Grosser Atomschutz-Bunker in Güdingen

Useful Information

Location:	ZSA Hochstraße, 66130 Güdingen. (49.206946, 7.034252)
Open:	Online Booking with Ticket Regional mandatory. [2023]
Fee:	Adults EUR 8. [2023]
Classification:	Secret Bunker
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	T=13 °C.
Guided tours:	D=1.5 h, St=42.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Florian Brunner (2011): Unterirdisches Saarbrücken – Stollen, Bunker, Felsenkeller - Einblicke in den Saarbrücker Untergrund, Geistkirch-Verlag, Saarbrücken 2011, ISBN 978-3-938889-36-7. DNB
Address:	Unterirdisches Saarland e.V., Florian Brunner, Lerchenweg 18, 66121 Saarbrücken, Tel: +49-681-950-84-67. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2011	bunker becomes known through a book publication.

Description

The Grosse Atomschutz-Bunker in Güdingen (large nuclear protection bunker) is a civilian nuclear protection bunker for Saarbrücken city. These nuclear bunkers were the fig leaf of the Cold War, bunkers that were built at a cost of millions and then only offered protection from nuclear attacks to a few per cent or even a few per thousand of the population. The bunker has 1,800 places, but Saarbrücken has 180,000 inhabitants, that is 1%. As their location was secret, they would only have been found by the citizens with sufficient warning time anyway. And then the bunker would only have been self-sufficient for 4 weeks. After that, the diesel runs out, the air supply no longer works, and people are forced to leave the bunker. Of course, it was only a simplification that the radiation would have decreased sufficiently after 4 weeks. The nuclear flash only lasts a fraction of a second, the radioactive isotopes pollute the environment, and only a small proportion of short-lived isotopes have already decayed after four weeks. Presumably only a few of the bunker occupants would have survived the next two days on the surface. This is the title of the homepage of Unterirdisches Saarland e.V., which has made this bunker accessible to the public: 28 days of survival.

These nuclear bunkers were built in great numbers in the 1950s and 1960s. Not nearly enough, of course, but a considerable amount of money was spent on them. Some were bunkers for politicians, the military, civil defence and much more. Some were hospitals. And then there were bunkers like this one, for the population. And they all had the same shortcomings: they were inadequate. Too small, too few, too poorly equipped, too poorly maintained. Its obvious that these bunkers were intended to soothe the conscience, to allow people to say: we did something. But even then, nobody believed that these bunkers were useful.

Nevertheless, the bunker is worth seeing. The inconspicuous door next to a side road in the railway embankment of the motorway gives no indication of what lies behind it. Such nuclear bunkers were built in all cities, but this is probably the only one under a motorway. However, the structure is the same for all such bunkers. Common rooms with folding chairs and bunk beds that had to be shared by three people at a time; you had to sleep in shifts. The reason is simple: with 2,000 m² for 1,800 people, each person has just one square metre. If you don't want to sleep standing up, you have to come up with something. In addition, the 2,000 m² include the infrastructure: electricity generators, drinking water treatment, air filtration, sanitary facilities, kitchen, canteen and storage rooms for clothing and food, as well as decontamination. You have to assume that people will arrive contaminated and their clothing will have to be disposed of. That's why everyone is given a standard-sized tracksuit.