Vineyard Holds War Secrets

Filed in archive German Wines on November 28, 2006

The whole iron curtain thing seems so long ago that even for those of us alive at the time, it seems like a different world. Did that really happen?

I remember my high school German teacher telling us stories of how she traveled through Germany during her college days and "crossed the iron curtain." We were all amazed! How did you get out alive!

Today there seem to still be secrets over there, and one in particular is held by the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler vineyards. Soon tourists will be able to pick up a bottle of vino while taking a strange trip into the past.

More from In Vineyards, a German 'Dr. Strangelove' Secret:

At the end of a serpentine road here, flanked by pinot noir vineyards, an unmarked door is cut into a hillside. Behind it lies one of the most secret places in the former West Germany: a vast subterranean bunker to shelter the government in the event of a nuclear war.

That door finally swung open this week - nine years after this cold war relic had been consigned to history - as the German government broke ground on a project to turn the bunker into a museum.

"People were very curious to see this secret place," said Florian Mausbach, the president of the Federal Authority for Construction and Urban Planning, which is overseeing the project. "I was struck by the idyllic scenery outside and the nightmare-like atmosphere inside."

Venturing into the labyrinth of dark tunnels is like wandering onto a set for "Dr. Strangelove," long after the lights have been switched off. Radiation decontamination rooms line the entrance hall. Black air horns hang on the walls, ready to bleat a signal that the 25-ton bombproof doors are about to shut. Signs warning of "lebensgefahr," or danger, are everywhere.

By early 2008, visitors will be able to stroll through a 656-foot stretch of tunnel, which will be restored to its vintage state. An adjoining visitor center will feature historical documents and photos, and perhaps even sell souvenirs of the bunker - a West German equivalent to the East German wall in Berlin.