Hamburg’s wartime bunker is reinvented as an unlikely green oasis

An iconic air raid shelter in the St Pauli district has been given a new lease of life with the addition of a hotel and rooftop urban parkChasing every turn and every new angle, I pull my suitcase up the steps impatiently as views of the city unfurl around me. On one side rise mottled grey walls. I move closer to them as the wind picks up and suddenly feel aware of their magnitude. “You didn’t need to walk,” a member of staff says when he spots my luggage. “There’s a lift for hotel guests.” I hadn’t seen it, but I also couldn’t wait to explore the new 560-metre walkway that wraps around the exterior of this former second world war bunker in Hamburg’s St Pauli district.The concrete colossus has stood here for eight decades, a stark visual reminder of the darkest chapter in Germany’s history. Constructed on the orders of Adolf Hitler, after the air raids on Berlin in 1940, it was one of several flak tower complexes designed to defend cities against aerial attacks and provide above-ground shelter. They were built – using forced labour – in Berlin, Vienna and Hamburg, but this was one of the biggest. At times, there were 25,000 people inside. Continue reading...