Kate M.
Yelp
The experience of visiting Teufelsberg was very strange. It is located within Grunewald, a forest that, even in the middle of winter (we visited in February), is beautiful and peaceful.
When we got to the top of the Berg, I was amazed at the terrible condition that the spy station and surrounding area are in - not just some disrepair due to the effects of time; it had been seriously trashed by people. There were posterboard signs tacked to a shabby chain link fence with handwritten messages in marker: KEEP OUT and PRIVATE AREA. Litter was everywhere, wooden boards covered some of the blown-out windows, the whole place was covered in graffiti. If you keep outside the fence, you really can't see anything of the station except for the round top, covered in a torn tarp. The rest of the station is completely hidden from view behind trees and giant plywood boards sprayed in graffiti and leaning against the building, to keep people out I guess.
We walked along the side of the fence in the direction of the handwritten sign that said MAIN ENTRANCE. As we rounded the corner of the fence, we saw a youngish white man (late 20s or early 30s) standing next to a tiny, ragtag trailer with no doors, blasting German rap. He turned off the music when he saw us but said nothing. We kept our distance from the fence and turned right along the paved road; when I looked up the hill again I noticed he had trailed us, wearing headphones, standing in the shadows watching us. Was he a guard? But there was nothing official-looking about him: he was wearing an oversized track jacket, sunglasses and oversized pants. A squatter? But how would he have gotten a trailer behind the locked fence..? We left pretty quickly. It looked like there could be a meth lab up there, seriously. I had a really strange/uneasy vibe about the whole experience. There is literally no way I would even have considered scaling the fence and sneaking into the station like another reviewer suggested, no matter how cool the view.
We're not tourists from other cities who expect Berlin to be spic and span and are offended by graffiti. I was finally visiting Teufelsberg after living in Berlin for years--and I won't be back; at least not in mid-winter, when the place sees few visitors and is basically abandoned.
We checked out the view from a nearby hill, Drachenberg. It was beautiful - worth a trip. :)