Deep inside a decommissioned nuclear shelter built in a Cologne metro station at the height of the Cold War, tour guide Robert Schwienbacher says he’s been getting a slew of questions from Germans asking for available space in an emergency.
The Germans’ worries that were dissipated by the fall of the Berlin Wall are now returning after decades of peace. It is a striking memory for a country that was at the geographic and political center of the Cold War.
In recent months, President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his “special military operation” in Ukraine, calling in reservists and threatening to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory, while US President Joe Biden has spoken of “Armageddon”.
“No one should use nuclear weapons,” warned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this month.
Days later, a survey by insurance company R+V showed that 42% of Germans now fear a war with German participation, up from 16% last year, the biggest jump since the 1999 Kosovo War.
With the Ukrainian border less than a nine-hour drive from Berlin, war seems uncomfortably close to many, although there is no imminent threat on domestic soil.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, however, has prompted reflection in a country that was the main beneficiary of the thaw between East and West after the fall of communism more than 30 years ago.
Schwienbacher said requests for bunker space, whether by email or verbally, have only started since the war and are giving him reason to reflect. “I’m human and I also worry that it might get worse,” Schwienbacher said.
Former West Germany built 2,000 public shelter-like “protection spaces” starting in the mid-1960s. In 2007, the government of unified Germany decided to liquidate them.
But the conflict in Ukraine has led the country to keep the remaining 599 and its Federal Real Estate Agency is in the process of researching possible updates.
Anxiety in Europe’s biggest economy is heightened by double-digit inflation and concerns over energy shortages after years of Russia’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels.
On December 8 at 11 am, all sirens in Germany will sound in a test, on a second “alert day”, and text messages will also be sent to all cell phones.
Source: CNN Brasil
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