TEUFELSBERG. The location of a key British and American signals
intercept facility during the Cold War, the Teufelsberg (Devil’s
Mountain) was a large hill in the British sector of West Berlin, also
known to locals as Monte Klamotte (Mount Junk). The hill began to
take shape after 1950 when the rubble of 400,000 bombed houses
was deposited over the partially completed Nazi defense research
and educational institute designed by Albert Speer. At a height of 115
meters, the highest elevation in the city, the Teufelsberg was initially
conceived as a recreation site and outfitted with ski lifts. Soon, how-
ever, the British and Americans, recognizing its ideal location for re-
ceiving unobstructed signals from the Eastern bloc, requisitioned the
area. Although the ski lifts were removed because of the interference
they caused, a nearby ferris wheel in Zehlendorf was left in place
after the accidental discovery that it actually enhanced reception.
The 13 Signal Regiment and the Royal Air Force’s 26 Signal Unit
staffed the facility for the British. The United States employed lin-
guists, analysts, and researchers from the National Security Agency.
In the final years, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Com-
mand oversaw operations. Containing highly advanced electronics
and signals equipment, the station had the capacity to monitor the
microwave networks that converged inside the German Democratic
Republic and also to tap wireless communications systems through-
out the city. High security was maintained around the restricted area.
Even so, a major penetration occurred between 1982–1985 following
the recruitment of the U.S. Army analyst James W. Hall III by the
Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung.
In 1991, the British and Americans closed the facility and moved
the electronic equipment, but the large white, mushroom-domed
structures remained a dominant presence on the hilltop. Plans for
the construction of a luxury hotel and apartments (along with a spy
museum) became a casualty of Berlin’s overbuilding following re-
unification. See also BAD AIBLING.
THOMAS, STEPHAN (1910– ). The longtime head of the Ostbüro der
SPD, Stephan Thomas was born Stefan Grzeskowiak in Berlin, the son
of a Polish worker. After 1933, he performed illegal work for the So-
zialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands. After World War II, released
from a British prisoner of war camp, he received a position with the
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