Flakturm III G-Tower Humboldthain (Flak tower)

The Flakturm tower has been partially demolished after the war. A small part of the remaining tower can be visited. The tower was of the first generation.

The Flakturm (Flag Tower) is a concrete bunker that is placed in a city. The bunker was provided with a space where people (in the largest tower itself was room for 20,000 people) could shelter during bombings and there was space for storage of goods. The bunker was equipped with Flak anti aircraft gun (Flak is the acronym for Flugabwehrkanone, also called Fliegerabwehrkanone).

These large towers were built during the Second World War in the cities Berlin (Germany), Hamburg (Germany) and Vienna (Austria).

Each Flak tower complex consisted of a G-Tower (Gefechts-Turm) and L-Tower (Leit-Turm). The complexes consisting of 3 generations:

Generation 1:
G-Tower - 70.5 x 70.5 x 39 meters - with eight 128 mm guns and several 20, 30 and 37 mm guns.
L-Tower - 50 x 23 x 39 meters - usually equipped with sixteen 20 mm guns.

Generation 2:
G-Tower - 57 x 57 x 41.6 meters - equipped with eight 128 mm guns and sixteen 20 mm guns.
L-Tower - 50 x 23 x 44 meters - equipped with forty 20 mm guns

Generation 3:
G-Tower - 43 x 43 x 54 meters - with eight 128 mm guns and 32 pieces of the 20 mm gun.

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Source

• Text: Ewoud van Eig
• Photos: Roswitha Siedelberg (1) & Rob Korteland (2,3,4)