Bunkerpark Wünsdorf

Useful Information

photography — Mosque in the Wünsdorf half-moon camp. Bunkerpark Wünsdorf, Deutschland. Public Domain.

Location:	Zehrensdorfer Str. 12, 15806 Zossen, Wünsdorf-Waldstadt. From Berlin B96 south through Zossen to Wünsdorf, turn left into Fritz-Jaeger-Allee, then right into Zehrensdorfer Straße. (52.1912135, 13.4688218)
Open:	All year Tue-Sun 10-17. Tour 1: MAY to SEP Tue-Fri 14, Sat, Sun, Hol 11, 13, 15. OCT to APR Tue-Fri 14, Sat, Sun, Hol 12, 14. Tour 2: see online calender. Tour 3: only with advance booking by telephone. Tour 4: only with advance booking by telephone. Tour 5: only with advance booking by telephone. Garnisonsmuseum & Roter Stern: MAR to OCT Tue-Fri 11-14, Sat, Sun, Hol 10-17. NOV to FEB Tue-Fri 11-14. Spitzbunker: MAR to OCT Tue-Fri 11-14, Sat, Sun, Hol 10-17. NOV to FEB Tue-Fri 11-14. [2025]
Fee:	Tour 1: Adults EUR 4. Tour 2: Adults EUR 40. Tour 3: Adults EUR 15. Tour 4: Adults EUR 20. Tour 5: Adults EUR 10, School Pupils EUR 8. Garnisonsmuseum & Roter Stern: Adults EUR 7. Spitzbunker: Adults EUR 4. [2025]
Classification:	World War II Bunker Secret Bunker
Light:	Incandescent bring torch
Dimension:
Guided tours:	Tour 1: D=1,5 h. Tour 2: D=4,5 h, MinAge=16. Tour 3: D=2,5 h. Tour 4: D=2,5 h. Tour 5: D=1 h.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	J. E. Kaufmann, H. W. Kaufmann (2003): Fortress Third Reich: German Fortifications and Defense Systems in World War II. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003. archive.org
Address:	Bücherstadt-Tourismus GmbH, Zehrensdorfer Str. 12, 15806 Zossen, Wünsdorf-Waldstadt, Tel: +49-33702–602-270. 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

1897	Station opened on the Berlin-Dresden railway line.
1906	Construction of a military training area.
1910	Barracks built.
1912	Telephone and telegraph office built.
1913	Infantry school opened.
1914	Wünsdorf Mosque built as the first mosque in the German Empire.
1937-1939	Bunker Wünsdorf Zeppelin built.
1947	Bunkers and air-raid shelters blown up by the Red Army in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.
1953	Population forced to evacuate the site, 800 inhabitants are resettled and B96 is closed, Forbidden City.
1992	Dismantling of the complex by the Red Army.
1994	Withdrawal of the Red Army.

Description

The Bunkerpark Wünsdorf (Wünsdorf Bunker Park) or Bunkerstadt Wünsdorf (Wünsdorf Bunker Town) is a group of different bunkers in a forest between Wünsdorf and Zossen. The small village of Wünsdorf south of Berlin is also known as the "Bücherdorf" (‘book village’) because three large antiquarian bookshops are a major tourist attraction. But it is also the location of a less visible attraction, the Wünsdorf Bunker Park. This is a series of underground bunkers with different uses, which were started before the Second World War. However, there are also bunkers that were built during the time of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and were used by both the Red Army and the GDR government. But the story starts much earlier.

After Wünsdorf was given a railway station on the Berlin-Dresden line in 1897, a military training area and an infantry school were established from 1906. The village of Zehrendorf was dissolved and the inhabitants resettled. A special event occurred in 1914, when the Wünsdorf mosque was built as the first mosque in the German Empire. The Ottoman Empire was the ally of the Central Powers, and so the Halbmondlager (Half Moon Camp) was set up, reserved exclusively for prisoners of war of Islamic faith. After the war, the German military was severely restricted by the Weimar Pact and the site was used by the newly founded Volkssportbewegung. In 1934, it was converted into the Wünsdorf Army Sports School and developed into a centre for fast troops and tank troops. During the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the German athletes were accommodated here.

