The recent success of Cold War spy thriller Deutschland 83 proves that young people today are obsessed with the Cold War. For most of us born after the Iron Curtain came down, the idea of Europe being divided between superpowers, with completely different social systems, seems crazy. That partly explains our fascination here at Parallel with Teufelsberg, an abandoned NSA spy station that overlooks Berlin. 

Literally meaning ‘The Devil’s Mountain’, Teufelsberg is actually the name of the man-made hill on which it's perched, which was built originally to host a Nazi military training school. After the Second World War, it was taken over by the new victorious superpower, the USA, for an intelligence-gathering station which eavesdropped on East Germany.

After the Cold War, the site was considered by real estate companies as a space to develop luxury flats; and later it was sought after by David Lynch to create a meditation retreat. None of this ended up happening, however, and today the listening station remains a graffiti-adorned, crumbling relic to the last century. 

For €20 you can join a group tour of the area, which boasts an excellent view of the city and lots of Cold War trivia for history nerds. It starts every Friday at 14.00 and on Saturday and Sunday at 13.00 or 15.00. You can also visit during the week after 10.00 but there aren’t any guided tours.