Eichenthal bunker

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Entrance to the troposphere radio station Langsdorf

The Langsdorf bunker - only after the political change in the GDR was assigned the site-specific description of Bunker Eichenthal - is a bunker system of the strategic tropospheric communication system "BARS" (German translation: Snow Leopard) of the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact . It is located in the area of ​​the municipality of Lindholz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It is one of three tropospheric radio stations of the same type that were built on the territory of the GDR. Two further stations were built in Wollenberg near Bad Freienwalde (Oder) in Brandenburg and Röhrsdorf near Königsbrück in Saxony . The system worked as an alternative to all other organized communication links and was intended to maintain links for upper management in the event of a nuclear war .

Pre-turn usage

Classification of the troposphere radio stations in the command and communication system

The bunker was built between 1983 and 1988. The year of completion 1986 mentioned in the media and on the internet is not applicable. At the time of the official commissioning of the "BARS" system on December 1, 1987, the system was not yet completed. The main reason for this was the temporary withdrawal of construction workers to carry out another military construction project . Changes to the project of the tropospheric communication system in the phase of its implementation led to the weakening of operational demands on the tropospheric radio station Langsdorf, which justified the withdrawal of construction workers. The system was therefore neither special nor outstanding. Equipped with only one of four possible tropospheric radio sets, the Langsdorf system remained almost insignificant in the tropospheric communication system until 1990. In the national context, it was entered into the NVA's message system as a support message center 302 (StNZ).

The facility was designated as:

  • Rostock station (in general)
  • Tropospheric radio station Bad Sülze
  • Tropospheric radio station 302
  • Tropospheric radio center "SIROPNYI" (camouflage name)
  • Support message center 302

With the official commissioning of the system on December 1, 1987, the trial operation phase began. The Langsdorf troposphere radio station with the only tropospheric radio direction to Wollenberg was excluded from this. The tropospheric radio directions were driven according to program times, usually 100 hours in a row per month. This phase served both to qualify the staff and to ensure warranties. Problems, especially with the cooling of the transmission output stages ( klystrons ), did not lead to the transition to operational use earlier than on May 7, 1990.

It is not uncommon for the "opponent" to prevent early unmasking of the system as a reason for the trial operation phase in press publications and in minutes. Such statements are completely unfounded. Just putting a set of equipment into operation for only a short time is enough for the opponent to expose the system, if it is only wanted.

On May 10, 1990, the system's first operational news channels were switched from the main news center of the Ministry of National Defense in Strausberg to command posts abroad. The location of the Langsdorf plant was selected from the operational and strategic point of view of the deployment of the National People's Army (NVA) as part of the coalition of the Warsaw Pact participating states. It was in the planned action strip of the 5th Army ( Military District V ) of the NVA in the Western Front, consisting of GSSD and NVA. Only after the supply and installation of further tropospheric radio sets could it have served as a counterpart for the 5th Army.

In the event of a war, the Langsdorf tropospheric radio station was to switch news channels from the tropospheric news system to the nearby main command post (HGS) of the GDR People's Navy .

The establishment of the Langsdorf station and the others put a heavy strain on the state budget of the GDR and the country's economic resources. Already mentioned planning changes in the tropospheric communication system accommodated this circumstance and led to the mentioned changes in the expansion of the Langsdorf station. A remote station on the territory of the People's Republic of Poland was not available; the planned tropospheric axis along the coastal strip was suspended, the mobile tropospheric radio sets were promised for 1990 for introduction into the NVA. Everything u. a. Reasons for installing only one tropospheric radio set at Langsdorf station. With this set of equipment it was only possible to record one tropospheric radio direction, which was operated according to Wollenberg . With this level of equipment, the station differed significantly from that of the other stations in the GDR.

In the NVA's message system, the function and intended purpose of the tropospheric radio stations were obscured by assigning them the designation support message center 301-303 (StNZ). With these designations they went into the work of the news organs of command posts as well as the switching and operating staff of cooperating news centers.

Todays use

The bunker is privatized. Guided tours and visits are possible. It is preserved and represented as a Cold War memorial . It is not uncommon for it to form the background for TV documentaries, especially in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in which functions are assigned to the system that it never had to fulfill. In February 2014, NDR's "Nordmagazin" reported that the bunker belonged to the GDR's People's Navy and was the command post for planned attacks by the fleet against Denmark during the Cold War.

According to reports from visitors, the actual function and purpose of the facility is not the focus of tours, rather the dramaturgical staging of a nuclear weapon detonation without reference to the facility is demonstrated. The presentation of the Langsdorf bunker system thus differs significantly from the Wollenberg bunker system, which worked as a counterpart for Langsdorf. In Wollenberg the historical connections to the former function, purpose, role and tasks in the strategic tropospheric communication system and in the communication system of the NVA are conveyed to the visitors.

According to a report in the Ostsee-Zeitung on November 21, 2018, the operator of the bunker is in financial difficulties, which, according to his own statement, makes it questionable whether the museum will continue to operate.

literature

  • Joachim Kampe: The troposphere message system "BARS" and the Wollenberg bunker . Meißler, Hönow 2013, ISBN 978-3-932566-90-5
  • Hans-Werner Deim among other things: The military security of the GDR in the Cold War. Contents, structures, bunkered management positions, facilities. Meißler, Hönow 2008, ISBN 978-3-932566-80-6 .
  • Götz Thomas Wenzel: Secret object nuclear bunker. The Tropospheric Radio Station Eichenthal. 2nd revised edition. Links, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-388-7 , review of the book .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. https://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/Vorpommern/Ribnitz-Damgarten/Bunker-Eichenthal-vor-dem-Aus


Coordinates: 54 ° 3 ′ 45.2 ″  N , 12 ° 43 ′ 27.4 ″  E