The Falkenhagen Bunker is an abandoned semi-submerged and

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

-level military industrial complex, just north of the town of

Falkenhagen Falkenhagen is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north an ...

in the district

Märkisch-Oderland Märkisch-Oderland is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the eastern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring this district are (from the north clockwise) the district of Barnim, the country of Poland, the district-free city of Frankfurt (Oder), the d ...

, in

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was originally designed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

for the production of N-stoff (

chlorine trifluoride Chlorine trifluoride is an interhalogen compound with the formula . It is a colorless, poisonous, corrosive, and extremely reactive gas that condenses to a pale-greenish yellow liquid, the form in which it is most often sold (pressurized at room ...

); it never reached its potential before being overrun by the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

in 1945. The site was eventually reconstructed by the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

to become its main command and control bunker outside the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Nazi Germany: 1938–1945

Under the

code name A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in ...

N-stoff ("substance N"), chlorine trifluoride was investigated for military applications by the

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science () was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by the Max Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organi ...

in Nazi Germany from slightly before the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Tests were made against mock-ups of the

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (; ), named after the Minister of War (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, France in the 1930s to deter invas ...

fortifications, and it was found to be an effective incendiary and

poison gas Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal concentration) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious ...

weapon combined. From 1938 construction commenced on a partly bunkered, partly subterranean 14,000 m² munitions factory at Falkenhagen, which was intended to produce 50

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s of N-stoff per month, plus

Sarin Sarin (NATO designation GB nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic organophosphorus compound.Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in 1945, the factory had produced only about 30 to 50 tonnes, at a cost of over 100 German Reichsmarks per kilogram. N-stoff was never used during the war.

Soviet Army: 1945–1993

After the end of World War II, and with the Soviets aware of the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

's nuclear and chemical capability, the fate of the Falkenhagen complex was secured as a research facility. Little is known of what exact research was undertaken, but the complex was operational as a Soviet Army facility throughout the 1950s. In 1965, the Warsaw Pact countries established a main command post at Falkenhagen. The bunkers were extended and refurbished, and complex communications technology was installed, creating a state-of-the-art nuclear and chemical warfare-proof underground bunker with supporting facilities. From intelligence created by the Western Allies, the complex was seen as the main bunker of the Warsaw Pact outside the Soviet Union. Developed over the years, the once sparse industrial complex gained a Soviet military village, containing a theatre, shops, a school, housing and medical facilities.

Abandonment: 1993–present

When East and West Germany were reunified in 1989–90, the Soviets agreed to hand back their bases to the German authorities by 1994. They spent the next three years stripping the Falkenhagen Bunker of all signs of military occupation, leaving only the hardened concrete subterranean structures when they left the complex in 1993.

References

#Heini Hofmann: secret object "Seewerk". Secret object from the Third Reich's most important secret object of the Warsaw Pact, Heinrich Jung Verlagsges, 2nd enlarged edition, 2008, #Peter Rentsch, Thomas Kemnitz: Leadership complex Falkenhagen, vimudeap edition, 2005, #Operational plan of the Soviet occupation forces in Germany, 1946, in Military History Journal #Joachim Kampe: bunkers of the Cold War, video documentation to the bunkers in Falkenhagen, Harnekop, Kolkwitz, Strausberg, Wollenberg and Wünsdorf

External links

Tour of the abandoned Falkenhagen Bunker
{{coord, 52, 25, 48.58, N, 14, 21, 19.63, E, source:dewiki_region:DE-BY_scale:1500_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Nazi subterranea Military facilities of the Soviet Union in Germany Buildings and structures in Märkisch-Oderland Chemical plants Bunkers in Germany