Visitors Tour Former West Germany's Biggest Cold War-Era Bunker

BAD NEUENAHR-AHRWEILER, GERMANY - MAY 03: The command central of the Cold War-era former West German government bunker pictured on May 03, 2023 near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany. The bunker, built at the site of a railway tunnel inside hills, had the capacity to sleep 936 people, had over 800 office rooms and would have served as a shelter to keep the West German government functioning in the event of war. Russia's current war in Ukraine and its recent stationing of nuclear missiles in Belarus has revived memories of the Cold War. Both West and East Germany had extensive bunker systems that Germany's post-reunification government chose to abandon in 2007, citing the post-Cold War era peace dividend and claiming that bunkers would be largely useless in the event of a nuclear war anyway. (Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)