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Command center - transmitter station - emergency hospital On the south-western outskirts of Berlin, on the Grosser Wannsee, there is a site that still bears traces of modern history, from its origins during the Nazi era through the Berlin Blockade and the Cold War to the present day. In 1938/39, numerous buildings designed by the Zehlendorf architect Eduard Jobst Siedler were built in the style of a housing estate as the "Reich Air Raid Protection School" in order to train air raid wardens from across the Reich. During the Second World War, a high-rise bunker was built on the site, which, with its six levels, is still one of the largest bunkers in Berlin. From 1943, it served as the command post for the staff of the "Luftflotte Reich" (formerly "Luftflotte Mitte"). From here - hidden behind outer walls and ceilings made of reinforced concrete up to 4 meters thick - the entire air defense around Berlin was directed. During the Berlin Blockade in 1948/49 and until 1967, the State Post Office used the bunker as a transmitter for wireless telephone connections with West Germany, as all means of communication to and from West Berlin were interrupted during the blockade and were then in some cases difficult to access. The building then served as a pathology and morgue for the Heckeshorn Lung Clinic, which was housed in the old air raid shelter. From August 1985, the bunker was completely converted into an "emergency hospital" for around 600 people at a cost of almost 10 million DM. In an "emergency," it was to accommodate 407 patients and 120 doctors and nurses. It was not until 1993, four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that the emergency hospital was completed and ready for use. In 2001, ten years after the end of the Cold War, the radical dismantling finally took place. The hospital equipment, still in its original packaging, was given away to countries in the former Eastern Bloc as a gesture of humanitarian aid. In addition to the four operating rooms, the bunker now houses the X-ray department and numerous patient rooms. There are also two emergency generators, a large protective air system, a well water supply, an elevator and a large kitchen.