Teufelsberg — Local services in Berlin

TEMPORARY CLOSURE as of August, 2018.

The "main building" or "radome" is closed. This is actually the main attraction -- the building with the three domes atop it. It's still interesting to visit but not quite worth making the trek until it reopens.

Edgy, adventurous, artistic, crazy and a little bit scary. If you're a fan of street art, don't miss this. Basically it's a government relic that's covered with spray-painted murals, so it will appeal to art lovers as well as urban spelunkers. Yes, you'll need a flashlight to get up those stairs -- and if you have a fear of heights you'll need some whiskey too.

Admission is 8 euros and everybody was nice to me. Art is excellent and the bar helps if you're hungry or thirsty.

Don't know why good directions are so hard to find: Take S7 train to Grunewald station. Take stairs to ground, then walk down shorter end of tunnel. Emerging from tunnel Schoene Cafe/Biergarten is on left. Walk under the overpass ahead and cross the street.

Walk a bit to the left and you will see the start of a forest. There is a road and path next to it going diagonally to the left. Follow it ten minutes or so to the first fork. The right path has three logs coming out of the ground to stop cars. Take that path.

Walk another five minutes or so beside little cottages. After the last, turn right past traffic arm. Follow street for a couple of minutes until it dead ends at a paved road.

Now you've got five minutes walking up hill. Cross street; path forks immediately, go left. Path merges with another path, then you'll see a graffitied cabin at the intersection of a few paths. Go uphill. At...

I'm a bit disappointed, because there are some guys charging visitors to enter the former NSA spy station. They even charge an additional fee if you want to take photos. In return they offer nothing at all. The station is still abandoned, neglected and you won't be able to visit the interior of the spy towers. They even try to sell the fact that some Berlin underground graffiti crews have left their marks here illegally (which I personally like) as a reason for charging their fees (reframing those street graffitis as "Street Art").

I visited in the 1990s during my highschool years and it was much better. Back then you could still get an impression of the inner working of the former station. Now they try to rip-off tourists.

My recommendation: instead visit the other hill just a few hundred meters distance (when you come from S-Heerstraße, it's in fact the hill that you will see first, the one next to the second parking lot on the right side). There is a plateau on top that allows you to get one of the best views of Berlin. You will have a 360 degrees view and you can see not just the surrounding parts of former West-Berlin (Funkturm, Olympiastadion etcetera), but you will see as far as Fernsehturm / Alexanderplatz and beyond. If you got kids with you, make sure you have a kite. It's one of the best places for...

The place itself is fascinating, a unique mix of urban decay, graffiti, and panoramic views over Berlin. But our visit at the end of July was a deep disappointment due to poor communication and unprofessional handling of a problem. We came specifically for the Declassified exhibition, which was clearly advertised on the official website and included in the admission fee. After paying full admission, we discovered inside that the exhibition was closed, with no prior notice online or at the entrance. We went back to the cashier, who didn’t even know it was closed. She had to make a phone call, after which she simply said: “It’s closed today,” offering no explanation, apology, or compensation.

I contacted the organization the same day and was kindly offered a refund. I replied immediately with my bank details and a bank-confirmed proof of payment, and explained, openly and reasonably, that I no longer had the paper receipt. Then came three weeks of silence. When I followed up, I was told that a refund was not possible without the receipt, even though the payment confirmation I had sent was official, clear, and more precise than any paper ticket. Together with the confusion and lack of accountability on site, it only adds to the impression of poor organization and missing...