and nearby,
another one rises from the summit.

331
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,920
Ragged plastic sheeting
exposes their ruined interior.

332
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:35,400
Surrounding them is a sprawling
complex of derelict facilities.

333
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:47,760
This thing is really a hangout
for rebels, conspiracy theorists,

334
00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,960
counterculture intellectuals,
and most definitely graffiti

335
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,720
artists, and there's a sort
of an angry presence to it.

336
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:00,880
Mystery surrounds
this strange ruin.

337
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:06,480
What was its original purpose
and why was it abandoned?

338
00:25:12,120 --> 00:25:17,280
In the 1960s, Berlin was at
the centre of cold war espionage.

339
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:22,600
The city was divided into four
sectors, three run by the allies -

340
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,040
america, britain and France.

341
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,680
While the eastern side
was under Soviet control.

342
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,240
Democratic west Berlin was
surrounded and enveloped by

343
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,680
communist east Germany,

344
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:40,400
making west Berlin easy prey for
the Soviet union's network of spies.

345
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:47,800
The American embassy in Moscow
is riddled with listening equipment.

346
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:54,360
The American fleet at sea
is constantly being tailed

347
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:58,880
by Soviet fishing trawlers
bristling with listening equipment.

348
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,880
Everybody is
shadowing everybody.

349
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:09,000
Though encircled, america's
national security agency, the NSA,

350
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,040
took advantage of their close
proximity to communist Berlin.

351
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,600
They built a cutting-edge
listening station

352
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,440
called field station Berlin,

353
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,840
known to its operators
simply as 'the hill'.

354
00:26:27,360 --> 00:26:32,360
We had listening posts with
large antennas all around

355
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,320
the periphery of the Soviet union,
collecting electronic intelligence,

356
00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:42,760
and it was especially well placed,
because it's 150 miles inside

357
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:47,160
the enemy lines in this
enclave of west Berlin.

358
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:54,120
Teufelsberg was a place where we
in the west could listen in and get a

359
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:58,280
look inside the operations
of the Soviet armed forces.

360
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:08,680
In 1963, a year after the Cuban
missile crisis brought the world

361
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:12,320
to the brink of nuclear war,

362
00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:15,920
engineers began constructing
the new monitoring station

363
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,160
on the summit of
devil's mountain.

364
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,760
The foundations of the new complex
were dug deep into the ground,

365
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,520
but not into standard bedrock.

366
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:32,280
Devil's mountain is actually
13 million cubic yards of rubble -

367
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,320
a mound created with the
war time ruins of Nazi Berlin.

368
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:41,560
Beneath this devil's hill is
something really interesting,

369
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:47,200
a Nazi technical college, designed
and constructed by Albert speer,

370
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,280
and it was designed so well
they couldn't knock it down,

371
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,360
so they just buried it.

372
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,600
As soon as the hill went into
operation, the Soviet union were

373
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:02,960
desperate to shut it down,
in large part because its

374
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,160
surveillance technology
was proving highly effective.

375
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:12,280
In each of the distinctive
domes was an antenna, a rotating

376
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,880
parabolic radio antenna that
intercepted Soviet communications.

377
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,000
Monitoring this radio chatter
gave the NSA valuable insight

378
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,840
into military manoeuvres
behind the iron curtain.

379
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:35,040
However, to maintain the shape
of the plastic sheeting over the main

380
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:39,760
dome, the whole structure had to
be kept under pressure with potentially

381
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:42,760
life threatening consequences.

382
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:48,520
It's interesting that the iconic
ray domes are still there today.

383
00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:53,840
Now, these were thin plastic
put over frames in a highly

384
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,320
pressurised room, and
we're told, interestingly, that

385
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,960
the men who worked there had to
go through a decompression chamber

386
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:07,200
upon leaving, or otherwise risk
getting decompression sickness.

387
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,880
The Soviets continuously attempted
to block or interfere with us army

388
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:14,200
radio communications.

