Teufelsberg

Teufelsberg is an artificial hill in the Grunewald district of western Berlin, Germany, best known for the abandoned Cold War listening station that dominates its summit. The hill rises 120.1 metres above sea level and was created after the Second World War by depositing approximately 25 million cubic metres of rubble over the unfinished Wehrtechnische Fakultät, a military-technical college begun as part of the Nazi plans for the reconstruction of Berlin as Germania. From 1961, American and British intelligence units began using the elevated site to intercept communications from East Germany and other Warsaw Pact countries. A permanent complex known as Field Station Berlin followed during the 1960s, distinguished by its towers and large white radomes covering surveillance antennas. The military listening operation ended after the Cold War, with American and British forces leaving in 1991, although parts of the installation continued to be used for civilian air-traffic surveillance until 1999. The abandoned concrete buildings, towers and radomes subsequently became heavily covered in graffiti and developed into a street-art and cultural site open to the public. Its combination of Cold War architecture, ruined interiors and panoramic views over Berlin has also made Teufelsberg a distinctive filming location.

Teufelsberg has appeared in Aufwind (1979), The Gamblers (2007), We Are the Night (2010), Allein gegen die Zeit (2010–2012), Covert Affairs (2010–2014), Manifesto (2015), Berlin Station (2016–2019), You Are Wanted (2017–2018), The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (2018), The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018), Cleo (2019) and The Flight Attendant (2020–2022). Productions have used both the hill itself and the abandoned Field Station Berlin, which has represented everything from an isolated gambling environment and fictional military installation to a hacker hideout. Other productions, particularly spy stories, have used Teufelsberg as itself and incorporated its genuine Cold War history directly into their plots.

In Aufwind (1979), Teufelsberg is used for the hang-gliding scenes central to the story. The film follows a hang-glider pilot whose life changes when he crashes and is left paralysed. The open slopes of Teufelsberg were used for the flying material, taking advantage of the elevation and unobstructed terrain around the artificial hill. The location predates the later widespread use of the abandoned listening station by filmmakers, with the film primarily making use of Teufelsberg as a recreational landscape rather than focusing on the American intelligence complex at its summit.

In The Gamblers (2007), originally released as Die Spieler, Teufelsberg is effectively the principal location of the entire film. Sebastian Bieniek’s low-budget adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Gambler relocates the characters and conflicts of the novel into the abandoned buildings and grounds of Teufelsberg. Alexei, Polina, the General, Des Grieux, Blanche and the other characters move through the deteriorating former listening station as relationships become increasingly controlled by money, gambling, debt and obsession. Rather than disguising the location with elaborate sets, the production uses the empty rooms, concrete structures and exposed architecture of the abandoned complex to create the isolated world inhabited by the characters. The film was made almost entirely at Teufelsberg, making it one of the productions most extensively associated with the site.

In We Are the Night (2010), originally released as Wir sind die Nacht, Teufelsberg becomes the hideout of the female vampires Louise, Charlotte and Lena after the police raid their hotel and Nora is killed by sunlight. The surviving women retreat to the abandoned Field Station Berlin while preparing to leave Germany. The isolation of the former listening station allows them to remain hidden from the police and protected from daylight inside its ruined structures. Charlotte, increasingly tired of her immortal existence, later chooses to expose herself to the rising sun and dies there. Teufelsberg returns for the film’s climax after Louise kidnaps police officer Tom Serner and forces Lena to follow her back to the station. Louise demands that Lena tell her that she loves her and, recognising the answer as a lie, shoots Tom. Lena attacks Louise and the two vampires fight through the upper levels of one of the former listening towers. Lena eventually throws Louise into the direct light of the rising sun, killing her. Much of the finale was filmed at the real Teufelsberg, although sections requiring the vampires to perform physically impossible movements were recreated on sets at Studio Babelsberg.

In the second season of Allein gegen die Zeit (2010–2012), Teufelsberg represents the exterior of the restricted military complex at the fictional Sichelsee. The season begins with Ben, Leo, Jonas, Sophie and Özzi travelling to a holiday camp, only to become involved in a conspiracy surrounding a secret installation and a biological weapon. After Ben disappears, the others discover that he has been taken into the military compound, where criminals are developing dangerous spores intended for use in an attack. Large parts of the exterior material around the installation were filmed at Teufelsberg, and the distinctive towers of the former listening station were incorporated directly into the fictional facility. The underground tunnels and bunker areas seen once the characters enter the complex were not beneath Teufelsberg, however, but were filmed in the cellars of the former Bötzow Brewery elsewhere in Berlin.

In the Covert Affairs episode “Uberlin” (2011), Teufelsberg appears as itself during Annie Walker’s CIA assignment in Berlin. Annie becomes involved with Elsa von Hagen, a former East German intelligence asset with a complicated personal history involving CIA director Arthur Campbell. During the operation, Annie meets Arthur at the top of the abandoned listening station. The episode explicitly identifies the location as a former NSA listening post, allowing the real history of Teufelsberg to become part of the fictional espionage story. Rather than disguising the ruined station as another facility, the production uses the genuine Cold War surveillance site as an appropriate meeting place for intelligence officers discussing a case rooted in the divided history of Berlin.

