# 10 Best Hidden Cold War Sites in the Former West Germany > Bunkers, missile bases and secret Cold War sites across West Germany. We reveal where to find them and how to get inside. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/10-luchshykh-skrtkh-mest-kholodnoi-voin-v-bvshei-zapadnoi-hermanyy/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-04-02 - Categories: Culture, Historic Sites, Leisure, Museums, Tours, Germany --- Berlin and its infamous wall are the epicenter of Cold War tourism, yet plenty of other places across Germany still capture the tension between East and West that followed World War II. Many significant sites can still be found throughout the country, relics of a time when West Germany was a Cold War flashpoint. There are hidden bunkers, former missile silos turned into art galleries, and secret airfields sitting right beside the highways. Here is a list of the 10 best Cold War sites west of the former border of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). ## Marienthal Bunker The government bunker is a huge underground complex once meant to shelter the West German government in the event of a Soviet invasion or even nuclear war. Located roughly 16 miles south of the former capital of Bonn, tucked among the beautiful vineyards of the Ahr Valley, it was built between 1960 and 1972 inside two railway tunnels. It was decommissioned in 1997, but has since reopened as the Government Bunker Documentation Center, where visitors can tour the retired control room and even a replica of the German chancellor's modest bedroom. Bunker Marienthal; +49 2441 775171 ## Raketenstation Hombroich If you are drawn to art set inside a former NATO missile base, you can visit Hombroich near Neuss. Built in 1967 as part of a new air-defense chain, the base was first run by American and then Belgian forces, and later by a counterterrorism unit of the German federal police, which used the site briefly for training after 1990. In 1994, collector and patron Heinrich Müller bought the base and turned this place of missiles into a place of culture. The halls, hangars and even the watchtower were restored with the help of artists and architects such as Erwin Heerich, Tadao Ando and Álvaro Siza. Today, artists, writers and composers from around the world live and work on the former missile base, which is open to the public for exhibitions and events. Museum Insel Hombroich, Minkel 2, 41472 Neuss, Germany: +49 2182 887 4000 ## Marienborn Border Crossing ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-18-1-2024.jpg) The Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint on the border between Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt was once the largest and most important crossing point on the inner-German border. It was the shortest overland route between West Germany and West Berlin, so most transit traffic funneled through this crossing, which turned it into a bottleneck. The GDR facilities needed to handle all that traffic (and to catch potential spies and refugees fleeing the East) were enormous. Today they have been restored as a free museum, with an adjoining rest area and restaurant beside the A2 autobahn. Marienborn, Memorial German pision Marienborn, Federal Highway 2, 39365 Marienborn, Germany; +49 (0) 39406 920 90 ## A Stretch of the A29 Autobahn Another intriguing rest area sits along the A29 autobahn, just north of Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony. This unremarkable strip of concrete beside the roaring traffic was where massive C-130 Hercules transport planes and A-10 Thunderbolt fighters landed and took off during the NATO exercise "Highway 84" in 1984. Originally a Nazi idea, these improvised airfields were increasingly built into German autobahns during the Cold War. (Even the American Ramstein Air Base evolved from a Luftwaffe highway airstrip.) Most of them have now been reintegrated into rest areas or the autobahn itself. ## Barbarastollen ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-18-2-2024.jpg) Barbarastollen is a huge underground archive designed to protect Germany's cultural heritage from possible disasters. Set inside a disused mine near Freiburg im Breisgau, the archive holds microfilm with roughly 900 million images from German records and museums. Built at the height of the Cold War in 1974, the archive contains fascinating microfilm facsimiles such as the Peace of Westphalia treaty that ended the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), correspondence of the writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and the construction plans for Cologne Cathedral. The entire complex is hidden beneath 400 meters of rock and is designed to survive a nuclear war. Its contents are estimated to last another 500 years without serious damage. Visits and tours are only possible by prior appointment. The Barbarastollen, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ## Zweiländermuseum Rodachtal The division of Germany also deeply affected people living in rural areas, far from international attention. At the Zweiländermuseum Rodachtal on the border between Thuringia and Bavaria, there are 10 open-air museum stations along the former border, plus a main