Marienthal government bunker

Marienthal government bunker ( for speakers of German) - darkometer rating : 6 - A part of a formerly huge underground nuclear bunker at Ahrweiler and Marienthal near Bonn that was to serve as the emergency seat of the Federal Government of West Germany had the Cold War turned hot. Since then most of the bunker has been gutted and sealed, but a sizeable stretch has been preserved and turned into a very impressive memorial site. One of the best Cold War relics in the whole of Western Europe! > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The bunker owes its location to a railway line project whose planning stage goes back to the late 19th century. It was to provide an extra relief freight line between the then German region of Alsace (see Alsace-Moselle Memorial ) and the heavy industry centres of the Ruhr- and Rhineland. Actual construction began shortly before World War One , during which the project was halted. After the war, work resumed in fits and starts until France occupied the region and the project was abandoned altogether. The five tunnels through the hills near Ahrweiler, however, had already been more or less finished. Construction of a bridge across the Adenbach valley north of Ahrweiler, on the other hand, only got as far as the pillars, which now stand as lone relics in the vineyard hillsides (see below ). The tunnels, now devoid of their intended function, at first lay derelict until it was decided in the mid 1930s to start mushroom farming inside them, partly as a way to create jobs (one of the "perks" promised by the Nazi Party that got them elected in 1933) as well as to make Germany less reliant on imports from France and Hungary .