Per Pedes through Potsdam's "Russian Quarters"

T-Berg - the former US/British Intelligence Site
 

A GUIDED TOUR: "Alexandrowka" and the postwar KGB "Forbidden City"

The tour took us through the picturesque "Alexandrowka" area, dating from the 1820's:
To its Orthodox Church and its surroundings;
the area known as the "Forbidden City";
the former KGB prison.

We met our English speaking guide at the "Kapellenberg" where we viewed two Russian houses that are still owned by famalies of Russian origin.

A brief historical background of "Alexandrowka":

On October 14, 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Prussian troops at the battlefields of Jena and Auerstedt. The King of Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm III (1770-1840) was granted asylum by the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I (1777-1825). However, the "Treaty of Tilsit" - 9th July 1807 - forced the Prussian King to support Napoleon by sending 22,000 troops against Russia. As a result, the Prussian General Yorck captured 500 Russians in Kurland.

The Prussian king was ashamed of his hostile act against the Tsar and gave order to treat the prisoners well. Since he enjoyed Russian Folk Songs during his asylum in Russia, he tested the Russian POWs to discover the best singers among them. 62 were chosen to become members of a new Prussian Army Choir.

After Napoleon was defeated at the "Battle of Borodino" (28th June, 1812), the King of Prussia and the Tsar became allies once again. The Russian singers were no longer prisoners. They hoped to return to "Mother Russia". As a reward for their bravery during the campaigns 1813 to 1815, they received Prussian war memorial coins and medals - currently displayed in the Orthodox Church.

Frederick Wilhelm asked the Tsar if he could keep the Russian singers. As a result, these 62 Russian "objects" were given as a gift of friendship to Prussia. It is reported that several of them died due to "homesickness". Only 19 survived.

In 1825 Tsar Alexander I died. The new Tsar was Nikolaus I, brother to Alexander, was also the Prussian King's son-in-law. On 10 April, 1826, Frederick Wilhelm III established the Russian Colony "Alexandrowka" as a memorial.

Peter Joseph Lenné designed the Russian Colony's ground plan like an Andrew's Cross. 12 Russian singers who were married received a house. Of these 12, ten men had Potsdam wives.

When a singer died, the family could keep the house only if there was a male heir. Now only two families with Russian origin remain in "Alexandrowka". The other houses are rented to Brandenburg people.

After leaving "Alexandrowka" we entered the former "Forbidden City"
... Given back to Germany in 1994 ...

From 1945 to 1952 hundreds of German inmates - the majority of them juveniles - had to suffer in the dungeons while waiting for the execution of their death penalty or a painful long-term forced labour detention in Workuta. Few of them ever returned from the labour camp. Some of the prisoners were suspected of being former Nazis, some committed crimes "against the Soviet Occupation Forces", some were even caught by accident because the "planned output target" of imprisoned "Hitler Youth Resistance Fighters" ("Wehrwolfes") had to be fulfilled...

BHA counted itself fortunate in being able to visit the former former US/British Intelligence site on the top of "Teufelsberg", a "mountain" that is the highest point in Berlin and is made entirely of World War II rubble.

The tour covered the history of the site, from its origins as a Nazi defense research institute through the build-up of the rubble mountain and included discussions of the strategic-level intelligence facility built on the top.
On the top of Berlin.
"Teufelsberg" was perhaps the single most important Western Allied intelligence site in the world during the "Cold War".
The T-Berg skyline.
(c) Hartmut Gruhl & Partner / Köln