{"id":52279,"date":"2023-07-05T23:45:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T21:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=52279"},"modified":"2024-11-10T23:16:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T22:16:31","slug":"the-west-german-governments-colossal-secret-shelter-for-a-nuclear-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/07\/05\/the-west-german-governments-colossal-secret-shelter-for-a-nuclear-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The West German government's colossal secret shelter for a nuclear war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During the Cold War, different governments ordered the construction of secret shelters in case World War III broke out.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/01\/19\/the-mru-a-mysterious-underground-city-of-nazi-germany-with-80-km-of-tunnels\/\">The MRU, a mysterious underground city of nazi Germany with 80 km of tunnels<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/05\/30\/visiting-the-last-silo-of-a-titan-ii-nuclear-missile-where-you-can-still-see-this-icbm\/\">Visiting the last silo of a Titan II nuclear missile where you can still see this ICBM<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>These shelters were intended for the government to continue its functions even in the event of a nuclear war. <strong>The German Federal Republic, also known as West Germany<\/strong> (remember that reunification took place in 1990, after the fall of communism and the disappearance of the dictatorship cynically calling itself the German Democratic Republic), <strong>began in 1962 the construction of a bunker in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler<\/strong>, in the west of the country, under the government of Christian Democrat Konrad Adenauer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025902318_519720b25a_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The facade of the museum on the Cold War that is in the facilities of the old bunker (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/regbu.de\/ausweichsitz\/Presse.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Documentation Centre Government Bunker \/ Kajo Meyer<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.germany.travel\/es\/ciudades-y-cultura\/centro-de-documentacion-del-bunker-del-gobierno.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The German National Tourist Board (GNTB)<\/a> points out that when its construction was completed in 1971, during the government of the Social Democrat Willy Brandt, this refuge <strong>was 17.3 kilometers long and had 936 bedrooms and 897 offices<\/strong>, being prepared to house the members of the constitutional powers of the country. <em>\"<strong>It was the most secret building in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany<\/strong>\"<\/em>, the GNTB notes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025902338_bc0186f986_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Among the facilities preserved in the old bunker is this room, which was the office of the federal president (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/regbu.de\/ausweichsitz\/Presse.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Documentation Centre Government Bunker \/ Sascha Kelschenbach<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>After the fall of communism, the huge shelter in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler <strong>was dismantled between 2001 and 2006<\/strong>, but 203 meters of the old facility have been preserved as a place of documentation, < strong>settling there a museum on the Cold War <\/strong>, which can be visited from April 6 to November 10 on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025809055_fdf36b9c99_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The bunker had all kinds of services. Here we can see <strong>the bunker fire brigade room<\/strong> (photo by Sascha Kelschenbach).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025809100_3a698d4854_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>\"<strong>Danger! Risk of death!<\/strong> Do not enter marking if floor light is flashing\"<\/em> A danger notice next to one of the bunker hatches (photo: Kajo Meyer).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025624709_346c476bd9_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>An armored door at the access to the bunker<\/strong> (photo: Sascha Kelschenbach).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025589399_003ffe34dd_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The bunker command center<\/strong> (photo: Sascha Kelschenbach).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025809130_8d9042bbdb_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Among the bunker facilities there was also <strong>a small hospital<\/strong> (photo: Kajo Meyer).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53024837937_403c938a3e_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the dismantled parts of the bunker<\/strong> (photo: Sascha Kelschenbach).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53025809040_d0be738ab1_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:0px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The entrance blocking structure<\/strong> to the bunker (photo: Kajo Meyer).<\/p>\n<p>If you want to visit the museum, you can find more information on <a href=\"https:\/\/regbu.de\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the museum's website<\/a> and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bad-neuenahr-ahrweiler.de\/regierungsbunker\/detail\/1533-Dokumentationsstaette-Regierungsbunker\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to see the dismantled part of the museum, the channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@SchlachtfeldBegehung\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Randomlife.official<\/a> published today a video in which he walks through it (the video is in German, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Das teuerste Bauvorhaben Deutschlands. Die ersten nach der Sanierung &amp; hatten exklusiven Zugang.\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QA0pClbfLvY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Source of the photos: <a href=\"https:\/\/regbu.de\/ausweichsitz\/Presse.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Documentation Centre Government Bunker \/ Sascha Kelschenbach \/ Kajo Meyer<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the Cold War, different governments ordered the construction of secret shelters in case World War III broke out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19535,16879],"tags":[19618,13921,10929,19620,23052,19619],"class_list":["post-52279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exploring-portada-eng","category-fortifications","tag-bad-neuenahr-ahrweiler","tag-cold-war","tag-germany","tag-konrad-adenauer","tag-west-germany","tag-willy-brandt"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 02:18:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}