The Harnekop Bunker is a former nuclear bunker of the National People’s Army (NVA) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It’s the second former GDR bunker close to Berlin I visited.

The nuclear bunker was so secret, that it was completly preserved. There’s no vandalism and even electricity still works. Due to its remote location you need a car to visit it. In this blog post I’ll share photos from my visit, explain what to expect and how to book a legal urban eploration tour to the Harnekop Bunker.

Table of Contents

Know before you go to Bunker Harnekop

The bunker was built in the 1960s and was used by the NVA for nuclear weapons training and research. Allegedly it featured a wired connection to Berlin and in case of a nuclear epxlosion, the bunker would immediately be locked. Construction work was concealed and thus only few people knew about it. After it’s decommission, the bunker was locked and thus preserved as a time capsule. So contrary to the Freudneberg bunker, everything you can see there is still intact.

If you plan to visit the bunker make sure to bring a jacket even during summer. It’s rather chilly in the bunker. I also recommend bringing a flashlight. But more on that further down the blog post.

Here are some important dates about the lifespan of the bunker.

Historical Timeline & Key Milestones
1968
Cold War Bunker Program Initiated
East Germany’s National Defense Council approved plans to construct an atomic-bomb-proof main command bunker for the Ministry of National Defense.
1971
Secret Construction Commences
Under extreme secrecy, the specialized military engineering regiment began excavating and building the massive three-story bunker deep in the Harnekop forest.
1976
Completion and Operational Readiness
Construction finished after five years at a cost of roughly 84 million marks. The complex was placed on permanent standby disguised as communications center HNZ-8.
1990
Reunification and Bundeswehr Handover
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, the bunker’s existence was disclosed and briefly operated by the German Federal Armed Forces.
1993
Decommissioning and Preservation
The Bundeswehr fully decommissioned the military site. It was subsequently designated as a protected historic monument and preserved as an authentic Cold War museum.

Today you can visit the bunker by means of a public urbex tour conducted by e.g. go2know. You’ll find the link at the at the bottom of the page right after the photos.

Stuff to see and photographat the Harnekop Bunker

The bunker is hidden blow two residential buildings and it’s three floors deep. Inside you’ll find everytinghing you’d expect. From sleeping rooms to sick bays to communication rooms and devices and a control rool.

Sleeping rooms

There are several types of sleeping rooms in the bunker. Depending on the military rank, the staff had to sleep in multi-bed-rooms or could rest in single-bed-rooms. The photo below shows one of the multi-bed-rooms for lower rank personal.

Multi-bed-room for lower rank personal
Multi-bed room for lower rank personnel.

Yes, you’re right. These beds are hanging from the roof. The purpose was to minimize potential bed shake when the bunker was being attacked. The entire bunker itself was built on huge springs for the same purpose.

The Airlock

Like many other bunkers the nuclear bunker Harnekop had an airlock to prevent nucelar or chemical waste entering the bunker.

Airlock at the nuclear bunker at Harnekop
Airlock at the nuclear bunker in Harnekop.

The colored arrows at the floor indicated the different stops the personal had to use depending on from where they came and what type of attack they were facing.

The Control Room

This is the jewel of the bunker, the control room. Completely intact with all the equipment needed to operate the bunker still present: Screens, headsets, maps and more.

Harnekop Bunker Control Room
The preserved main control room in the Harnekop bunker.

The Living Room

As you may can tell from the furniture this was the luxury living room of the bunker. It belonged to the commander on duty

Harnekop Bunker Living Room of the Commander
Living room of the commander on duty.

Next ot the living room you’ll find the office of the commander on duty.

Office of the Commander

This is the office of the commander on duty. Throuh the open door you’ll find the living room I’ve mentioned in the previous chapter.

Harnekop Bunker Office of the Commander
Office of the commander on duty.

The pipes you’re seeing are part of the pneumatic tube system you’ll find on the first floor of the bunker.

Technical control room

The 3rd floor of the bunker belonged to the technical staff. Here you’ll find everything that was needed to operate the bunker.

Harnekop Bunker Control Room
Technical control room and equipment on the third floor.

If you’re a tech enthusiast, you’ll find a variety of tools and equipment here like old computers, disk drives, tools, and other equipment.

4 Person Sleeping Room

This sleeping room was next to the sick bay. So I donÄ’t know if it belonged to the sickbay and was actually a sleeping room for the wounded or for other personal.

Harnekop Bunker 4 Person Sleeping Room
Four person sleeping room next to the sick bay.

Equipment used to photograph inside the bunker

Photograping inside the former nucelar bunker is not hard. There’s electricity and light in almost every room; hence you don’t even need to use a tripod. There are a handful of rooms without light and for these rooms a bright flash light is useful. I took a few photos in such rooms using a 12.000 lumen flashlight. You can read more about it in my Wuben X1 flashlight review.

As always, I took the majority of the photos using ProCamera App in RAW mode. To learn more, head over to my blog post about how to shoot RAW on iPhone.

The verdict: Is it worth visiting Harnekop Bunker?

Yes, it is definitely worth visiting Harnekop Bunker. It is a great example of a Cold War bunker and a great historical monument. As the bunker was so secret, everything inside was well preserved. It’s like visiting a secret military site in the 1970s!

To visit the Harnekop Bunker, you can to book a tour to the Harnekop Bunker Bunker with Go2Know.

If you’re more interested in a decayed, wet and dirty bunker, you might want to visit the abandoned Freudenberg Buker. Both, the Harnekop Bunker and the Freudenberg Bunker, are just two of the many lost places in and near Berlin that you can visit legally by means of a public urbex tour.