389
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:18,040
This was a practice
known as jamming.

390
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:24,600
Now, jamming was a standard
procedure of the Soviet union,

391
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,880
but in this case, there's
not a lot you can do

392
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,680
with an enclave
that's deep inside

393
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,880
your system, without jamming
your own radio transmissions.

394
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,560
This structure,
high up on the hill,

395
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:43,120
it was so brazen, it must've been
a giant middle finger to the ussr.

396
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,880
Year after year, the hill listening
station gathered intelligence on

397
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:57,080
the strength and capabilities of
Soviet and east German forces,

398
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:04,480
and nuclear missile launch
units were given top priority.

399
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,120
You can learn a lot
from military operations

400
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,640
from just listening, even if
you haven't broken their codes.

401
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:17,520
We understood that

402
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:21,560
when we were on the radio,
the other guys were listening,

403
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,400
and they understood
that as well.

404
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:29,560
Both sides continuously
eavesdropped

405
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,560
on their opponent's
radio communications.

406
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,960
But for more than 30 years,
the hill's location in Berlin, right

407
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:42,200
at the heart of communist Germany,
gave the west a crucial advantage.

408
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:49,880
You're surrounded by a large
number of Soviet east German divisions,

409
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,920
which are holding manoeuvres,
which are pushing the radio traffic,

410
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:59,800
and it's a great place to listen
to all of their patter, their tactical

411
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,400
operational transmissions.

412
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:04,880
The Soviets failed
in their quest.

413
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:07,960
They never managed to put
an end to the NSA's surveillance.

414
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,200
However, with the
collapse of the Soviet union

415
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:17,040
and the Warsaw pact in 1989,
the cold war came to an end.

416
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:21,440
The hill became redundant,

417
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,040
and as soon as it was
decommissioned, it was stripped

418
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,720
of its secret
monitoring equipment.

419
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:29,800
All that remained
was an empty shell.

420
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:37,760
Today, the teufelsberg listening
station is a ruin, overlooking

421
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:43,360
the united city of Berlin, yet it's
rebellious status remains intact.

422
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,120
Who wants to remember
that paranoia, that imminent

423
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:49,000
destruction?

424
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,520
So, now it's a graffiti gallery
and maybe that's appropriate,

425
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:55,760
you know, maybe
that's even healing.

426
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:01,440
Even today, details of its

427
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:05,360
surveillance work are classified,
but the knowledge and experience

428
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:10,400
gained on this mountain of Nazi
rubble gave the us and its allies

429
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:12,960
a lead in signals intelligence
that has never been lost.

430
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:18,680
We're looking at people's
bandwidths and transmissions

431
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:20,200
all the time, and
it's still a very,

432
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,880
very big part of intelligence,
in fact, it's probably a bigger

433
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,160
part of intelligence
today than it was before.

434
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,520
The site has now has been
completely stripped of all its equipment,

435
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,120
so there's no clue about
what it actually found,

436
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:39,840
and, to this day it remains
highly classified, in fact, top secret.

437
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:55,400
430 miles away, on the northern
tip of Denmark, a solitary ruin

438
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,760
stands in total isolation.

439
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,040
The derelict tower

440
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:10,120
overlooks the sea from its
position on top of a huge sand dune.

441
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:14,120
When you think of shifting sand
dunes, you possibly conjure up

442
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:18,720
images of the Sahara
and vast desert landscapes.

443
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,280
You certainly don't
automatically think of Denmark.

444
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:29,240
Perched precariously on this
desolate landscape, it overlooks

445
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:33,960
the skagerrak, the narrow strait
of water that separates Denmark,

446
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:35,480
Norway and Sweden.

447
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:42,160
When you see this tower
emerging out of the sand,

448
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,440
I mean it's eerie,
it's mysterious.

449
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,480
It's a very strange initial
picture, and that's primarily

450
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,280
because what was there
before is no longer there now.

451
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,720
The 75 foot masonry tower is
topped by a glass-fronted turret.

