Intact German Cold War bunkers open to the public
In the small village of Urft just south of Bonn, a single-family home on the edge of town gives few clues to the concrete and steel chambers below. But sure enough, a dank stairway hidden behind the garage leads to a secret underground bunker.
This was West Germany's James-Bond-style answer to the atomic bomb.
The shelter had room for 200 state officials to manage the government during a nuclear war. Nearby in Ahrweiler-Bad Neuenahr, another bunker was built to house 3,000 federal officials for up to 30 days. Tour groups started exploring the pair just last month.
"We didn't have any illusions," said Joerg Diester, the author of a book on the bunker's history. If the Cold War escalated, "we Germans would have been the first to be punished for it" by the Soviet Union.
The government took precautions, and built the bunkers in the early 1960s. Both facilities were kept secret until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Several years later, Berlin decided that they had outlived their purpose, and planned to dismantle or sell them.
In response, local organizations have taken on the task of turning the bunkers into a special brand of Cold War museum.
The organizers "almost deserve a daily medal of honor for seeing to it that the bunker can be used as a museum," said Diester...
Read entire article at Deutsche Welle
This was West Germany's James-Bond-style answer to the atomic bomb.
The shelter had room for 200 state officials to manage the government during a nuclear war. Nearby in Ahrweiler-Bad Neuenahr, another bunker was built to house 3,000 federal officials for up to 30 days. Tour groups started exploring the pair just last month.
"We didn't have any illusions," said Joerg Diester, the author of a book on the bunker's history. If the Cold War escalated, "we Germans would have been the first to be punished for it" by the Soviet Union.
The government took precautions, and built the bunkers in the early 1960s. Both facilities were kept secret until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Several years later, Berlin decided that they had outlived their purpose, and planned to dismantle or sell them.
In response, local organizations have taken on the task of turning the bunkers into a special brand of Cold War museum.
The organizers "almost deserve a daily medal of honor for seeing to it that the bunker can be used as a museum," said Diester...