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WWII bomb discovery causes massive evacuation in Berlin
Published: 26 May 11 14:50 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110526-35281.html
Berlin’s Kreuzberg district on Thursday faced a massive evacuation effort that let to the removal of thousands and the disruption of transport after construction workers found a 250-kilogramme bomb from World War II.
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It was discovered in the river, next to the Oberbaum Bridge, and would be dragged onto dry ground to be defused, he added.
Underground and commuter train services have been disrupted in the area. Delays and cancellations were expected to last at least until the evening.
World War II-era bombs are found frequently in Germany.
In April 2009, Chancellor Angela Merkel had to leave her apartment in the city centre due to the discovery of an unexploded Soviet bomb.
Authorities believe there are still some 3,000 bombs buried beneath the capital alone.
The Local/AFP/DPA/mdm
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Your comments about this article:
There are many World War II bombs left in the city spread all over the east and the west.
Maybe this one hast´n been found, because at that location the Spree River was part of Berlin Border and the "death strip", with district Friedrichshain (SU-sector) on the eastern side and Kreuzberg (US-sector) on the western.
In WW2, ten or maybe hundretthousands of bombs in many variations came down on Berlin, millions all over Germany. Nearly half of the Buildings where "bombed out" (see wiki-pic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_in_a_Berlin_street.jpg - these house are often hollowly on the inside : http://www.potsdamer-platz.org/index-Dateien/columbushaus/ruine/awag.jpg ) and also destroyed by russian arty and tanks with 500.000 dead soldiers and 170.000 dead civilians inside city borders in May ´45.
With the problem of millions of soldiers being prisoners of war, the Trümmerfrauen ('rubble ladies') had to do the job of clearing up debris,they took on the major share of reconstruction, often inappropiately and fancily dressed with tatters and rags. ( https://www.in-die-zukunft-gedacht.de/icoaster/files/tr_mmerfrauen_bpk_30014766.jpg )
There where no professionals with experience in reconstructing or bomb finding.
Thats why there are so many Bombs left.
have a nice day.
greetings from Berlin
Read a story about the problem in general at
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,584091,00.html
As to the somewhat rhetorical question of why haven't they found them all by now, the answer is simple. As @mark observed, bombs that don't explode tend to burrow, and given the soft, sandy nature of the soil in most of Berlin, that means they can be relatively deep. A lot of buildings were re-constructed after the war using the existing (or remaining) foundations and cellars, so excavation wasn't always necessary. It was easy to simply push rubble into the holes and then move on.
In fact, if you go back to the immediate post-war, a lot of streets were cleared by simply taking that rubble and heaving it to the side. So...stuff got buried. Today, I'll bet there's lots of stuff "hidden" in the subsoil of Berlin, and finding bombs around Germany will go on for a long time. Fortunately the country has done a good job of training construction workers and it's rare to hear of injuries.
wa
I've seen something like that. I'll have to look and see if I can find it again.
I suspect, although I've got no hard data to back it up, that there are more found in the former East Berlin, partly because there wasn't as much tear-it-down-completely-and-start-from-scratch rebuilding there. Kreuzberg would probably qualify on that basis, although I don't have enough personal knowledge to really judge.
I do know there is a government database that tracks these, and I've seen pages of it at the Landesarchiv, I'm not sure if any of that is available on-line or live.
wa
Thats the way it had to be sadly.
Just imagine when all of today's deadly playthings resurface years from now!