Sunday 17 November 2013

übergelagert

Though not previsioning what was to come nor a admission to a separate history, in 2012 when plans were being finalised to consolidate the operations of the Bundes- nachrichten- dienst (the BND, Germany's foreign intelligence agency) in Berlin and to uproot establishments created in the former West German Republic, a small suburban community of München called Pullach im Isartal, making preparations for closure and realignment, revealed how secrets can cause forgetfulness. What lie on the BND's broad campus was no secret itself, but cordoned off from the public since shortly after the conclusion of Word War II, few voices were raised regarding what it contained. The ensemble of residential and office buildings occupied by the intelligence service were original designated as a model suburban settlement, named after Rudolf Heß, for the families of Nazi party members who were not conferred special recognition or had humbler roots. Many German children orphaned by the war also found adoptive parents here. Later, the community also became the headquarters for Organisation Todt, the party's engineering corps who build the built the Atlantic Wall. This covert history was hidden for years, villas as time-capsules and the stories of former residents going untold, incident only to its new management.