German Navy HQ - Corall

Germany / Brandenburg / Rudnitz /
 Second World War 1939-1945, abandoned / shut down, interesting place, closed / former military
In 1939 the supreme command of the German navy (OKM) planned the contruction of a communications-bunker as part for the planned headquarters of naval war between the villages of Ladeburg (to the south)and Lanke (to the north) near Bernau (approx. 23 miles north of Berlin) That construction later became known as "Koralle". Heavy damages of the Berlin communication networks (especially during the air raids of November 11th 1943) forced the moving of the OKM to Kiel. Towards the end of November 1943 the OKM moved to "Koralle".

Already in August 1941 a cable connection between "Koralle" and the radio station in Calbe/M. was created. In the end of the same year more cable connections to the radio stations in Nauen, Oebisfelde and Bölkendorf were created.

The radio station Bölkendorf was situated 38 km northeast of "Koralle" between the villages Bölkendorf and Herzsprung at the edge of the lake "Krummer See". In the beginning 8 mobile, truck-mounted, short-wave stations (with a capacity of 10 and 20 KW) were used here. Not before 1944 the bunker was constructed as a solid, partly subterranean housing for the radio station. By this expansion and the erection of a telescope radio-mast Bölkendorf became the most modern radio station.

After the end of WW II the bunker was made unusable by blasting in 1949. The remains of the bunker were removed in 1993. Today, the whole construction has vanished. (Jeff's note: this last sentence is incorrect. The structures, ableit destroyed, are STILL there)

More bunkered radio stations were part of the Bölkendorf construction. North of the place of the Bölkendorf bunker the basements of tube-like radio senders can still be found.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   52°44'26"N   13°34'35"E

Comments

  • A GREAT book on Koralle was written by Dr. Hans J. Ritcher from which most of this & my information comes. Although it is written in German, it has GREAT photos, maps and blueprints of the original complex. The book is entitled "Deckname: Koralle" and is the definitive source for this WWII German Naval installation. Also many thanks to Dieter for providing me with updated inforamtion on Koralle! Vielen dank!
  • Wikimapia needs means to distinguish historic and present places visually. Perhaps there should be a further category (besides public/private -- btw I never understood what the purpose of private is) or a optional input-field for specifying a timespan.
This article was last modified 11 years ago