Tiefbunker Steintorwall, Altstadt, Hamburg

(translation of the original german text review by jens16225)

Under the wide sidewalk of the Steintorwall near the main railroad station lies Hamburg’s largest underground fallout shelter (bunker). It reaches from the station’s entrance all the way to the Steintordamm intersection. Although I came across this place maybe a hundred times, I never realized the bunker entrances were right there or that there was a bunker at all. The huge, three-story bunker was built during World War 2 and provided shelter for up to 5000 people during that time.

After the war, the building was abandoned, but after the cuban missile crisis, it was re-fitted with new equipment for use as a fallout shelter for 2700 people to survive fourteen days. Before I took the tour with the Hamburger Unterwelten e.V. (Hamburg Underground Society), I didn’t know much about all this. On the ninety-minute tour, you learn a lot about the history of the bunkers in Hamburg, how a fallout shelter works and how it would have been like for the people in the case of a nuclear war. On the tour, we saw all three stories and all the technical equipment and the guide explained everything very well.

The tours are held in German, but English guides are available upon special arrangement.