In Manifesto (2015), Teufelsberg is used for the Situationist section of Julian Rosefeldt’s thirteen-part film installation, later re-edited into a feature film. Cate Blanchett portrays thirteen different characters who recite and combine manifestos from twentieth-century artistic movements. At Teufelsberg she appears as a homeless man living among the ruins of the former listening station. The character moves around the abandoned complex and climbs onto the roof, where he uses a megaphone while delivering texts associated with Situationism and other radical artistic movements. The deteriorating Cold War architecture, graffiti and enormous antenna structures form the environment around the performance and contrast with the political and artistic declarations being recited.

In Berlin Station (2016–2019), Teufelsberg is used prominently in the first-season episode “Thomas Shaw”. CIA officer Daniel Miller has been sent to Berlin to identify the anonymous whistleblower Thomas Shaw, who has been leaking classified CIA material to the press. He eventually discovers that veteran agent Hector DeJean is behind the name. The investigation leads Daniel and Hector to Teufelsberg after Julian De Vos takes Daniel’s cousin Patricia there and uses her to force a meeting. Daniel and Hector drive to the former listening station and climb through its graffiti-covered buildings and towers while the conflict surrounding Hector’s activities as Thomas Shaw comes to a head. The choice of location deliberately connects the modern CIA scandal with an abandoned site once used for American intelligence gathering during the Cold War. Teufelsberg also remains visible during the immediate aftermath as Daniel and Patricia leave the complex.

In You Are Wanted (2017–2018), Teufelsberg appears during the first season as a refuge for Lukas Franke. Lukas is an ordinary Berlin hotel manager whose digital identity is systematically manipulated by hackers, causing the authorities to believe that he is connected to terrorism and cyberattacks. Forced to flee while trying to discover who has targeted him, Lukas seeks shelter inside the abandoned listening station. Several scenes use the ruined interiors, rusting structures and damaged radomes in their contemporary state. The location carries an additional connection to the story because a man whose life has been destroyed through modern digital surveillance is hiding inside one of Berlin’s most prominent physical monuments to Cold War surveillance.

In The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (2018), originally released as Das schönste Mädchen der Welt, Teufelsberg appears during the school trip to Berlin at the centre of the film. Cyril is an intelligent but insecure teenager who is bullied because of his large nose and hides his identity when performing as a talented masked rapper. He falls in love with new classmate Roxy but, convinced that she will never be attracted to him, allows her to believe that the handsome but less articulate Rick is the rapper behind the mask. During the class visit to Teufelsberg, the students are shown around the abandoned listening station while their teacher explains its Cold War history and the use of the hill by the American military. The real graffiti-covered buildings and radomes are clearly visible as Cyril, Roxy, Rick and the other students continue the relationships and rivalries developing throughout their Berlin trip.

In The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018), Teufelsberg represents one of Lisbeth Salander’s hidden safe houses in Sweden. Much of the film was shot in Germany while standing in for Stockholm and its surroundings, and the abandoned listening station provided an appropriately isolated base for the hacker. After Lisbeth rescues August Balder from the criminals who murdered his father, she brings the boy to the hideout while trying to protect both him and Firefall, the computer program capable of accessing nuclear weapons systems around the world. Inside the former station, Lisbeth discovers that August’s exceptional mathematical abilities allow him to unlock the program. The Spiders eventually trace August to the safe house, forcing the conflict with Lisbeth and her estranged sister Camilla to continue. The film uses the concrete interiors, graffiti and technological remnants of Teufelsberg without presenting the location as Berlin.

In Cleo (2019), Teufelsberg appears as itself and its unusual history becomes part of the story. Cleo is searching for a legendary treasure supposedly hidden by the Sass brothers, which she believes includes a magical clock capable of turning back time and allowing her to prevent the deaths of her parents. Together with treasure hunter Paul, she follows clues through numerous locations connected with the history and mythology of Berlin. Their search eventually takes them to Teufelsberg because the treasure is believed to be buried beneath the artificial hill. The film makes specific use of the fact that Teufelsberg consists of millions of cubic metres of wartime rubble covering an older Nazi-era structure, fitting the location into a story in which different layers of Berlin’s past are repeatedly hidden beneath the modern city.

In The Flight Attendant (2020–2022), Teufelsberg appears in the second-season premiere, “Seeing Double”. Cassie Bowden, now secretly working as a civilian asset for the CIA alongside her job as a flight attendant, is sent to Berlin with instructions to observe a courier named Will Kotov and avoid making contact with him. Cassie quickly ignores those orders, speaks to Will at his hotel and then follows him across the city when he leaves. His journey takes him to Teufelsberg, where Cassie watches from a distance as he meets another person and collects a manila envelope. The abandoned Cold War listening station and its distinctive radar domes provide the setting for the clandestine exchange, fitting naturally into the episode’s espionage storyline. Cassie continues following Will from Teufelsberg to another hotel, where she discovers a mysterious blonde woman who looks remarkably like her and watches Will exchange the envelope for a briefcase. Shortly afterwards, Will is killed when his car explodes, drawing Cassie into the conspiracy that drives the remainder of the season.

---