The Heavy Load-Bearing Body

In 1941 a technical structure was erected in the immediate vicinity of the planned triumphal arch to test the load-bearing capability of the construction site for this monumental building on the North-South Axis. The so-called Heavy Load-Bearing Body, a cylindrical weighting construction made of solid concrete, has a diameter of 21 metres. It is 14 metres high above ground and extends 18 metres below ground. French forced labourers were used in its construction. The Heavy Load-Bearing Body was not intended to be demolished later, but to be buried under the new road. The North-South Axis was never completed in its planned form. All that remains – like a warning from the past – is the twelve thousand tonnes Heavy Load-Bearing Body.

drawing: Diaarchiv Degebo, TU-Berlin