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This time, we are somewhere in the German countryside.
Today, we are revisiting a former military property we have explored long ago.
A few meters under our feet, there is a relic from the Cold War:
A secret nuclear bunker.
After the Fall of the Iron Curtain, the area - including the bunker - was sold to a private citizen.
In early 2021, he had to intervene and seal the underground structure because it was flooded.
There is no way to enter it anymore.
But long before that, one of the access points was unsealed and wide open.
In some kind of cloak-and-dagger operation, we went inside.
In this video, Tobi and Marco spend a night in the bunker.
It is a facility with 25 rooms buried around six meters below ground level.
As both ventured down, they quickly realized that the bunker remained untouched since it was decommissioned
and partly stripped more than 20 years ago.
Even the electricity was still running when they got there!
Like an interactive museum, this bunker allows an unspoiled look into the time of the Cold War
when the human race was facing the real possibility of extinction due to a nuclear war.
Today, the threat seems to be gone and the original entrance of the bunker was cross-barred for good.
Let's join Tobi and Marco as they give us a tour of this hidden and historical structure.
Behind heavy steel doors, there are quarters and workspaces.
To make it a doomsday-proof fallout shelter the bunker has outside and inner walls that are several meters thick.
This would guarantee operation in case of an atomic attack.
The complex dates back to the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was built and the Vietnam War escalated.
The Cold War had reached a critical stage at that point.
As German forces constructed the underground facility,
the population of the surrounding villages guessed that something was off here -
but silence was ordered.
We have now reached the decontamination equipment.
What you will see next are the crew quarters.
All of the walls were painted with fluorescent color,
so in case of a blackout everyone could still see the barriers, and of course, find the way leading outside.
This space might have been used to store the reserve food.
The bunker was operating self-sufficiently and designed in a way that a personnel of 100 people could survive for one month.
This, for example, is the fuel supply - with large diesel tanks.
This was not a pleasant sleepover.
Tobi and Marco later told for military bunk beds, it was kind of comfortable - but it was cold.
However, at least not as freezing as outside the bunker.
If you consider that this was only intended for real emergencies like a nuclear winter, they can't really complain.
In this section of the bunker, we are about to find out what it was built for.
This is one of more than 30 telecommunication bunkers in Western Germany.
Together, they formed a network and the backbone of military telecommunication at the very front of the Cold War.
These expensive and technically well-equipped facilities
were built to ensure that NATO troops can still communicate in case of a nuclear strike.
Let's see how that worked.
This is a vintage telephone switchboard that still seems to be in pristine condition.
Back then, the operators needed to manually plug each connection to establish phone calls.
Obviously, ciphering equipment was also installed here.
To save energy, it is even possible to turn off all the lights in every room of the bunker from here.
And there is even this funny bell that is rattling through the whole bunker.
Right next door, there is the cable division room.
The entry of the telecommunication cables is located here.
Also this was built in a way, that it would still be operational after a nuclear attack.
Even though the Cold War had already been over for some time,
this telecommunication bunker was not decommissioned before the late 90s -
only after the last troops of the once Soviet occupying forces had withdrawn from the country.
Since there was not anything to hide anymore the former enemy came here to visit:
ex-GDR soldiers from Eastern Germany,
and they even brought hospitality gifts!
Former Western and Eastern fighters were now all united in the Bundeswehr, which is the German armed forces.
So, the bunker had no purpose anymore and was abandoned as a consequence -
but not before parts of it were stripped, such as the battery room.
It is just empty today.
Luckily, there are some more interesting chambers left to explore where everything still seems to be fairly untouched.
Next door, we can find the ventilation and air conditioning.
Tobi is cranking up the emergency ventilation here.
If the system failed for some reason then it would have still been possible to keep the air-purifying running just by hand.
That is basically it!
Tobi and Marco showed us the whole complex, and they have now reached the ladder where they got in.
After this tour, you probably understand why this was listed as a historical site a while back -
and thus is supposed to be protected.
However, unfortunately, many explorers came here after us, and maybe even thieves.
In videos of this place from early 2021, the lights did not work anymore and the bunker was actually flooded!
It seems like one of the many visitors messed with the pumps that should keep the groundwater away.
After this was reported to the owner, he then turned the pumps back on and sealed the bunker for good.
Today, it is uncertain if the owner will open the bunker for the public at some point.
Right now, it does not look that way.
For civilians, this facility is practically hidden.
It could be one of the many farmyards in the region.
Such structures are probably spread all over the country just waiting to get activated again in case of a major crisis.
Still today, the nuclear menace is real.
When the Cold War ended, the threat was suppressed but never removed.
Just like this bunker it still exists even though it is hidden and forgotten -
a dangerous combination.
The photos featured in this episode were taken by @tobi_urbex.
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You will find the links to both pages in our video description.
Earlier this month, we shot a documentary about German villages that have to be abandoned for brown coal mining.
It is different from our exploring videos, and we will definitely need a while for editing.
But we can't wait to show it to you.
Until then, stay curious - like these guys in the background - and keep exploring!