452
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:01,720
Scattered around its
base are the remains

453
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,040
of buildings
submerged in the sand.

454
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,840
The whole structure is
precariously balanced

455
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:14,720
on the lip of a sheer sand cliff,
200 feet above the crashing waves.

456
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:19,120
What really stands
out, as it rises up

457
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:23,520
into the sky and looms over
the cliffs, is when it was built,

458
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:27,880
the tower was strong enough to
withstand even the strongest Gale.

459
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:30,240
So why was this one abandoned?

460
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:39,000
In both world wars, this stretch
of water, the skagerrak strait,

461
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,560
was the German Navy's main
gateway to the open ocean.

462
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:48,400
This tower witnessed prowling
British submarines lying in wait,

463
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:50,560
and the 'Bismarck'
sailing to its doom.

464
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,840
But centuries earlier, the
Danish government had realised

465
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,920
its critical
importance to trade.

466
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:02,040
To become a global power,
they need to help ships navigate

467
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,120
one of the most dangerous stretches
of water in the northern hemisphere.

468
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:15,000
Jacob kofoed is a guide
and curator at this unique site.

469
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,600
It were very dangerous
to sail at this sea.

470
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:22,760
There was a lot of storm from
the west and boats often come into

471
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:28,520
trouble, so they want to
make some lighthouses

472
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:31,560
along the coastline.

473
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:36,720
With a budget equivalent to nearly
750,000 pounds in today's money,

474
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,440
the Danish lights
and buoys service

475
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:42,040
commissioned a
revolutionary lighthouse.

476
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,560
They called it the
rubjerg knude fyr.

477
00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:52,560
In march 1899,

478
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:57,680
construction began on a complex
of buildings on a 200 foot high cliff.

479
00:35:57,720 --> 00:36:02,280
For safety, it was set 200
yards back from the shoreline.

480
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,480
From its clifftop position,
the light should be visible

481
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:09,200
across miles of sea
and save countless lives.

482
00:36:12,720 --> 00:36:15,560
Now, ships still frequently sail
through these waters, and in stormy

483
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:19,840
and foggy conditions, even with
the advent of modern technology,

484
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:21,880
lighthouses are still needed

485
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,560
for captains to know
where the land starts.

486
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,840
After nearly two
years of construction,

487
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,880
in late 1900,

488
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:48,440
the light at the top of the white
tower was finally switched on.

489
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,960
It was powered
by a 550 watt bulb

490
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:56,880
and had state-of-the-art
French-made fresnel lenses to

491
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,960
amplify the beam.

492
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,080
With numerous
glass rings stacked at

493
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:09,120
different angles, the fresnel lens
focused light towards its centre.

494
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:15,400
On clear days, this allowed it
to be seen from 25 miles away.

495
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:19,840
However, sand picked up by
strong winds along the coast

496
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:24,160
constantly clogged its machinery
and scarred the fresnel glass.

497
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:30,440
And engineers hadn't foreseen
an even bigger problem.

498
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:36,320
When it was built, rubjerg knude
was 200 yards inland and 200 ft

499
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,400
above sea level,
and miles away to

500
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,400
the south was a sand dune,
but not just any sand dune.

501
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:48,480
The rubjerg mile is the largest
moving sand dune in Northern Europe.

502
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:55,240
For 300 years, 5 million
cubic yards of sand crept

503
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:59,440
along Denmark's northern coast
at a dramatic rate of 60 feet a year.

504
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,320
It's really hard to imagine
that a country like Denmark

505
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:12,120
could have a slow-moving sand
Tsunami creeping up the coast.

506
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,880
The sand dunes themselves
always have a sort of back slope,

507
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:24,400
a windward slope, and then a
slip face where the sand gets

508
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:28,400
blown up, it bounces up and
falls down the slip face, and slowly,

509
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,880
through time, it migrates
across the land's surface.

510
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,120
We can't stop the wind,
so we're not gonna be able

511
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,680
to stop the sand dunes that are
migrating because of the wind.

