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Hochbunker of Trier
N 49° 45.083 E 006° 37.970
32U E 329486 N 5513678
This standing bunker in Trier is 38 m high and protected as a historical monument. It was built in 1942.
Waymark Code: WM1AP0
Location: Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
Date Posted: 03/17/2007
Views: 234
It was built to protect civil servants and civilians during Allied air raids. The steep roof was intended to deflect the bombs. The fire department and the city administration were lodged here during the second world war.
The building is not open to the public and can only be observed from the outside.
Hochbunker(s), or "high-rise" bunkers or (blockhouses), were a peculiarly German type of construction, designed to relieve the pressure German authorities were facing to accommodate additional numbers of the population in high-density housing areas, as well as pedestrians on the streets during air raids. In contrast to any other shelters these buildings were indeed considered completely bomb-proof. They also had the advantage of being built upward — much more cheaply — than downward by excavation. There were no equivalents of hochbunkers in the cities of the Allied countries.
Hochbunkers consisted usually of large concrete blocks above ground of thicknesses between 1 m and 1.5 m, huge lintels above doorways and openings, and they often had a constant interior temperature of 7 to 10 °C, thus being perfectly suitable for laboratory utilization during and after the war. They had been designated to protect people, administrative centres, important archives and works of art.
Their structures took many forms, square blocks, but also lower and longer rectangular shapes, including triangles, straight towers of a square plan rising to great heights, as well as round tower-like edifices, even pyramidal constructions. Some of the circular towers contained helical floors that gradually curved their way upward within the circular walls. Many of these structures may still be seen to this day. They have been converted into offices, storage space, and some have even been adopted for hotels, hospitals and schools, as well as many other peacetime purposes. The cost of demolishing these edifices after the war would have been enormous, as the attempts at breaking up one of the six so-called Flak Towers of Vienna proved, hochbunkers which during the war had anti-aircraft batteries at their top platforms.
Related Website: [Web Link]
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![](/images/spacer.gif) Admission Fee: Free
![](/images/spacer.gif) Opening Days/Times: 24 x 7
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Visit Instructions:
Posting a picture(s) of the location would be nice although not required.