Top secret E German bunker open for short time

Holidaymakers feeling nostalgic for the Cold War can now tour what was once a top secret bunker in the former East Germany.

Opened to the public for the first time on Friday, it was meant to house the ruling Communist elite in the event of a nuclear attack.

Something some visitors said they were relieved was no longer a concern:

“What goes through my mind is that it is quite nice to stand around here, look at the bunker and talk to each other peacefully,” one man said.

Close to the size of a football field, the bunker was designed to function as a command centre and also as shelter for up to four hundred people for two weeks.

“This is where the East German Defence Council and their chief Erich Honecker would have had to decontaminate themselves, if they came to the bunker after an atomic attack,” Hannes Hensel from the Bunker 5001 club said.

But this relic of the Communist regime will only be open to the public for the next two months.

To deter intruders searching for momentos, the bunker will be sealed permanently in October.

Copyright © 2009 euronews