No bunkers in Germany? We are so sure in an emergency

The Russian war has been raging against Ukraine for three years – a war right on our doorstep. There have only been horrific pictures of the rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy around the world. Day after day, people in Ukraine have to look for protection against rockets, bombs, drones. In view of such scenes, the question arises as to how well Germany is actually set up in terms of civil protection, if there are also warlike conflicts in this country.

The answer is: not particularly good. This becomes clear when you listen to the bunker expert Jörg Diester. He has been dealing with the protective facilities in Germany for 20 years, has published books about it and works on a voluntary basis for bunker documentation facilities. For him it is clear: “It is a very, very difficult situation that we have there.”

An inventory of the Federal Real Estate Agency (BIMA) and the Federal Office for Population Protection and Disaster Aid (BBK) showed that of the 579 public shelters that are still available in this country, not a single functional – let alone ready for use.

But even if all 579 bunkers fulfilled their purpose, this would mean that with a population of around 83.6 million (as of September 2024): Remnants. In that case, space would only be for around 478,000 people. That corresponds to just 0.6 percent of the population.

However, this was not much better earlier, at the time of the Cold War. “We are talking about 1.8 percent of the population,” Jörg Diester describes the capacities of civil protection facilities at that time. At that time there were around 2,000 public shelters. But in the course of the so -called “peace dividend”, the number fell continuously. In this case, peace dividend says: the discharge of the state budget by reducing armaments and defense spending after the end of the Cold War.

“Perception in the field of military defense and civil defense was that we no longer have a threat,” emphasizes Diester. “Then the Bundeswehr was pretty upgraded, and the same thing has happened in the area of ​​civil protection.”

In 2007, the Federal Government, together with the federal states, decided to give up the previous protection program and gradually released the public shelters from civil protection. “The protective structures existing at this time were not closed, but they have passed into a so -called industrial procedure,” said Diester. After such an industrialization, the public protective bunkers are no longer classified as such and are therefore no longer open to the public.

There are 579, which were still recorded as public shelters on the occasion of the Russian War of Agency in 2022 and have not yet been developed. According to a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the protection of the shelters has been in the moratorium since March 2022. Specifically, this means that at the current time it is unclear whether they are further developed or used.

According to expert Jörg Diester, it is anything but likely that a prompt use is considered. Not to mention the guarantee of a 100 % protection rate. For this purpose, systems would have to be reorganized and old systems have to be repaired. “The amount we are talking about is between 400 and 800 billion euros – construction period around thirty years.”

It still has to be clarified whether it makes sense to reactivate the old civil protection systems. “Most have not been waited since 1990,” said Diester. The bunker expert has visited around 200 plants in recent years and knows their condition.

Most of the existing public shelters are today in municipal or private ownership. According to BIMA, only the “inevitable costs” are reimbursed by the federal government. In concrete terms, it only means that if the buildings are actually at risk of collapse, it jumps in and supports financially. A maintenance, let alone maintenance? Completely excluded.

At the request of the star The BIMA explains: “For this reason, however, the ÖSR (public shelters) dedicated to civil protection-in relation to their original purpose of protection against the so-called CBRN dangers (= chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear)-are neither functional nor operational.”

In addition, all public shelters are currently in the western federal states. According to the BIMA, the reason for this is that after reunification, the civil protection facilities existing in the former GDR were not transferred to the federal protection concept.

But what to do if it really comes to an emergency? There is currently no national shelter concept. It was only at the Interior Ministers’ Conference last year that the federal and state governments agreed on the development of such a civil protection plan. Together with the Bundeswehr and the countries, the BMI intends to work out the following key points:

Finland and Switzerland are role models for good civil protection, with protection rates of 85 percent or over 100 percent. Until Germany can also reach such figures, it should certainly take a while.

Sources: Federal Office for Population Protection Babs; Federal Agency for Real Estate (BIMA); Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home (BMI), Federal Center for Political Education (BPB); Bunker documentation facilities; Finnish Ministry of the Interior; Federal Statistical Office