Former NATO electronic surveillance station

 radio engineering, intelligence agency

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In 1938 the Luftwaffe had a 35 metre high wooden tower built on the mountain, the purpose of which was kept "secret". In 1942 it was razed for "unexplained reasons". On 14 November 1951 US Forces requisitioned part of the summit and erected various buildings and steel structures for antennas and parabolic mirrors. In 1961 the German Armed Forces (the Bundeswehr) took over the area to the north of the summit and, in 1967, communication sector (Fernmeldesektor) "E" took up its surveillance role in a new tower. The top of the mountain was a military out-of-bounds area and the Backöfele was now "behind the wire". Following the easing of military tension in Europe in the early 1990s, the US Forces left the Schneeberg on 30 April 1992 and, on 31 March 1993, the Bundeswehr closed its military surveillance mission. The last soldier left the Schneeberg air defence site (Luftverteidigungsstellung Schneeberg) on 30 June 1994 and the real estate was transferred to the Federal Finance Department (Bundesvermögensverwaltung). The former Bundeswehr tower was rented to the firm of Mannesmann (now Vodafone) for mobile phone use.