The government bunker and its history

For more than three decades, the “temporary headquarters of the federal constitutional bodies in the event of crisis and defense to ensure their functionality” (AdVB) under the vineyards of the Ahr valley was subject to the highest level of secrecy within the Federal Republic of Germany.
At the same time, it was the most expensive single structure ever built in Germany.
Author Christoph Bach traces the historical development of the government town with its own plenary hall, whose beginnings date back to the time of the First World War.
In 1958, preparations for the construction of the bunker for the Bonn federal government during the “Cold War” began in two tunnels of an unfinished freight train line of the German Reichsbahn.
Well-known federal politicians such as Ludwig Erhard, Annemarie Renger and Helmut Schmidt experienced the AdVB for themselves.
From 1935, the Nazi state operated Germany’s largest mushroom farm here.
In 1944, the tunnels were used as a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, a production facility for the assembly of mobile launching pads for V2 long-range missiles designed by Wernher von Braun.
In 1997, the federal government gave up the “Marienthal Office” completely.
Since March 1, 2008, a total of 203 meters of the building have been open to the public as the “Government Bunker Documentation Site” in Kuxberg.
Published by Gaasterland Verlag by Heinz Schönewald 80 pages, 21 x 13.5 cm, paperback, 62 illustrations ISBN 978-3-935873-74-1