Steintorwall underground bunker

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Former entrance to the underground bunker next to the main train station (2012), in the background on the left the concrete exhaust shaft, both demolished or built over in 2017.

The Steintorwall underground bunker is located next to Hamburg's main train station and was built between 1941 and 1944 during the Second World War, following the adoption of the “immediate Führer program” . The bunker is a three-story, underground civil defense system , which, due to its proximity to the main train station, was intended to offer protection from possible air attacks mainly to passing rail passengers. The developer for the bunker was the Deutsche Reichsbahn .

The underground bunker consists of two independent but interconnected subsystems. It has a total area of ​​2700 m²; the concrete walls are 3.75 m thick. After completion of the construction, the bunker could accommodate 2,460 people.

After the end of the Second World War, the bunker facilities were dismantled in 1945 at the instigation of the Allied control authorities . However, the underground bunker could neither be dismantled nor blown up, as the danger was too great that the main station could have been damaged. In addition, many bunkers were used as living and storage space after the war; the Steintorwall underground bunker temporarily served as a hotel.

During the Cold War , the Protection Building Act was passed in November 1962 , which called for the restoration and expansion of existing air raid systems in order to protect the population from possible nuclear attacks. In 1965, construction work began to enable the bunker to be used as a shelter for the population. Modern pressure doors, ventilation, filter, emergency power and other supply systems were installed, which would have made it possible to stay in the bunker for several days.

The ventilation systems should suck in contaminated outside air and process it through various filter systems so that it is available to the people in the bunker as breathing air. Larger particles such as soot were filtered out by sand filters. By activated carbon filters , so-called "ABC-Filter", took place the fine filtration of contaminated small particles. The ventilation system was operated by electricity generators, which should also supply the bunker with electricity. The technical systems are located in the third basement of the bunker and are ready for use. The operating instructions are located with the respective machines in order to ensure operation by untrained personnel. The water supply was ensured by drilling its own deep well, which was located at a depth of 160 m under the bunker. It ensures both the drinking water supply and the supply of cooling water to the diesel engines that operate the power generators.

The renovation was completed at the end of 1969 and, due to the extended length of stay, now offered protection to 2702 people. Overcrowding was no longer possible after the renovation, as the built-in ventilation systems were designed for the number of protected areas. For this reason, so-called “dosing systems” were installed at the entrances to the bunker, which could be closed by the internal control rooms when the maximum number of people was reached in order to prevent overcrowding.

Today the bunker is maintained and serviced by the “Hamburger Unterwelten” association. Access is now only possible via side entrances, as the main entrances were built over during renovation work by Deutsche Bahn at the main station. Above the bunker there was a massive concrete column through which the exhaust gases from the diesel engine were released to the surface. There was also a VHF antenna on the top for communication with the outside world. The column was demolished in 2017.

literature

  • Ulrich Alexis Christiansen: Hamburg's dark worlds. The mysterious underground of the Hanseatic city, Ch. Links Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86153-837-0 , pp. 143–160.
  • Michael Foedrowitz : Bunker Worlds. Air raid systems in northern Germany. Ch. Links, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86153-155-0 .
  • Helga Schmal, Tobias Selke: Bunker - air protection and air defense construction in Hamburg. With the collaboration of Henning Angerer. Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1385-0 , ( cultural authority, monument protection office. Topic series 7).
  • Ronald Rossig: Hamburg's bunker. Dark Worlds of the Hanseatic City, Ch. Links Verlag 2014, p. 52 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d The public air raid shelter Steintorwall - A forgotten underground place in Hamburg's city center on unter-hamburg.de . Retrieved January 29, 2012
  2. ↑ The bunker at Hamburg Central Station - Steintorwall underground bunker on hamburgerunterwelten.de . Retrieved February 3, 2012
  3. ↑ "This underground bunker is full of surprises", Die Welt, Hamburg part, April 17, 2017.

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 9 ″  N , 10 ° 0 ′ 21 ″  E