For our trip in early October 2020, my friend Andreas and I had put several Cold War relics in northeastern Germany on our list. After taking the opportunity to photograph an old mausoleum along the way, we headed straight for our first planned location.
Our destination was a former command bunker of the Soviet Air Forces. Originally, it had been constructed as the operations center of the 20th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in Parchim, before later being repurposed as the command post of the 172nd Combat Helicopter Regiment - a small but telling example of how military infrastructure was adapted during the Cold War.
After roughly 45 minutes of driving, we reached the former Soviet military compound. It was easy to identify: a classic guardhouse at the entrance and a solid concrete perimeter wall left little doubt about the site’s past.
Parking directly in front of the main gate felt like a bad idea, so we left the car a bit farther away along a dirt road. According to our plan, this path should lead us around to the rear of the compound, from where we hoped to make our way inside and search for the bunker.
The plan worked out perfectly. The dirt road ran surprisingly close to the site, and before long we discovered a breach in the wall - part of it had collapsed, leaving a hole just large enough to climb through.
Since we had no precise information about the bunker’s location within the compound, we expected a lengthy search. That fear turned out to be unfounded: after only a short walk, we had already spotted the entrance.
With a floor area of roughly 150 square meters, the bunker itself is fairly unremarkable from an architectural point of view. It closely resembles other Cold War-era structures we’ve explored at former airfields. As was often the case when Soviet forces withdrew from East Germany, very few original items were left behind. This site was no exception. A handful of pieces of furniture were scattered around, though it’s hard to say whether they actually belonged to the bunker’s original equipment—at least the armchair struck me as rather doubtful.
After completing our exploration, we stepped back outside into the daylight.
There were several more abandoned buildings on the site waiting to be explored, so stay tuned - and look forward to the next post.
To find out more about the history and to check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.
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