Königstein Fortress opens GDR bunker to the public

Königstein Fortress is opening a bunker of the GDR civil defense that has been closed to the public for decades. Those behind whom the steel door to the facility closes feel like the employees of the district for whom the facility was intended, said André Thieme, Managing Director of Festung Königstein gGmbH, at the presentation on Tuesday. "It was a safe retreat so that the administration could remain capable of acting after a biological, chemical or nuclear attack." It was last overhauled in 1986.

According to Thieme, the structure of winding corridors and rooms, hidden two meters into the rock and with a thick layer of earth on top in the forest of the famous mountain fortress in Saxon Switzerland, was "always secret". As it remained under lock and key even after 1990, it has been preserved in its original form. "It's a piece of the Cold War, a museum jewel." Freed from the old furnishings, the light and sound installation explains its functions and meaning thanks to motion detectors when you enter. "A siren sounds, then you feel the nuclear strike, pumps and ventilation start up, you hear voices in the radio room and all you really want to do is get out." The special tours with 15 to 20 people will premiere on Good Friday.

Thieme said that "immersive productions" will allow visitors to experience fortress history up close and bring the past "into the present as a concrete experience". The underground cavity was created in 1889 as a magazine for war powder, for which 7,000 cubic meters of sandstone were blasted out of the rock and a bullet-proof vault was built. This was rededicated in the 1960s for air raid protection. According to Thieme, technical installations have been preserved and are partially functional, such as cast-iron pressure relief flaps, the remains of the telephone exchange and the decontamination shower. The multimedia tour also explains the work of GDR civil defense and the omnipresent sense of threat during the Cold War.