Former NATO electronic surveillance station

 monument, military, radio engineering, intelligence agency

The Stöberhai gained a degree of fame as a result of the electronic surveillance tower built as a NATO listening post. This signals intelligence facility was used during the Cold War to listen into military radio traffic in East Germany. The facilities installed here were the equivalent of the station operated by the Stasi and Soviet Union on the Brocken.
Initially the Bundeswehr built the Wieda outpost (Dienststelle Wieda) in 1957. Six years later the French Armed Forces followed. The installations were continually expanded. With the completion of the 75 m high concrete tower in 1967 the complex was formally transferred to the Luftwaffe's Communication Sector C (Fernmeldesektor C). The tower, the heart of the complex, had sixteen floors and a floor area of 750 m² as well as antenna mountings, intelligence-gathering rooms and service rooms, but also offices, accommodation and a mess. The tower was linked to other buildings and an underground nuclear bomb shelter with alternate command post by a tunnel, which prevented observation as well as icing.

Although 14 million DM was invested in a never-completed upgrade during the time of German reunification, the military finally pulled out in 1992. On the summit plateau, which has an area of 28 hectares (69 acres), there is at present, in addition to the tower and ruins, an entrance building, a German accommodation block with its own nuclear bunker in the cellars, several garages and workshops, two French quarters, a French operations building and four French lattice towers for electronic intelligence gathering which still carry eastwards-facing antennas.
In the years after its closure the out-of-bounds area grew into a popular (illegal) adventure playground for various leisure sports. It gained a legendary reputation for geocaching. After years of dispute between the district and the Federal Government over the demolition costs of 3.5 million euros the Government had to bear the costs. The tower was brought down in a controlled demolition on 23 September 2005 with 38 kg of explosive (Gelamon 30 U) placed in 380 demolition holes.

The massive surveillance tower once made the Stöberhai a very prominent feature with the Harz mountains. All that is left is a relatively puny transmission tower, which is nevertheless visible from Sankt Andreasberg and the surrounding mountains.
On 23 September 2006 – exactly a year after the demolition of the concrete tower – Lower Saxony's Finance Minister, Hartmut Möllring, opened a monument commemorating the tower and electronic warfare in general.