The Nachrichtenbunker Zeppelin (communication bunker Z) had four storeys and was the most important communications hub in the Third Reich. It was built by the German Reichspost on behalf of the Army High Command of the Wehrmacht between 1937 and 1939. The telecommunications bunker was also known as the Nachrichtenzentrale Zeppelin (Zeppelin communications centre) and Amt 500 . The latter was both a cover name and a postal address. The bunker consists of a two-storey longitudinal building 117 m × 22 m and a 57 × 40 m three-storey extension at a right angle. Three tunnels were the official entrances, one to the north, one to the west, and one to the south which connected the bunker with the Maybach I bunker complex. During construction, an entrance was added from above; the so-called Reichspostgebäude was built above the extension on the surface, which was connected to the bunker below by a staircase and a goods lift. The first test run was as early as 1939. On 25 August, the Army High Command was relocated to Zossen and from then on, all wartime communications were conducted via these headquarters. Zeppelin remained the Wehrmacht’s most important, largest and, at the time, most modern communications centre throughout Second World War. For this reason, it was occupied by the Red Army with priority in 1945. This meant that the Wehrmacht had no opportunity to destroy it and even the telecommunications equipment was largely undestroyed.

However, the Red Army decided not to use the bunker. Although it was not destroyed, it was left to its own devices and was therefore partially flooded by groundwater. This changed in 1953, when the Oberkommando der Gruppe der Sowjetischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland (High Command of the Group of Soviet Armed Forces in Germany, GSSD) was assigned various new tasks following the dissolution of the Soviet Control Commission in June 1953. It had already been relocated to Wünstorf and Zossen-Wünsdorf in 1946. The area now became a restricted area, known as the Verbotene Stadt (Forbidden City), and developed into the largest garrison of Soviet troops in the GDR. The flooded bunker was pumped out and dried out and, with considerable conversion work, became the protected command centre of the GSSD High Command. Although the bunker had been built to be gas-proof, it was then converted into a nuclear bunker. Several airlocks were installed for this purpose. The bunker contained workrooms for the staff departments of the High Command as well as the Ranet intelligence centre. With the withdrawal of the Russian troops after reunification, the bunker ceased operations and was dismantled from 1992. The Russian army finally left in 1994 and the site was redeveloped for civilian use. Former barracks buildings were converted into modern residential units.

The Bunkeranlage Maybach I was part of the Zossen command centre. It was used by the Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command, OKH) as its headquarters during the Second World War. Next to it was the Bunkeranlage Maybach II, which served as the headquarters of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht High Command, OKW). The bunker complex was disguised as a country house estate with 12 dummy houses with artificial roofs, windows and doors. After the end of the war, both bunkers were dismantled and blown up by the Red Army. It is unclear why the dummy houses were not also destroyed; they still exist today, but are in a very poor condition despite being listed buildings.

The visit to the book and bunker town of Wünsdorf begins at the antiquarian bookshop Haus Oskar at Zehrensdorfer Str. 12, where you will also find the ticket office and the starting point for the bunker tours. Tour I visits the Maybach I and Zeppelin bunkers and takes place daily. The other tours take place on specific days, which can be found in the online calendar. You must register for all tours either by telephone or e-mail. Tour 2 also visits Maybach I and Zeppelin, but you spend over 4 hours in the bunkers. Tour 3 deals with the time when the site belonged to the Red Army, Tour 4 shows four bunkers, including the Soviet bunkers as well as the two German bunkers. Finally, Tour 5 shows the above-ground parts of Maybach 1, the dummy houses which can also be viewed from the inside. Good footwear, warm clothing and a torch, preferably a head torch, are strongly recommended.

Other sights include various high-rise bunkers or blockhouses that can be visited without a guided tour. These include the Spitzbunker (pointed bunkers), popularly known as "Betonzigarren" (‘concrete cigars’), "Zigarrenstummel" ('cigar stubs'), or "Zuckerrüben" ('sugar beets'), which are also known as H (Winkel towers) after their architect Leo Winkel. There were originally 19 such pointed bunkers, the largest concentration in Germany, some of which were destroyed by the Soviets after the war. One of them is freely accessible like an open-air museum. The Garnisonsmuseum Wünsdorf (Wünsdorf Garrison Museum) tells the military history of the site from 1910 to 1945, while the Museum Roter Stern (Red Star Museum) explains the history of the Soviet/Russian troops in Germany from 1945 to 1994. There is also the Neue Galerie (New Gallery) of the Teltow Fläming district and the Fontane Kabinett (Fontane Cabinet) in the Gutenberghaus. Several restaurants and cafés round off the offer. We would recommend planning a whole day for the visit.