Visiting the Forbidden City – level 3

16-05-2022 15:00

During organised tours, tourists can visit a former Nazi compound 40 kilometres from Berlin called the ’Forbidden City’. Twenty thousand people visit near here every year to learn about Nazi military history.

The Nazis and the Soviets were militarily active at the compound, which was kept secret in a forest and behind a fence. The Nazis hid underground bunkers in country homes, and they planned much of WWII here.

After WWII, when the Soviet Union was in charge of East Germany, the Soviets used the complex as a home for 40,000 soldiers and as a cultural centre with a theatre, a museum, shopping areas, and a swimming pool. In 1994, the Soviets left and took everything with them. The state of Brandenburg now owns the complex.

Difficult words: compound (a series of buildings on one property and a wall around the property), former (existing in the past).

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