Stasi watchtower and shooting range
There must be some way out of here Said the joker to the thief
The Stasi used to practice shooting their victims in the cellar of a building in Weißensee that’s still guarded by a Stasi watchtower.
Thankfully the little grey men are all gone now, melted back into German society like the Nazis before them as if they never existed.
The shooting range at Neumagener Straße 33 was dismantled, removed or destroyed, so you won’t find much sign of that either, just cabinets, metal doors, weapon safes, some furniture and remnants of the armory and ammunition bunker.
But the BT6-type Stasi watchtower has Denkmalschutz, which means it’s protected unless a developer wants to turn it into luxury apartments, a luxury hotel, luxury spa, luxury offices or a luxury restaurant. It happens all the time.
The only thing you’ll find in the cellar are bugs – no longer working for the Stasi since their contracts were abruptly terminated in 1990 – and a bunch of documents with names, addresses and personal details to show that Germany’s Datenschutz is about as effective as its Denkmalschutz.
Of course, the Stasi knew all about Datenschutz. They schutzed it so much they couldn’t get enough of it, much like Google, Meta and all the AI companies hoovering up every mundane bit of data you offer so they can turn it into humanoids to replace you some day.
The Stasi seem innocent in comparison. They had to be content with just shooting people and spying on them. AB wrote about them before – they tried building a hotel in Templin, and they had a spy station in Rhinow to intercept communications between West Berlin and West Germany.
History
The Stasi watchtower in Weißensee was erected in 1970 to keep an eye over their facilities at the former Askania-Raspe works.
That had replaced the chemical factory operated by Carl Raspe since the late 1800s, called the Carl Otto Raspe & Co. Chemische Fabrik und Apparatebau (Chemical Factory and Apparatus Construction) from the 1930s.
The factory was expanded after the company signed a deal with the Reich Ministry for War in 1939 to manufacture flight instruments for the war effort.
Askania moved in in 1943 after its factory in Mariendorf was damaged in bombing raids, and together with the Raspe factory, Askania and Raspe continued almost exclusively making instruments for German fighter planes.
Well, they didn’t help much, for Germany lost its war and the Soviets took over the site in 1946 after the factory’s administration building became the new town hall for Weißensee. It’s still the local Bürgeramt.
The Soviets kept the Askania-Raspe works till 1953 when the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), or Stasi, moved in.
The little grey men used No. 33 for their East German state government motorcycle escort and guard battalion, according to the Pankower Chronik blog, which detailed the list of crap found in the basement on June 23, 1990: 4,000 hand grenades, 145 anti-tank weapons 1,089 rifles, 35 sniper rifles with telescopic sights, 15 submachine guns, and 1,335 pistols.
As I said, you won’t find any of them there anymore, just the bugs still guarding the basement.
Location and access (How to find guide)
What: Stasi watchtower, and remnants of their indoor shooting range, armory and ammunition bunker.
Where: Neumagener Straße 33, 13088 Berlin.
How to get there: Hop on your bike or get an M4 tram from Alexanderplatz to Buschallee and walk from there. If you don’t like walking, you can also get an X54 bus to Neumagener Str. Here it is on a map.
Getting in: To get to the tower, your best bet is to enter the gate for the Kreativstadt Weißensee, walk straight ahead and you’ll find a Biergarten on your right. Just walk through that to the open ground and veer to your right till you get to the Turm. For the basement, the derelict building is right beside the Turm and there’s an entry just down the steps.
When to go: Go during daylight hours for sightseeing, moonlight hours for partying.
Difficulty rating: 4/10. Easy enough to find and get in once you know how.
Who to bring: Bring your friends for a party, but do not get drunk and go up the tower! See “dangers” below.
What to bring: Beers and snacks. There doesn’t seem to be any Spätis in the locality.
Dangers: Please be careful going up the ladder of the tower. There’s no safety net if you fall and you really do not want to fall. The same goes when you’re up in the tower. Be very, very careful there. DO NOT FALL.
Thanks as always to Mark Rodden for proofreading. Any mistakes are all his fault.
