Bunkermuseum Emden

The Bunkermuseum Emden stands in a former high-rise air-raid shelter in the centre of Emden, a port city in Lower Saxony. Built during the Second World War to protect workers in the local shipyards and port, the concrete tower was one of 35 large shelters erected in the city. After the war it was held in reserve for civil defence and later stood empty for decades. In 1994 a local group decided to turn it into a museum dedicated to the history of air-raid shelters and the city’s experience under National Socialism.

The museum is the first of its kind in Germany to focus on these structures and the lives they shaped. Its 26 rooms trace the rise of the Nazi regime, the persecution of local people, forced labour and the post-war rebuilding of Emden. Exhibits include documents, photographs and personal accounts that bring the era to life. The building itself, with walls more than a metre thick and six storeys above ground, offers a stark setting for reflection on war and protection.

Visitors enter through an area that commemorates Emden’s bombing victims. The chronological display moves upward through the shelter, ending in a room where the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge explains its work. On the outside, bold black-and-white stripes and the phrase AUSSENWELTEN INNENWELTEN contrast with small, gold-lettered windows that suggest the separation between danger outside and the confined world within. The artist Uwe Ochsler’s design makes the building itself part of the exhibition.