Secret architectures

Secrecy, camouflage and distraction characterised the construction of fortified monuments in the 20th century. 

Whether camouflaged Swiss gun emplacements in the Alps, Nazi Führer headquarters, command bunkers and army listening posts during the Cold War or even civil defence facilities, they were all hidden from public view. Planning, construction and operation were carried out in the strictest secrecy. These include headquarters such as the Wolf's Lair near Rastenburg (Ketrzyn, PL) or the numerous bunkers in Berlin, Hamburg or Vienna.

Only years after the end of the war did many of these unknown monuments open up and present their history as museums, e.g. along the major defence lines of the 20th century such as the West Wall, the Maginot Line or the Atlantic Wall.

During the Cold War, NATO and the Warsaw Pact built deep bunkers as so-called alternative headquarters for government bodies in order to keep the political and military leadership afloat and operational. The Soviet Army maintained several bunkers at its headquarters in Wünsdorf, south of Berlin. The NVA also built nuclear bunkers in the former GDR, such as today's Kulturbunker Strausberg. The Federal Bank bunker bunker was built in the tranquil Moselle town of Cochem to secure the Federal Republic's currency reserves.