exhibition inside a typical local timber house. Here visitors can learn about events that were every bit as dramatic and devastating for the local population as anything that happened in Berlin: entire villages were demolished to make way for border fortifications, along with Aktion Ungeziefer ("Operation Vermin") in 1952, the forced eviction of the citizens of Streufdorf, who rose up against it. Zweiländermuseum Rodachtal, 98646 Straufhain, Germany; +49 36875 50651 ## Haus der Geschichte ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-18-3-2024.jpg) Although the Haus der Geschichte ("House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany") is a museum rather than a site directly tied to the Cold War, it is still one of the best places in Germany to learn about the post-1945 history of the FRG and the GDR, and about what happened after reunification. Housed in a spacious modern building in the former West German capital of Bonn, its captivating permanent exhibitions feature American jeeps, the so-called Rosinenbomber (Raisin Bombers) used during the 1948 Berlin Blockade, and iconic cars from both sides of the Iron Curtain, the Volkswagen Beetle and the Trabant. It is also a great place to start exploring the former capital. The museum organizes tours to the nearby Chancellor's bungalow and the former site of the Federal Assembly. Haus der Geschichte, Museumsmeile, Willy-Brandt-Allee 14, 53113 Bonn, Germany; +49 228 91 65400 ## Pattonville This is an example of how some of the former US Air Force sites and barracks were repurposed after the Cold War. Pattonville is a large residential district built by the US Army just north of Stuttgart as part of the Stuttgart military community, named after World War II general George S. Patton. From 1955 to 1992, Pattonville was also home to Stuttgart American High School, which at its peak held 1,200 students. Once surrounded by fences and checkpoints, the installation was handed back to the German government in 1994 and opened as housing for local residents. The streets are named after various US states, and the nearby airfield serves as a base for a rescue helicopter. ## Mödlareuth ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-18-4-2024.jpg) Like Rodachtal, Mödlareuth is a tiny German village that was split by the Cold War front line in Europe. The northern part of the village, in Thuringia, became part of the Soviet occupation zone in 1945. After 1952, a series of border fences went up, and the wall dividing the two halves of Mödlareuth was built in 1966, five years after the one in Berlin. American troops in the area nicknamed Mödlareuth "Little Berlin," and in 1983 US Vice President George H. W. Bush visited and exclaimed, "Ich bin ein Mödlareuther!" The border was reopened to pedestrians in December 1989, and most of the remaining wall was torn down a year later. Today the open-air museum preserves part of the original wall, along with replicas of the border installations, giving visitors a chance to experience this Little Berlin far from the tourist crowds at the Brandenburg Gate. Mödlareuth, Mödlareuth 13, 95183 Töpen, Germany; +49 9295 1334 ## Grenzhus Schlagsdorf ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-18-5-2024.jpg) The inner-German border also cut through the northern parts of the country. Grenzhus Schlagsdorf ("Schlagsdorf Border House") is located near Lübeck. This memorial and museum includes a section of the former inner-German border between the Baltic Sea and the Elbe River. Rather than focusing on the perspective of a single side, visitors here can gain insight into the experiences of West German citizens, East German border guards, or even refugees from the GDR. Grenzhus Schlagsdorf, Neubauernweg 1, 19217 Schlagsdorf, Germany; + 49 38875 20326 ## Observation Post Alpha It was not only GDR border guards who watched the West from their observation towers; the West kept an eye on the East as well. One such accessible vantage point is Observation Post Alpha, between Rasdorf in Hesse and Geisa in Thuringia. The post overlooked the famous Fulda Gap, one of the main potential invasion routes for Warsaw Pact forces. The post was decommissioned in 1991, and now houses a museum, a replica of the post, a strip of the former GDR border, plus several military vehicles and a visitor center. Point Alpha, Am Hummelsberg 1 D-36169 Rasdorf, Germany; + 49 6651 919030 ## Probstzella Railway Museum ![](/storage/image/prev/september-article-image-18-6-2024.jpg) The Iron Curtain affected not only pedestrians and the autobahn, but rail travel too. Probstzella station in Thuringia, although technically not in West Germany, was a stop for many rail journeys from the West. Used as a GDR border checkpoint from 1949 to 1990, nearly 20 million travelers were inspected and sometimes arrested here. It is still a working station, and the faceless concrete border checkpoint behind the 1885 station building is home to the GDR Railway Museum. The exhibition provides information about the GDR regime, the restrictions on rail traffic between East and West, and the many escape attempts through the Probstzella border railway station. Probstzella Railroad Museum, the Grenzbahnhof Museum, Thuringia, Germany