Main Medical Depot Bunker / Germany


After the dissolution of the medical supplies depot Wittlich/Germany in July 1975 the medical depot Lorch/Rheingau was set up. It had the task to store, maintain, deliver and dispose medical supplies for the Medical Service of the German Bundeswehr.


In the 1960s, the days of the Cold War, they sought to protect such facilities against the known weapons at that time as best as possible. Thus, in 1969 the planning began for an extension of the at that time still under construction, air defense bunker east and west of the Rheingau barracks with the aim to combine the two facilities and to use them as an underground medical depot facility. In 1972, construction started and already on the 1st of October 1975 the first tunnels were already used. Official inauguration of the tunnel system was in May 1976. The area of ​​the underground facility is approximately 13,000 m², approximately 6,000 m² of which was used as actual storage area. The remaining area consists of roads, office buildings and technical facilities. By 1979, the exterior area was completed with an administration and a workshop building as well as a transfer station.


After the closure of the Rheingau barracks in 1993, the medical depot was transformed into a main medical depot. In 1995, construction work for the separation of the medical main depot (SanHDp) of the former barracks, now the business park Wispertal, was completed. On November 26th, 2003 the dissolution of SanHDp Lorch was announced which was then finalized by end of 2007.


(Source: Wikipedia)



I had the opportunity to pay a visit to these impressive facilities in 2009, shortly before the civilian administration took over the responsibility for the bunker. The whole system of tunnels, storage rooms, workshops etc. was still very well maintained and despite the fact that all the stored goods, the racks and other valuable material had been removed already it still felt like as if the whole underground system was only in hybernation.
I guess it is still not clear what will happen to the bunker system. A civilian use appears to be difficult as the tunnel system does not have enough emergency exits to comply to respective public building regulations. Hence, most likely, this bunker will decay in silence. R.I.P.

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