Geheime Bunker der DDR und Schweiz

When the Wall came down in 1989, exactly 15 years ago, the best-kept secrets of the GDR also came to light. To the amazement of the GDR citizens, it was revealed that Honecker, Mielke and others had extensive underground bunkers built for emergencies. Deep underground, protected by meter-thick reinforced concrete, they wanted to survive a nuclear war. Billions of marks were earmarked to provide bomb-proof SPIEGEL TV author Michael Kloft visited some of these facilities that have been preserved in their original state or were later used by the Bundeswehr. He also found abandoned NVA missile sites and forgotten Stasi informant bunkers. Finally, he and his camera team even gained access to the sealed bunker facilities Switzerland's old bunkers look like haystacks, weekend houses or farm cottages. It is only on closer inspection that windows, curtains, flower boxes and balconies turn out to be “fakes”, meticulously applied to concrete walls with paint and a brush. And behind the shutters, there are often The so-called “false chalets” were once Switzerland's answer to the threat posed by Nazi Germany. The Swiss built more than 26,000 of these military installations throughout the country to defend the country's neutrality in their own way. Many of them were still in operation after But the army leadership didn't just have camouflaged military installations built along the border. A bulwark for the last defensive battle, the “Reduit National”, was blown up in the middle of the inaccessible high Alps: a veritable fortress with kilometers of underground passageways, spread over several floors Secrecy was paramount, and until the end of the war, treason was punishable by death. It was only when the first objects of this kind began to be decommissioned in 1995 that their existence became known to the public. Together with photographer Christian Schwager, SPIEGEL TV author Frank Gensthaler visited many of these sometimes bizarre structures and also explored the underground of the Swiss defense system. For the first time, the army leadership also granted permission to film the interior of its command bunkers. However, the exact location of the entrances and exits were not allowed to be filmed. They remain secret.