Berlin Opens Hitler's 'Future City' Tunnels

Network provides glimpse of megalomaniac's plans for world capital
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 27, 2008 9:19 AM CDT
Berlin Opens Hitler's 'Future City' Tunnels
A model of the "Great Hall" stands among other buildings conceived by the Nazis for central Berlin.   (Getty Images (by Event) Individuals)

Berlin has opened three vast tunnels under the city built as part of Adolf Hitler's vision of a grandiose Nazi capital, Reuters reports. The tunnels were to house a transit system beneath planned boulevards, squares, and huge buildings, including a Great Hall with room for 180,000 people. The Albert Speer-designed plans for the new capital—known as "Germania"—were halted by the outbreak of World War II.

"The acoustics are incredible," said a local historian as he took journalists on a tour of the tunnels. The 50-foot-deep tunnels have been opened as interest grows in the history buried beneath Berlin. Some of the city's 1,000 WWII bunkers remain intact, with Nazi propaganda posters still on the walls.
(More Albert Speer stories.)

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