Alternative seat of the state central bank NRW

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The alternative seat of the Landeszentralbank NRW was a secret nuclear bunker in Satzvey , a district of Mechernich in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Euskirchen . In the event of a nuclear war , the board of directors of the Landeszentralbank (LZB) and certain banking experts should seek protection and continue banking. In full protection, it would have been possible for the people to survive independently for 24 days.

During the Cold War , the State Central Bank of North Rhine-Westphalia set up its bunkered alternative seat under today's Waldorf School at Veybach (then the central school). The construction work lasted from 1965 to 1969. The project was given the code name Sonderbauwerk Steinfurt . The place Steinfurt never existed here.

From Satzvey, the LZB management staff evacuated from Düsseldorf was supposed to maintain the smooth flow of money and capital in North Rhine-Westphalia during the war times feared at the time. In the bunker, which was top secret, there was even a storage room with a substitute currency called BBK II . These banknotes were also stored at the Bundesbank in Frankfurt am Main and in their bunker in Cochem . After the end of the Cold War, the banknotes were completely destroyed.

One problem was opening the 10 ton vault door to the storage room. There was neither a number combination nor the two necessary keys. Suddenly the Galileo editorial team from ProSieben answered . She brought a specialist from Hamburg with her who was able to crack the heavy safe door, which had been locked for 20 years, within 2 hours.

The alternative seat of the LZB had a floor area of ​​2500 m² on two floors. He had 70 rooms and 107 beds. The bunker was given to the city of Mechernich. It was locked for 20 years and also not accessible due to water ingress. In 1989 the last exercises took place in the bunker. It was given up in 1990. It was only renovated in 2012 and opened for tours.

  • Sign at the entrance

  • Press articles

  • Bedroom

  • Bunker corridor

  • Storage of the substitute currency

  • Note for the replacement currency BBK II

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ C. Lubbe: The special structure of the state central bank NRW. In: geschichtsspuren.de. Retrieved August 9, 2015 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 37 '12.3 "  N , 6 ° 41' 54.7"  E