There are plans in Berlin to tear down one of the last vestiges of Adolf Hitler's power center.

Almost nothing remains of the Nazi leader's Chancellery in the center of Berlin, except for a bunker.

However, there are now plans to demolish it and build homes and offices.

The New Reich Chancellery, built by Hitler's favorite architect Albert Speer, was severely damaged at the end of World War II and was later demolished by order of Soviet forces in 1949.

However, the bunker is still visible in a vacant lot.

Berlin Housing Senator Christian Gaebler (SPD) believes that the time has come to remove the structure.

“We are not going to hinder new housing projects just to preserve a bunker that could end up becoming a pilgrimage site,” he told BZ newspaper.

But there are those who believe that the bunker should be preserved.

The debate

Dietmar Arnold, president of the Berlin Underground Association (Berliner Unterwelten), told the BBC that demolishing the bunker would be "real madness."

“It is a place linked to the perpetrators,” he said.

“It was the power center of Nazi Germany, Hitler's New Reich Chancellery, and these are the last remains.”

Their intention is to collaborate with the Holocaust Museum to transform the site into a museum and place of memory, with an exhibition about the end of the war.

"A lot of history has been destroyed here in Germany, both communist and Nazi history. We can't keep doing it."

The last time Arnold entered the bunker was in 2007; At that time, he said, it was still in very good condition.

He clarified that it is not the more famous Führerbunker - where Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide and which is located about 120 meters to the north - but rather a structure used by the staff of the Reich Chancellery.

At the end of the war, a hospital was set up inside.

According to Arnold, 1,200 square meters of the bunker complex remain intact; Both the walls and the ceiling are 1.7 meters thick.

He believes it would even be possible to build on top of it without needing to demolish the entire bunker.

Historical value

Last year, the Berlin State Monuments Council expressed criticism of plans to demolish the bunker, saying it has “significant historical value.”

“The New Reich Chancellery was the planning center and starting point of World War II, as well as symbolizing the catastrophic end of the Nazi regime,” the council stated.

“Given its possible importance as a historical monument, the State Office for the Conservation of Historical Monuments should evaluate its state of conservation and its inclusion in the list of protected buildings.”