As our 2020 summer holiday slowly drew to an end, we still had a few places on our list—spots we’d been meaning to check out before heading home. Two of them were remnants of the Cold War, and we had arranged to meet our good friend Jürgen for a small exploration.
Our first destination that day was an unfinished bunker complex once planned for the Verwaltung Rückwärtige Dienste (Administration Support Services) of the East German Ministry for State Security (MfS, Stasi). Hidden in the forest near a former MfS holiday retreat, the bunker had been under construction since 1987, but work came to a halt after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
We met Jürgen as planned at the access road of what is now a cluster of holiday apartments. From there, we continued on foot. After a short walk, we reached the old holiday facilities once used by Stasi employees. The buildings today are little more than gutted shells, yet it’s easy to understand why people would have spent their vacations here—the location, deep in the woods and right by a lake, is genuinely peaceful.
But the bunker was what we had come for, so we moved on. Another stretch through the forest brought us to a large hall made of corrugated metal panels. At first glance it looked like an ordinary warehouse—except for the fact that it stood alone in the middle of the woods.
Inside, at the southern end, we found a “building within a building” structure. Entering it led us to the mouth of a 65-meter access tunnel made of prefabricated concrete segments. The tunnel opened into one half of a connecting corridor belonging to a Type 1/15/V2 bunker - an installation usually intended as an alternate command site for central and district-level authorities. This particular bunker was the last of its kind ever started in the GDR, and it was never completed.
The interior was mostly empty. A basic lighting system had been installed, and the water storage tanks were already in place. A few crates with Cyrillic markings remained, presumably used during the construction phase, and all pressure- and gas-tight doors had been mounted. We also stumbled across some metal bed frames, though it’s hard to tell whether they were brought in during the build or dumped there later.
One thing that stood out was the lack of graffiti. For a place like this, the walls were surprisingly untouched. Maybe the site had stayed off the radar for years—or perhaps it had simply been secured better in the past.
We took our time exploring the corridors and chambers. Outside, temperatures were well above 35°C, and the bunker’s cool air made the visit even more pleasant. Eventually, we made our way back to the car, ready to move on to the next location on our route.
To find out more about the history and to check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.
No comments:
Post a Comment