Site Records

Site Name: Strausberg - NVA Communications and Operations bunkers

Strausberg
East Germany

Sub Brit site visit 1st May 2001

Strausberg is a town c.17 km east of Berlin. Two inter-linked bunkers are located within a still active military area with a small operational airfield nearby.

One was the main communications bunker in that area for the East German Ministry of Defence and the other, a command centre for Ministry of Defence officers. The communications bunker is the larger of the two approximately 30m X 70m on two levels. The bunker is below a large car park and is connected by tunnel to the basement of a multi-storey office building and by a long tunnel to the two level operations bunker which is semi sunken. The upper level being mounded over and grassed.

The communications bunker was linked to a remote transmitter station at Kargel and was built in two weakly-linked halves, to provide for possible dislocation as a result of a nuclear weapon burst. The bunkers were built in the 1980's and were a much visited model for other Warsaw Pact military administrations.

At the time of our visit, the bunker was in the process of being stripped out, the lighting and air conditioning plant was still working but most of the rooms had been stripped of any original fittings including a vast room in the centre of the bunker which was completely empty. Some equipment was however still in place including the main distribution frame, pneumatic message apparatus (similar to the Lamson Tube) and the NBC air filtration plant. The control room for the ventilation plant was fully operational and in use.

Our guides were Colonel Kampe, a former NVA commander at the communications bunker for 10 years and Col. Brand, who was an officer in the operations bunker. Col. Kampe explained that there were separate, secure (and better furnished and decorated) STASI rooms, to which he had no access! These had direct lines to Moscow. During their short operational life the bunkers were in daily use by the East German Ministry of Defence and in the event of a threat developing the staff would have gone to Harnekop.

The operations bunker is reached by a long tunnel from the upper floor of the communications bunker. Halfway along the tunnel is the main plant room that would have housed the stand-by generators. These had been removed although their mountings were still in place along with trunking and some electrical switchgear

There was no longer any power in the two level operations bunker although much of the equipment and plant was still in place. The command centre had a raised gallery with telephones and sliding map panels.

We were told that once the bunkers had been stripped back to bare concrete they would be sealed.

For further pictures of the Strausberg bunkers click here

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