512
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,280
The fact is, this sand dune
had been moving for centuries,

513
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,920
but where the lighthouse was built,
there was never any reason to think

514
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,160
that the sand would
ever be any kind of threat.

515
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:53,520
For over 20 years, the tower's
light and foghorn penetrated

516
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:59,160
darkness and mist to keep vessels
clear of the dangerous shallows.

517
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,800
By the 1920s, however,
the rubjerg mile dune

518
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,600
had arrived on its doorstep,
to the horror of engineers.

519
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:16,680
They tried to just do a kind of
king canute and stop the sand in

520
00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:20,480
its tracks. They put barriers in
the way to stop the sand migrating.

521
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:24,200
On doing so, there was a big
traffic jam of sand building up

522
00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:25,800
and the dune got
bigger and bigger.

523
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:28,560
So, actually, then you've
created a bigger problem,

524
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:30,600
'cause you've
created a bigger dune.

525
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,400
In an unlikely twist, the
200 foot cliff that made

526
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:40,480
the lighthouse so visible, now
acted as a ramp and carried

527
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:45,840
the slow moving Tsunami of sand
up and over the lighthouse complex.

528
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:54,080
The sand had made its
way all the way up that cliff,

529
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:59,200
and had swallowed up the
buildings around rubjard knude.

530
00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:02,560
The sand was laying
around the lighthouse

531
00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:07,200
and the big dunes were built
up there, and higher and higher.

532
00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:10,440
Though the sands have
now shifted position,

533
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:15,920
in 1953, the dune actually grew
higher than the lighthouse itself.

534
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:18,920
Trapped in a hollow in the
sand, the light and fog signal

535
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:21,560
were no longer
clear to ships at sea.

536
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,800
The only way they figured they
could save the lighthouse was by

537
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:30,960
continuously digging away
the sand around the base,

538
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,720
but even then they must have
known this was a battle against nature

539
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:36,680
they were never going to win.

540
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:43,760
In 1968, authorities
finally gave up the battle

541
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:46,960
against the flood of sand, and
the light was decommissioned.

542
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:51,600
Yet the tower itself and its
surviving buildings became a museum

543
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:55,160
and study centre for
sand dune movement.

544
00:40:55,200 --> 00:41:00,320
Ironically, though the peak of the
massive dune had long moved on,

545
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:05,720
the museum itself was slowly
crushed by the sand and closed in 2002,

546
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:08,160
when the whole site
was finally abandoned.

547
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:21,040
Today, the lighthouse at
rubjard knude is an empty shell.

548
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:23,320
Every year thousands of visitors

549
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:28,280
climb the mountain of sand
to explore its haunting remains.

550
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,240
The onshore winds that
suffocated the light with sand

551
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:36,360
have also scoured away
the cliff on which it stands.

552
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:41,240
The coastline is coming
too close and closer,

553
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,760
so in a few years, maybe two,

554
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:47,040
three, four, five, six years,
there's no lighthouse any longer.

555
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,560
The rolling dunes may
have snuffed out the light,

556
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,040
but in the very near future,
erosion will cause the mighty

557
00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,680
tower to collapse
into the waves.

558
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:04,680
The engineers who built

559
00:42:04,720 --> 00:42:08,000
the lighthouse believed its
location and solid construction

560
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:12,280
could withstand anything
the elements could throw at it.

561
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:17,000
But they didn't anticipate

562
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:21,120
the extraordinary power of the
wind to transform the landscape itself.

563
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,600
There's always a need to take into
account your natural surroundings,

564
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:33,560
but mother nature has a way
of continuously reminding you

565
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:35,640
who's really in charge.

566
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:53,160
Now abandoned,

567
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:56,480
they were once on the
cutting-edge of human engineering.

568
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,880
Within these decaying structures
are the echoes of history,

569
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,160
they speak of war and terror,

570
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:08,080
but also of exploration
and human endeavour.

571
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,200
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