In Hamburg, a Nazi-Era Bunker Becomes a Leafy Oasis

When it comes to Brutalist landmarks, few surpass the Hamburg Bunker in sheer brutality. The concrete behemoth has a particularly challenging history: Built at the orders of Adolf Hitler following Berlin’s air raids in the early 1940s, it was once equipped with powerful anti-aircraft cannons, and nearly 25,000 people sought shelter within during a World War II bombing.

In the ensuing decades, parts of the flak tower were converted into shops and artist studios as the nearby St. Pauli neighborhood gentrified into a party palace. And thanks to entrepreneur Thomas Matzen and a $67 million boost from the HafenCity project that helped create the city’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall by Herzog & de Meuron and curvy Marco Polo Tower by Behnisch Architekten, the monstrous structure has been transformed into a full-on “hipster hub.” Its new incarnation features restaurants, sports facilities, a concert hall, nightclub, boxing gym, and a five-story Hard Rock hotel, all tied together with a leafy path snaking the stoic exterior. A minty-hued pyramidal extension with foliage-filled roofs tops the whole thing off.

Of course, anything that touches Germany’s Nazi era usually proves controversial; the Hamburg Bunker was no exception. Critics voiced concern that the renovation, particularly the added greenery, may dilute the architecture’s historical weight. To that end, little of its fraught past is acknowledged inside beyond information boards, but there are plans to create a nearby memorial to victims of the Nazi regime and slave laborers who built the site in just 300 days. For now, locals are enjoying the forested pathways and savoring views from the city’s highest outdoor garden, which stares upon the like-minded Elbphilharmonie across the harbor.

As long as heritage isn’t destroyed, “there are good reasons to put [bunkers and other military structures] to new use,” Andreas Putz, a professor of building conservation at the Technical University of Munich, tells Bloomberg. “In Hamburg, there’s public interest in maintaining the project and taking care of it. And you can’t always assume that for each of these constructions.”