Berlin: WWII Bomb Defused in Wilmersdorf, Evacuees Return
Photo: Imanuel Marcus
In Berlin’s Wilmersdorf borough, an unexploded bomb was disarmed on Sunday. The Avus city freeway and the train tracks around the location were reopened in the afternoon.
Berlin, September 11th, 2022. Update: 4:20 p.m. CEDT (The Berlin Spectator) — Yet another bomb was defused in Berlin. It had been dropped towards the end of World War II, but failed to explode. The explosive weighs 500 kilos (1,102 pounds). On Sunday afternoon, it weas defused and transported to Berlin’s bomb disposal site located in Grunewald forest, close to the spot where strollers had found it.
Schmargendorf Neighborhood
The bomb was located at a garden plot colony called Hundekehle between the Hundekehle lake and Grunewald, right next to the train tracks. Experts sent by Berlin’s State Office of Criminal Investigation disarmed it when the evacuation of the area was completed.
This part of Berlin is not too populous. Western Schmargendorf includes mostly single family homes with nice gardens and tiny plots in the colony. According to the police, many strollers were on the move in the forest today, which is why the operation took a while.
Traffic Affected
At 10:00 a.m., both the Avus, a major city freeway, and the ‘S-Bahn’ train tracks around the location where the bomb was found were blocked to all traffic. Just recently, they had been blocked for a week because of a big forest fire in Grunewald and uncontrolled explosions at the bomb disposal site the latest bomb find was just taken to. By now, the traffic is flowing again, both on the Avus and the ‘S-Bahn’ train tracks.
Hundreds of unexploded WWII bombs are still buried in Berlin. In most cases, construction workers find them when they dig deep holes into the ground. Because of the many bomb finds, the German capital’s bomb disposal team is very experienced.
The Friedrichshain Case
Only three weeks ago, another heavy WWII explosive was located and defused in Berlin’s Fiedrichshain borough. Thousands of residents had to be evacuated on August 18th, 2022. They waited for many hours, until after midnight, before they were allowed to return to their apartments.
Read about all recent WWII bomb finds, by clicking here.