Art breathes new life into Berlin bunker

By Claire Watson

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - A giant World War Two German bunker, which has also served as a Soviet prison and the exotic backdrop for raves and wild parties for decades, will open its doors to art lovers in June.

Art collector Christian Boros has built an elegant penthouse atop the grey military fortification near the government quarter in the German capital and filled the thick walls underneath his apartments with 500 works from international artists.

"These walls weren't meant for arts," Boros told reporters ahead of the bunker's opening to the public in June. "They were meant for all kinds of things -- a prison, a bunker for 3,000 people, a location for sado-maso (sado-masochistic) parties."

"A bunker like this, built with reinforced concrete, is here to stay. No detonation has managed to blow it away. But art has managed to move things," he said, standing in his bunker that stands just a few hundred meters away from the Brandenburg Gate.

Built in 1942, the bunker was used after World War Two by the Soviets as a prison.

From the 1950s, East Germany's Communist rulers took advantage of chilly temperatures deep inside the thick walls to store fruit, earning it the nickname: "banana bunker".

After Germany's reunification, techno music fans and others threw extravagant parties inside the building.

To create room for his private museum, Boros took down ceilings and walls. His workers had to cut up the concrete blocks inside the building and carry them outside by hand.