Flakturm or Flak Tower or Flaktürme is a Control Tower and Gun Tower – Vienna Austria – ECTV
hey everybody this is Eric Clark’s travel videos and I’m at FL term and that’s this thing back here um and it’s a gun Tower and a a military kind of Base back in the old days but uh let me take a look show you a look at it and it’s pretty amazing it’s huge um and I did a drone of it too so you can see that as well but uh pretty neat stuff let’s go look at it can you see it back there there you go that’s a better picture for you okay let’s go look so it’s it really is this huge huge Tower is that amazing Flack term and I think it was anti-aircraft and uh military and defense and let me get up here and I’ll show you more there’s a little sign I’ll go over here and I’ll capture for you so that you can see it but you can see how big this thing is it is like enormous and crazy and you know um but I’ve never seen anything like this before um and I guess it was for the for the war side of things but uh wow wow look at it enormous and I wonder if it’s like in obviously it’s in disrepair you can see parts of it are broken in that part up there is shifted downward and everything else so maybe it’s Fallen apart and and they fenced it off so maybe when a piece falls off that doesn’t doesn’t wipe out a family or a picnicking group or something but uh but look how big this is this is huge I mean it that probably is I don’t know couple hundred feet across but yeah absolutely amazing wow wow huh so this is in the park really close to my house so which is kind of neat um and the neat thing about this is you know I bet I bet probably not very many people in this world have seen inside or the top of it but uh with the Drone view you can get up there and see the the top but um yeah pretty pretty amazing and it looks like it’s really really thick cement too so I bet it weighs a ton here it is and it’s called FL term fle term and that’s what it looks like in the picture and then here’s what the words say and hit pause as needed but it’s a control tower gun Tower in a Garten are two totally six anti-aircraft Towers in Vienna okay so there’s six of these things thing somewhere anyway hit pause if you need to well there’s a thing you can scan the barcode off your screen if you have it anyway okay everybody I just wanted to give you a quick taste so that you know that there’s some interesting things here in Vienna wow wow okay everybody bye-bye
Flak towers (German: Flaktürme) were large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed by Nazi Germany. There were a total of 8 flak tower complexes in the cities of Berlin (three), Hamburg (two), and Vienna (three) from 1940 onwards. Other cities that used flak towers included Stuttgart and Frankfurt. Smaller single-purpose flak towers were built at key outlying German strongpoints, such as at Angers in France, and Heligoland in Germany.
The towers were operated by the Luftwaffe to defend against Allied strategic air raids against these cities during World War II. They also served as air-raid shelters for tens of thousands of local civilians.
After the RAF’s raid on Berlin in 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of three massive flak towers to defend the capital from air attack. Each tower had a radar installation with a radar dish which could be retracted behind a thick concrete and steel dome for protection.[1]
Hitler was interested in the design of the towers, and even made some sketches. They were constructed in six months. The priority of the project was such that the German national rail schedule was altered to facilitate the shipment of concrete, steel and timber to the construction sites.[2]
With concrete walls up to 3.5 m (11 ft) thick, their designers considered the towers to be invulnerable to attack by the standard ordnance carried by RAF heavy bombers at the time of their construction.
The towers were able to sustain a rate of fire of 8,000 rounds per minute from their multi-level guns (albeit mostly smaller-caliber shells, such as the 2cm FlaK 30), with a range of up to 14 km (8.7 mi) in a 360-degree field of fire. However, only the 128 mm (5.0 in) FlaK 40 guns had effective range to defend against the RAF and USAAF heavy bombers. The three flak towers around the outskirts of Berlin created a triangle of anti-aircraft fire that covered the centre of Berlin.
The flak towers had also been designed with the idea of using the above-ground bunkers as a civilian shelter, with room for 10,000 civilians and a hospital ward inside. During the Battle of Berlin, occupants formed their own communities, with up to 30,000 Berliners taking refuge in one tower during the battle. These towers, much like the keeps of medieval castles, were some of the safest places in a fought-over city and so the flak towers were some of the last places to surrender to the Red Army, eventually being forced to capitulate as supplies dwindled.[3]
The Soviets, in their assault on Berlin, found it difficult to inflict significant damage on the flak towers, even with some of the largest Soviet guns, such as the 203 mm M1931 howitzers.[4]
Humboldthain Flak tower today in Berlin
After the war, the demolition of the towers was often considered not feasible and many remain to this day, with some having been converted for alternative use.
My name is Eric Clark and I am a world traveler. I have been around the world a few times and decided to help fund my travels by sharing my videos and pictures. I have been to almost every country and would be glad to give tips and pointers. Drop me a note. = )